This is for the Software Engineer, not the System Engineer SRE, position. The process included:

• 1 HR screen
• 2 technical coding phone screens
• 1 onsite interview

The onsite interview consisted of six rounds: five coding rounds and a 45-minute lunch interview.

The SRE folks at Google seriously lack basic communication skills. The only thing they look for in a candidate is if they can code like a trained monkey.

Not one of the interviewers asked me about my background or even attempted to understand why I was genuinely interested in the role. Each interview began like this:

"Interviewer walks into the room and the first thing they say is, 'Let's start coding.'"

If you finish the coding in time, they will entertain a few questions. But again, it is a completely one-sided interview. You are never given a chance to speak of how you would make a good fit for the role, or even what value you bring to the table.

Your only job is to get the output. I solved all the questions I was asked and solved them in an optimal way, but I did not get an offer, for reasons that baffle me till today. I did have to think through some of my answers and double-check my logic, but apparently, this is not acceptable.

I don't think the interviewers understand the pressure a candidate is under when there is so much scrutiny. You have to write the code and logic flawlessly the first time around with no room for error or correction. They don't care about the thought process either. If you can't manage that, don't be deceived by their smiles; you are going home to read a reject email from the recruiter.

The SREs really need to be schooled in the art of basic communication and manners. I really ponder how they would perform if the roles were reversed and they were under the gun doing the coding.

The questions asked were of good quality, no doubt. But the interviewers are just trained robots.

Merging intervals

Merge lists/arrays

Implement read() using read4k()

1 round of distributed system and large scale system design

Compress string "aabcaaaaade" to "aabc5xade". Only compress if it shortens the string. 5xa means char a is repeated 5 times.

Question on 2 lists and their union/intersection/remove elements present in L1 which are also present in L2.