How should I prepare for my Google interview if I have 1 month left?

ByIshita Juneja
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Heading for an extensive on-site interview at Google in just a few weeks but don’t know how to make the most of this time crunch? 

As per the Google interview experience of former candidates, an interview at Google is the ultimate test of your coding skills. 

 

Not just this, Google also assesses the responses of candidates in imaginary workplace scenarios and their behavioral attributes. This helps to determine whether they’ll adapt to the Google work culture or not. 

An exhaustive interview preparation plan with a pinch of consistency can work magic for such interviews. 

In this article, we’ll be outlining a 30-day interview preparation plan. 

 

We’ll also introduce you to some golden interview tips that will help secure a position at Google. Take a look! 

Technical Interview Process at Google 

The technical interview round at Google tests your coding and problem-solving skills. It spans across multiple on-site rounds. The interview process begins with a phone screen round with the recruiter, followed by a technical phone screen round, and lastly the on-site interviews. 

 

The on-site interview will have questions focused on the behavioural attributes, problem-solving abilities, systems design aptitude, and other coding skills of a candidate. Each of these abilities of a candidate will be put to test by an interviewer to check whether they’re well-suited for the role at Google or not. 

30-Days Google Interview Preparation Plan 

  • Days (1-2) 

 

  • An incomplete understanding or having any misinformation about the company can affect your preparation. 
  • Therefore, it is imperative that you spend the first few days of your preparation studying about the background and work culture of the company. 
  • This will provide you important insights into how things work at Google and what they look for in candidates. 
  • You can read up the Google interview experience of the employees at Google, check out the official website, go through the company’s newsletters, and watch real-life interviews online to get a gist of things. 

  • Days (3-5)

 

  • Once you’ve read up online about the company, you need to set a benchmark for yourself. 
  • Separate the topics that are commonly asked in the interview and start solving questions under each of those topics. Time yourself while solving each question and see how long you take to reach a solution. 
  • You can also take a look at the sample answers to see where you’re lacking and check whether your code was clean or not. 
  • Do this practice for every section and then make a priority list of the topics that didn’t go as per your plan. This will help you understand which topics need more practice from your end. 
  • A few days before your on-site interview, you can repeat this practice to see how you’ve progressed. 
  • Now, using the data that you’ve collected using the above steps, you need to formulate a study list. A typical study list for an interview at Google looks something like this: 
    • Arrays, strings, and linked lists 
    • Sorting algorithms
    • Trees, graphs, and hashtables
    • Recursion 
    • Dynamic programming 
    • Sharing techniques
    • Database management systems
    • Network protocols and proxies
    • Caching 
    • Latency, throughput, and availability
    • Queues and Pub-sub
    • Load balancing
    • Websocket, SSE, and polling

  • Days (6-30) 

 

  • Pick up two or three topics from your study list and start devoting at least three hours of your day working on them. 
  • Whenever you’re done memorising a topic and understanding its concepts, test your knowledge by writing a data structure or an algorithm on a clean whiteboard. 
  • Practice writing the time and space complexities after you’ve finished writing the algorithm. And remember to always revise a code once you’re done writing it. 
  • Next, it’s time to compile everything that you’ve written into an IDE. Also, note down any compilation errors so that you don’t commit the same mistake again when repeating the exercise. 
  • To verify whether the code you’ve written is correct or not, you can create unit tests. 
  • Keep repeating this exercise till the time you can compile a code with zero syntax errors. 

  • Day (30) 

 

  • You’ve worked really hard the past few days and have done everything in your power to succeed in your scheduled professional interview. 
  • It’s time to relax and look forward to a really enjoyable Google interview experience ahead. 

Golden Tips to Crack the Google Interview 

Apart from the intensive 30-day preparation plan mentioned above, there are certain additional things that can help you ace your professional interview. Let’s walk you through some golden Google interview tips!

 

  • Read the desired job description and your resume thoroughly and establish a connection  between the two. 
  • Whenever you’re structuring your answers for the interview, don’t forget to include factual information and data. This will help the interviewer to visualise your impact in previous professional projects. 
  • Create a timeline of your previous professional experiences, the roles you’ve played in the past projects, and how you’ve learnt from your failures. 
  • Always come prepared with questions for the interviewers to create an impression that you’re interested in what the company has to offer. 
  • One of the critical interview aspects to master is communication. Communicate your thought process out loud to the interviewer through every question. 
  • If you need a while to collect your thoughts, you can even note them down on a piece of paper to formulate your answers. 

 

Pro Tip: The above interview tips are applicable to most technical interviews. If you read interview experience of other companies such as the Accenture interview experience, you’ll be able to implement these tips effortlessly during your preparation.  

Final Thoughts 

If you’ve just started out your Google interview preparation, then the above-mentioned plan and tips will truly carve your path towards interview success. 

 

Refer to multiple interview experiences of successful candidates such as Accenture interview experience to gain a competitive edge over the rest of the applicants. 

 

Lastly, avoid fatigue and burnout during the preparation stage and remember to take regular breaks in between your study session!

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