Google Interview Preparation: The 4-Week Study Plan

If you want clarity and direction on how to go about your google interview preparation with just about a month left for your interview, this article is for you! This 4-Week Google interview preparation study plan can help you raise your chances of cracking Google’s technical interview and landing that much-deserved offer!

Google’s technical interview is one of the most challenging interviews among big tech companies. It isn’t incorrect to assume that the Google interview process is perhaps the ultimate test of your coding and design capabilities.

There’s more to the interview, though. The Google technical interview also evaluates your behavioral and leadership attributes through situational questions and your response to workplace-related situations, ethical dilemmas, and more. With the acceptance rate at ust 1%, only a super-solid Google interview preparation plan can help you get past the grueling rounds and get hired.

If you are preparing for a tech interview, check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation ebook to get interview-ready! Also, read Google Interview Questions and How Hard It Is to Get a Job at Google for specific insights and guidance on Google tech interviews.

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With a solid Google interview preparation strategy in place, it is certainly possible to land a deserving offer from your favorite company! An exhaustive study plan along with consistency are just the ingredients you need to succeed.

In this article, we’ll cover the exclusive 4-week Google interview preparation study plan Although we strongly recommend that you commence your interview prep at least 8 weeks before your interview, a highly intensive 4-week study plan can work too.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• The Google Technical Interview Process
• Topics to Prepare for the Google Interview
• The 4-Week Google Interview Preparation Study Plan
• Some Interview Tips to Help You Get Ahead
• FAQs on Google Tech Interviews
• Uplevel Your Career Now

The Google Interview Process

The Google interview process is the ultimate test of your programming and problem-solving abilities. Before you decide to begin your Google interview preparation study plan, knowing what the process entails is key to getting clarity on what interviewers expect of you.

Spread over multiple rounds, the Google interview process begins with the Initial Phone Screen with a recruiter human resources, followed by the Technical Phone Screen with a senior engineer or hiring manager, and ultimately, the on-site interview that comprises multiple coding and design rounds, and behavioral/leadership interviews where an interview panel keenly observe your response to tricky Google behavioral interview questions.

While the Technical Phone Screen round of the Google interview process is usually conducted remotely, recruiters invite you to the Google campus for the on-site interview. During the pandemic, all rounds of the Google interview process, including the On-site interview, took place remotely.

To learn more about the Google interview process, check out our comprehensive Google Interview Guide.

Topics to Prepare for the Google Technical Interview

The Google interview process tests the depth and extent of your knowledge in core data structures and algorithms, your ability to design and work with scalable distributed systems, and whether you are a good cultural fit to a series of behavioral and situational based interview questions.

There are essentially three main components that you should address while going about your Google interview preparation.

The Coding Aspect

Coding should be the most important part of your Google interview preparation plan. Your knowledge of core DSA is evaluated in the coding rounds that happen during the Technical Screen and On-site interviews. You’ll be given a problem or two to solve during the technical phone screen and On-site interviews. The hiring manager will essentially test how you approach the problem and arrive at the most optimal solution.

The following topics are important coding areas to cover in your Google technical interview preparation plan.

• Arrays
• Strings
• Linked Lists
• Sorting Algorithms
• Recursion
• Trees
• Graphs
• Dynamic Programming
• Hash Tables

Recommended Reading:

Google Coding Interview Questions

How to Solve the Most Popular Whiteboard Google Interview Questions 

The Design Aspect

The systems design round, which usually takes place during the on-site interview, tests your ability to work with scalable and distributed systems. The design interview usually carries more weight if you’re interviewing for senior positions. To ace the design rounds, make sure your Google interview preparation plan covers the following systems design topics:

• Network Protocols and Proxies
• Sharding Techniques
• Caching
• Database Management Systems
• Latency, Availability, and Throughput
• Load Balancing
• Polling, SSE, and Websocket
• Queues and Pub-sub

Check out Systems Design Interview Preparation Tips to thoroughly prepare for systems design rounds in Google’s technical interview. 

The Behavioral Aspect

Google’s behavioral interview is mostly a test of your attitude, conduct, and how much you’ve learned from your past experiences and projects. Questions in the behavioral interview are primarily around the following areas:

• Google’s company culture
• Workplace-related situations
• Relationships with coworkers and superiors
• Past projects and experiences

Google’s behavioral interviews typically last 30-40 minutes. While going about your Google interview preparation for behavioral interviews, make sure you employ the STAR method to frame and structure your answers. For better clarity on the STAR technique, check out our post on leveraging the STAR technique for interview success.

To learn more, check out Behavioral Interview Questions For Software Engineers.

The 4-Week Google Interview Preparation Study Plan

Now, onto the main part — the 4-week study plan to nail Google’s technical interview. Feel free to Here it is:

Week 1

• Brush up on data structures and algorithms concepts. Cover Arrays, Linked Lists, Strings, and Sorting Algorithms
• Solve at least 3 problems every day to get a hold of the concepts
• You can spend a day or two searching for a good online resource to help you with your prep
• Attend a technical interview webinar to understand the best ways to prepare for Google’s interview

Week 2

• Cover Dynamic Programming, Trees, Recursion, Graphs, and Graph Algorithms
• Continue solving a minimum of 3 problems a day
• Identify inherent patterns in problems and start applying these patterns to solve new problems

Week 3

• Dedicate the week to prepare for your systems design interview. If there is a spillover from week 1 or 2, look to finish it during week 3
• Continue solving 3 problems a day, and also practice coding on a whiteboard
• Practice mock interviews with industry experts. With Interview Kickstart, you can practice tons of mock interviews with industry experts boasting 25+ years of experience

Week 4

• Revise concepts in your programming language
• Practice responses for the behavioral interview — structure your answers using the STAR format
• Create a good project portfolio

Judiciously following this 4-Week Google interview preparation plan can catapult you towards landing that coveted offer!

