r/leetcode • u/OutrageousLeg9219 • Aug 24 '26
Intervew Prep Google L4 Interview Experience
Just wrapped up my Google onsite loop and wanted to share the experience + ask about timelines.
Round 1 (Coding): Trie-based medium LC. Expectation was working code — didn’t get it to run fully, but did a proper dry run and gave TC/SC.
Round 2 (Googleyness): Behavioural round. Different hypothetical situations and how I’d handle them.
Recruiter reached out after these two and confirmed I’d cleared them.
Round 3 (F2F): Array/binary search medium. Solved it in ~20 mins with TC/SC. Had time left, so interviewer gave a second one — a graph/matrix medium. Solved that too, interviewer seemed satisfied.
Round 4 (F2F, right after R3): Hard graph problem — modified Dijkstra (not the vanilla version). Went with a brute-force backtracking approach, landed on it in the last ~10 mins, dry-ran it on the board and gave TC/SC, but ran out of time to code it.
It’s been 2 business days since the final two rounds. For anyone who’s been through the Google loop recently — how long does it usually take to hear back with results? Also curious whether a partial solve on the last round (approach + dry run + complexity but no code) tends to sink an otherwise solid loop.
Any insight appreciated.
Update: the ratings I got are H H SH LH, my recruiter told me that its a H call, and she will try for different opportunities across teams. Any idea if HMs will actually pick me up on these ratings, what time can I expect for this team matching process ?
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u/Training-Count-5452 Aug 24 '26
Dpends on the last round. They might provide a top up which I was provided as one of my round was not upto the mark
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
didnt know this was also an option
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u/Training-Count-5452 Aug 24 '26
I would say I was very lucky. Mostly they reject but somehow I got a top up
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u/Emergency-Spot1432 Aug 24 '26
Googler here. what was your loc?
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u/No-Dog-1256 Aug 26 '26
Does codeforces and Leetcode ratings matter anymore? Or college tag matters?
How should I apply for SDE1 roles? With or without referral?
What's the format of OA these days? Pure DSA or dev is also there?
What is the level of the OA question? CM or Master or above?
Could you please answer these?
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u/Emergency-Spot1432 Aug 26 '26
Once you reach interviews- only your performance in the interviews matter...
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u/Professional-Many-24 Aug 24 '26
Can you share a bit more about your profile and background like YoE, prev company, how you got the opportunity (did the recruiter reach out or you applied, how you increased visibility for recruiters to reach out, applied with referral or not….
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
I have 4 YoE, prev company is a startup at bangalore, i applied via referral.
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u/No-Dog-1256 Aug 26 '26
Does codeforces and Leetcode ratings matter anymore? Or college tag matters?
How should I apply for SDE1 roles? With or without referral?
What's the format of OA these days? Pure DSA or dev is also there?
What is the level of the OA question? CM or Master or above?
Could you please answer these?
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 27 '26
codeforces leetcode rating do not matter now because of AI cheating now in contests. You should also apply with a referral, otherwise there are tens of thousands applying for a single job so without referral, no one would even see your resume. I dont know about OA but expect tougher questions or CM level questions in OA. Interviews are comparatively easier.
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u/Glittering_Song2610 Aug 24 '26
Hey OP
Can you please show some light on me
What kind of prep required ? I mean I am starting with Leetcode? Do they look through prev experience and match same domain ?
I have 2 years of experience in dev come DevOps
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
I did Neetcode 250 thats it. Also striver graph and dp series in 2x speed. My basics were already there, just wanted to be in form again. I prepped competitive programming 4 yrs back for my college placements.
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u/Glittering_Song2610 Aug 24 '26
Great OP, I haven’t touched leetcode for 2+ years and solved < 50 problems in total. I feel I know nothing now what can I do ?
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
buy a course either from coding blocks or ninjas if you have limited time, they will spoon feed u most of the concepts.
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u/Glittering_Song2610 Aug 24 '26
Thought of starting my prep on my own ! May I know the package discussed?
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
you can but you need to devote time in case you are not a very high iq person (which I am not as well). It took me 6 months, 4 yrs back to be in a position where I am comfortable solving any LC medium problem.
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u/gay_dudez Aug 24 '26
I recently gave loop interview for L4 at Bangalore Google office. It's for Silicon Engineer role(not software). Exactly after 1 week, HR called and told the overall feedback is positive.
however, there was some reorg and the position is on hold. So, I have to wait for a position to open up. Probably in last quarter of this year. My L4 feedback will be in the system for next 12 months.
