I recently had my on-site with Google and wanted to put together a clean, realistic walkthrough for anyone preparing. On-site write-ups are surprisingly rare, so hopefully this fills the gap.
🛫 Arriving at Google
Google arranged the travel and hotel, so I flew in the day before. On interview day I showed up a bit early at the Mountain View campus and waited in the lobby. It’s a casual environment—engineers walking around, visitors checking in, people grabbing free coffee.
Once my interviewer arrived, he scanned his badge to print a visitor pass for me, then walked me over to the meeting room.
We passed by a few micro-kitchens on the way, and he mentioned I could grab drinks anytime. Pretty typical Google vibe.
He also gave me a quick overview of the day: two coding rounds, lunch in between, nothing too rushed.
Lunch was with a Googler in the cafeteria—very informal, just chatting about projects, career paths, and life in the Bay Area. It helped take some of the pressure off.
💻 Interview Setup
Google provides a Chromebook for coding. The environment is identical to the virtual interview editor—simple, clean, and very predictable.
Most interviewers use their own laptops.
Whiteboards are available, but candidates almost always stick to the computer.
🧠 Coding Rounds (both practical, both engineering-focused)
Round 1 — Detecting Server Timeout
You’re given server logs, something like:(serverId, timestamp, start/end)
Plus a timeout threshold.
Your goal: detect the earliest time a server times out.
The important part:
You’re expected to process logs as they come in, not run a final pass at the end.
It’s more about designing a correct, incremental state machine than writing a long solution.
The interviewer mainly evaluates:
- Your reasoning
- How you structure data
- Whether you handle edge cases cleanly
Round 2 — Tracking Servers & Runners (OOD + state management)
This round mixes object design and coding.
You build a class that tracks runners under different servers.
Two required methods:
getReport(serverId, runnerId, timestamp)
Inputs arrive in chronological order.getRunners(serverId)
Return the active runners for a given server.
Key skills they’re looking for:
- How you maintain internal state
- Whether queries stay efficient
- Whether your data structure choices make sense
A clean approach often involves a double-linked list combined with hash maps.
📣 Want to practice with real Google-style interviews?
If you’d like a mock session using real question patterns—and detailed feedback on structure, communication, and reasoning—I can help simulate the full Google interview experience.
The VOprep team has long accompanied candidates through various major company OAs and VOs, including Meta, Amazon, Citadel, SIG, providing real-time voice assistance, remote practice, and interview pacing reminders to help you stay smooth during critical moments. If you are preparing for these companies, you can check out our customized support plans—from coding interviews to system design, we offer full guidance to help you succeed.
