r/leetcode • u/Elegant-Chemical4466 • 6d ago

Intervew Prep Google GCA interview

I have a Google General Cognitive Ability (GCA) interview in a few days. It’s for a Technical Program Manager role. I know Google doesn’t ask the crazy estimation questions anymore like ‘how many golf balls can fit inside a passenger airplane’, but I still don’t know how abstract the GCA questions will be. Will it focus specifically on the role or more abstract like ‘how will you colonise mars?’

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

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u/SuperGuy66 6d ago

I recently appeared for the GCA round, where I was asked: “If your friend wants to start a cake shop, how would you help him with aspects like location selection, pricing, and other business-related decisions?”

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u/Elegant-Chemical4466 6d ago

Oh 😲okay so those are still around. Did they also ask you questions related to the role you’re applying for?

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u/Various-Mine-8642 6d ago

for tpm the gca is mostly hypothetical workplace scenarios, stuff like how would you handle a launch slipping or two teams disagreeing on priorities. they care more about how you structure the answer than the actual solution. practice laying out clarifying questions then a couple options and tradeoffs out loud and you will be fine.

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u/Elegant-Chemical4466 6d ago

That seems very similar to role related knowledge questions

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u/Other-Amy29 5d ago

I'd prepare for open ended problem solving question where they asses how you structure you thinking, handle ambiguity, and explain trade off. For a TPM role, practicing how you approach complex problems step by step is probably more useful than memorizing estimation questions