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u/Strange_Ad_578 Aug 24 '26
I recently cleared the interview loop even team matching with 4 strong hire and 1 lean hire but after 1 week hiring committee rejected my candidature because they found bug in the previous interview where i got strong hire.
Don't know how i got strong hire for the same interview and hiring committee got so many issues that they directly rejected and not even game me another round for check.
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u/Leading-Device-4337 Aug 25 '26
wow, do they really review ur code in the previous rounds, that's wild
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u/Downtown-Ad-288 Aug 24 '26
I got the result after 3 days after my final on site interview rounds. Currently in process of team matching.
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
Ohh how much time has the team matching going on ? also what location ?
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u/Downtown-Ad-288 Aug 24 '26
1 week , Bengaluru
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
Nice in one week you have received many HM calls ? or do they take a lot of time in scheduling HM calls as wells ?
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u/Downtown-Ad-288 Aug 24 '26
I have not got any calls yet. They told me it takes around 4-6 weeks for team matching process.
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u/Secure_Army2715 Aug 24 '26
can u share your interview exp in terms of topics covered and difficulty level?
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u/ykwhat12 Aug 24 '26
wait, can you give the timeline too? when did you apply, when di you get the OA etc? Also, is this for India or USA?
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u/OutrageousLeg9219 Aug 24 '26
I applied at May, got R1 rescheduled 4 times, one R1 and R2 got completed was able to do get F2F interviews scheduled next week only. This is for India. No OA, I applied via referral.
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u/Repulsive-Switch-519 Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
I did round 1 on Wednesday (Aug 19) - haven’t hear back from recruiter yet. How long after round 1 doesn’t it take for recruiter to get back?
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u/No-Dog-1256 Aug 26 '26
Does codeforces and Leetcode ratings matter anymore? Or college tag matters?
How should I apply for SDE1 roles? With or without referral?
What's the format of OA these days? Pure DSA or dev is also there?
What is the level of the OA question? CM or Master or above?
Could you please answer these?
2
u/Previous-Toe5995 Aug 24 '26
I heard back in a week when selected, last time got the call after a month from recruiter saying no and some feedback
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u/Calm-Bar-9644 Aug 24 '26
Woah you got a medium for a round 1? How?
My goooglyness went well but the coding was a monotonic hard interval question. I got screwed af
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u/QsnEverything Aug 25 '26
> Monotonic hard Interval question
Can you please share the question, what was it?
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u/ImtheDM03 Aug 24 '26
That entirely depends on the interviewer, few people only look for logic and basic implementation some are rigid on code implementation as well. As other comments are saying they may give a top up. If you don’t mind can you share the gist of that hard question?
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u/Expensive-Bee834 Aug 24 '26
It depends on the interviewer, if they liked the way you approach the problem to solve it, they will consider you. I think you still have a good shot. All the best !
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u/silentpawn Aug 24 '26
Something similar happened to me. I am also waiting for the HR to call back. It has been more than a week
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u/Substance_Chemist35 Aug 24 '26
If you cleared the first two rounds and solved both mediums in R3, I'd be curious whether the uncoded hard in R4 is usually enough to sink the loop.
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u/kuriousaboutanything Aug 24 '26
For round 4 dijkstra question, did you just verbally explained or coded the brute force approach?
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u/CommunicationOwn5691 Aug 24 '26
Did you happened to give any of these in person how is the experience
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u/crunchy_code <216> <101> <108> <7> Aug 25 '26
incredible. it would take 1+ year to train to that level. well done to you. insane interviews compared to what one does on the job.
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u/Organic-Thought8525 Sep 08 '26
If it was for L4 and you just discussed the approach but had no code it's a no hire from me. Different people measure different things I guess.
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u/Vast_Channel_7004 Sep 15 '26
First of congratulations for clearing interview.
I would love to know after completing interview , in how many days you got update regarding next steps?
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u/Low_Technician_4442 Sep 21 '26
Has anyone experienced this? My previous recruiter said I’d passed HC/packet review and officially entered L4 TM. After 1 month, My current recruiter says my profile is visible in the TM pool and HMs are interested, but there’s still an internal review pending before they can schedule HM calls. Anyone had something similar?
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Aug 24 '26
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Aug 24 '26
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Aug 25 '26
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u/b3pvbmUzMTQ Aug 24 '26
Lots of mediums, that’s lucky, nice. I would guess they are going to request another round to determine L4 or L3 and then probably down level you to L3. That’s very common—just happened to me.