Google SWE University Graduate / STEP interview: process, rounds and questions

Written by Mentari as typical of this process — not a record of questions Google has asked. Each comes with the follow-up a good interviewer asks next and what they listen for in the answer. Scenario details are our framing, chosen to fit Google’s sector.

1. 01 Given meeting intervals, return the minimum number of rooms. Talk me through it before writing anything.

   Follow-up · Now return which meetings share a room. What structure do you add, and what does it cost?

   Listens for · Brute force named, then the sweep with complexity; a heap added with a reason.

2. 02 Evaluate a boolean expression given as a string with &, |, ! and parentheses.

   Follow-up · The expression is a million characters long. Does your recursion survive, and what would you change?

   Listens for · Correct parsing, then an explicit stack when recursion depth becomes a risk.

3. 03 Find whether a path exists between two nodes in a graph given as an edge list.

   Follow-up · The graph no longer fits in memory. What changes about your approach?

   Listens for · BFS or DFS stated clearly; a sensible move to external or streaming traversal.

Compiled from 10 candidate reports (2024–2026) and the official hiring page. Where reports differ, the range is shown rather than one number.

Coding assessment — reported pattern — Where a test is used it is coding only: two problems in about 60 minutes in a 2025 IIT campus intern report, both visible from the start; general guides describe two or three problems in 70–90 minutes. Several STEP accounts describe no test at all — the university shortlist led straight to interviews.^12,13,11

1. Practise coding in a plain text document with no compiler, narrating every decision. The interviews are live in a shared Google Doc; silence while thinking is scored against you.
2. For every problem, state the brute force, its complexity, then the improvement and its complexity — before writing the improved version. Moving from brute force to optimal with complexity stated is the recurring differentiator.
3. After solving, list three edge cases unprompted and test one. Edge-case handling and a data-structure-swapping follow-up appear in most rounds.
4. Do timed two-problem sets in an hour, reading both problems first. The IIT campus assessment showed both problems from the start with free movement.
5. Practise working from a hint: take it, say what it changed, and continue without a second one. Hints are given, and relying on them is reported in feedback.
6. Prepare three short stories on ambiguity, feedback and working with others. The University Graduate loop includes a 15-minute Googleyness segment.
7. Pair this page with a coding-practice platform; this guide covers what is assessed, not the problems. Google interviews are problem-driven, and no guide substitutes for solved problems.

What Google says it assesses

• "Google’s hiring process is as unique as its culture" — an overview is published "to help you prepare and apply for roles and internships"¹
• STEP is the Student Training in Engineering Program, listed under Build Your Future²
• India software-engineer listings ask for a bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience and programming experience in one or more languages^3,4

What candidates report being probed on

• Thinking aloud, explaining alternatives and trade-offs, and saying when you are stuck — named in rejection feedback as what was missing^5,6,7
• Moving from a brute-force solution to an optimised one, with complexity stated at each step^5,8,10
• Edge cases and a follow-up that swaps the data structure^5,9
• Interpreting an under-specified problem independently, using hints without depending on them^8,10
• Coding accuracy under time — one 2025 candidate was eliminated by a mistake they could not repair despite a hint¹⁰

Google’s campus interviews strip away almost everything other recruiters use. There is no aptitude paper, no HR round, no "tell me about yourself" in most STEP accounts — interviewers are reported to go straight to a problem in a shared document, with no compiler, and to spend the full 45 minutes on it and its follow-up. The whole selection is two to four of these conversations. What is scored is visible in the rejection feedback candidates quote: whether you explained alternatives, said what you were doing while stuck, handled edge cases and moved from brute force to something better — not only whether you finished.

Interviewers help, and that is part of the test. Several candidates describe getting hints and advancing; one was told afterwards that reliance on hints counted against them. The IIT campus assessment, where one is used, is two problems in an hour with both visible from the start — a format that rewards reading both before starting either. This page describes what is assessed; it is not a problem bank, and anyone preparing should pair it with a coding-practice platform.

Where the sources disagree

Google’s official material confirms the programmes and nothing about the rounds, so the pattern rests on candidate accounts, which are unusually consistent on format and inconsistent on count. Every STEP account describes two 45-minute technical interviews in a shared document; the University Graduate accounts describe two initial rounds with a possible third (February 2024), four technical rounds as briefed by Google (November 2024), and a loop running from November 2024 to February 2025 in a third. Whether an online assessment precedes the interviews varies: the 2025 IIT Bhubaneswar intern report describes a 60-minute two-problem test, while several STEP accounts went from university shortlist to interviews with no test. The 15-minute Googleyness segment appears in the University Graduate accounts and not in STEP ones. No official page gives a cut-off, and the figures that circulate are campus filters.

4. 04 You have coded a solution and it fails one hidden test. Without more information, what do you do?