Google Interview Questions

To ace the Google technical interview, your knowledge of algorithms, data structures and systems design needs to be above par. Pace your prep judiciously, giving yourself enough time to solve as many problems as possible around core DS and algorithms. Here’s what you should essentially be covering over the course of your Google interview preparation:

Google Interview Questions on Coding

In this section, we’ll look at some commonly-asked Google coding interview questions.

• For a given unsorted array “X,”consisting of non-negative integers, write a code to find the contiguous subarray that adds to the sum “S” of non-negative integers in the array.
• For a given array “X,” consisting of non-negative integer characters, write a code to find the contiguous subarray with the maximum sum.
• For a given array “X” of size N-1 consisting of numbers from 1 to N with one number missing, write a code to find the missing number in the array.
• For a given set of 2 sorted arrays “X” and “Y” with respective sizes “n” and ‘m’, write a code to merge the two sorted arrays such that their characters appear in decreasing order.
• For a given set of 2 arrays “X” and “Y” consisting of positive integers, write a code to find the total no. of pairs to satisfy the condition x^y>y^x, where “x” is an element of array “X” and “y” is an element of array “Y.”

Google Systems Design Interview Questions

Systems design interviews form an integral part of the Google interview process, especially for senior developer and EM positions at Google As Google is highly focused on designing applications for their wide consumer base, they are particularly demanding while selecting their software engineers, software developers, and coding engineers. If you wish to land that offer with Google, we are here to help you get started. Let’s look at some sample Google Systems Design interview questions.

1. What aspects would you consider while building a scalable iOS application?
2. What security features would you consider while building a mobile application for the i Store?
3. What features will you consider while designing an e-commerce website?
4. How would you maintain security while integrating payment gateways with websites and mobile applications?
5. How will you design a proximity server?

Google Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interviews test various psychological traits in candidates and seek to identify how they’d react in similar workplace-related situations. Regardless of the role or position you apply to, you’ll have to go through a mandatory behavioral round that significantly influences the outcome of your interview.

Behavioral interviews are usually given more importance while recruiting for leadership or managerial positions  e.g. Engineering Manager, Director of Engineering, Technical Project Leads, or other higher-ranking positions. These positions require  candidates to possess sound leadership and project management skills. Let;s look at some sample Google behavioral interview questions.

Behavioral questions asked at Google’s interview process are typically around the following topics:

• Past projects
• Stints with previous companies
• Leadership
• Relationships with coworkers and superiors
• Your general attitude and response to work-related situations
• Work-life balance and productivity

Below are some sample Google behavioral interview questions to prepare for the Google technical interview.

1. Tell us how you’ll create an impact on your team after you join.
2. How important are team-building exercises according to you?
3. How do you build relationships with an uncooperative person at your workplace?
4. What is the best way to maintain work-life balance?
5. Describe a time you were stressed about a project’s outcome and how you coped to achieve the desired result.
6. How often do you think employees need vacations? Do vacations help restore harmony to a person’s work-life?
7. Tell us how you convinced a client to chart a different course for a project.

Some Google Technical Interview Preparation Tips to Help You Get Ahead

These proven tips will help you make the most of your 4-week study plan!

• Time your study sessions and take regular breaks — at least one break every 45 minutes, to avoid burnout and fatigue.
• Practice whiteboard coding as it is super important from an interview perspective
• Avoid distractions during your preparation. Problem-solving is an intense skill that needs rigorous effort and dedication
• Solve a minimum of 2-3 problems every day for the 4-weeks leading up to your interview
• Focus on identifying power patterns in problems and apply them while solving new problems
• This is perhaps the only way to tackle challenging and tricky problems in the interview
• Practice mock interviews with hiring managers from FAANG+ to polish your interviewing skills

FAQs on Google Tech Interviews

Q1. Are coding rounds more important than design rounds at the Google interview?

For junior software positions, coding rounds are more important than design rounds. For senior developer and managerial positions, design rounds and behavioral rounds hold more weight in hiring decisions.

Q2. How many weeks are required to prepare for Google’s technical interview?

To give yourself the best chance at acing Google’s technical interview, you should ideally begin your preparation at least 9-10 weeks before your interview.

Q3. What important coding concepts should you prepare to solve Google interview questions on coding?

The important coding concepts that are important for Google’s technical interview are – Strings, Arrays, Linked Lists, Recursions, Graphs, Trees, Sorting Algorithms, and Dynamic Programming.

Q4. What are the most important topics to study in order to answer Google interview questions about system design?

The important systems design topics for Google’s design interviews are – Caching, Loading, Network Protocols, Sharding Techniques, Concurrency, Servers, Databases, and API Modelling.

Q5. How long should you prepare for Google’s behavioral interview?

Ideally, you should dedicate at least a week of your prep time to ready yourself for Google’s behavioral interview.

Q6. How much time should you spend preparing for Google’s systems design interview?

Ideally, you should spend at least two weeks preparing yourself for Google’s systems design interview.

Uplevel Your Career Now!

If you’re serious about up-leveling your career, register for Interview Kickstart’s technical interview webinar to understand the best prep strategies to nail technical interviews at FAANG and tier-1 companies.

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