   Follow-up · You find the bug but have four minutes left. Fix or explain?

   Listens for · Systematic edge-case search; a judgement call made aloud.

5. 05 I am going to give you a hint. Before I do: what have you ruled out, and why?

   Follow-up · Now, with the hint — what did it change in your thinking?

   Listens for · Independent reasoning first; takes the hint without becoming dependent on it.

6. 06 Tell me about a time you received feedback you disagreed with.

   Follow-up · What did you do with the part you still think was wrong?

   Listens for · Openness without capitulation; a specific outcome.

7. 07 Describe a problem where the requirements kept changing. How did you decide what to build?

   Follow-up · What did you deliberately not build, and who was unhappy about it?

   Listens for · Comfort with ambiguity and a defended scope decision.

8. 08 Explain the complexity of the solution you just wrote to someone who has not studied algorithms.

   Follow-up · Now explain why the brute force was not good enough, in the same terms.

   Listens for · Plain-language explanation — the communication signal interviewers report scoring.

Given a list of meeting intervals, return the minimum number of rooms needed.

Weak · Writes a sort-and-sweep solution correctly in silence, says "done", and waits.

Stronger · "Brute force: for every minute, count overlapping meetings — O(n × T). Better: sort starts and ends separately and sweep, O(n log n). Edge cases: a meeting ending exactly when another starts — I will treat that as not overlapping and say so; empty input; a single meeting." Then codes it, narrating, and asks whether the interviewer wants the room assignments too.

Why the follow-up lands · The interviewer asks "now return which meetings share a room." The strong candidate extends the sweep with a heap and explains why; the weak one starts over.

Illustrative — yours must be true.

A Google campus process is two to four 45-minute live-coding interviews in a shared document, sometimes preceded by a two-problem coding test, with no aptitude paper and no HR round; STEP uses two interviews, the University Graduate role up to four with a short Googleyness segment. Shortlist filters are the campus’s own. The cohort lever is narrated problem-solving practice, not aptitude drills.

Mentari does not run coding problems; its software-engineer mock rehearses the narrated reasoning, the trade-off explanations and the Googleyness-style behavioural questions that the feedback candidates quote is about. Run Google-pattern mocks for a whole batch.

• Software engineer mock interview
• Microsoft interview
• Amazon interview
• Is ChatGPT a Good Mock Interviewer?
• STAR Method Answers That Survive Follow-ups
• All company guides →

1. How we hire — Google Careers (official) · official · accessed 2026-10-23
2. STEP — Student Training in Engineering Program — Google Careers (official) · official · accessed 2026-10-23
3. Software Engineer — India (job listing) — Google Careers (official) · official · accessed 2026-10-23 · role-specific requirements
4. Software Engineer, University Graduate, 2025 (job listing) — Google Careers (official) · official · accessed 2026-10-23
5. Google interview experience for STEP intern 2024 — GeeksforGeeks · candidate report, 2024-10 · accessed 2026-10-23 · two 45-minute rounds; rejection feedback quoted
6. Google STEP intern interview experience (university drive) — GeeksforGeeks · candidate report, 2025-02 · accessed 2026-10-23 · shortlist → two interviews; no test, no behavioural questions
7. Google STEP internship experience — GeeksforGeeks · candidate report, 2024-04 · accessed 2026-10-23 · older account; cited for the feedback on explaining alternatives
8. Google STEP internship 2024 — interview experience — Medium (candidate) · candidate report, 2024-03 · accessed 2026-10-23 · older account; recruiter conversation then technical rounds; feedback on hint reliance
9. Google interview experience — University Graduate role, India — Medium (candidate) · candidate report, 2024-02 · accessed 2026-10-23 · older account; two rounds plus Googleyness segment; cited for structure
10. Google interview experience — Software Engineer, University Graduate 2025 — GeeksforGeeks · candidate report, 2024-11 · accessed 2026-10-23 · Google briefed four technical rounds
11. Google new grad interview experience 2025 — India — interviewexperiences.in · candidate report, 2025-01 · accessed 2026-10-23 · loop from November 2024 to February 2025
12. Google SDE intern campus test — IIT Bhubaneswar 2025 — Codeforces (candidate) · candidate report, 2025-08 · accessed 2026-10-23 · two problems, 60 minutes, free movement
13. Google online assessment guide — Educative · candidate report · accessed 2026-10-23 · preparation-site compilation
14. Google placement papers — placementpapers.app · candidate report · accessed 2026-10-23 · compilation; source of circulating CGPA figures

Verified October 2026 by Sumit Mishra, Mentari founder. Spotted an error, or represent Google? Write to [email protected] — we acknowledge within two working days and correct or remove a disputed statement within 72 hours.

Mentari is not affiliated with Google. This page is pattern-based, compiled from the public sources listed, and is not insider information. Candidate-reported details are reproduced as patterns only, in our own words.