Google Interview Questions

Matthew W. - "I’d start by clarifying what the business outcome we are driving/what is the context of the AI platform I am owning. Assuming I am giving no further info, I would start with framing why safety is a must with GenAI, the market being saturated with new LLMs daily, so trust is the main differentiator for retention and defensibility. Safety failures can trigger regulatory action (FTC, EU, etc.), reputational damage, or user churn. Then I would identify some Key Buckets: • Kids/teen protections ("See full answer

Aekagra S. - "To improve, we first need to understand the problems or opportunities for improvement that are currently present. Assumption: Potential improvement in the recommendation algorithm to make recommendations more pointed Current recommendations are not very specific. Users end up getting frustrated and move away from YouTube Potential improvement in the recommendation algorithm to make sure the user is not just bombarded with one set of videos, but gets varied recommendations to c"See full answer

Tim W. - "Clarify "What do you mean by favorite product? Are you thinking specifically hardware, software, or a feature within those, or something non-electronic? Dealer's Choice. "Are you asking why I love this product, or to explain why this product is a market leader independent of how i feel about it? Talk about why YOU love this product. Rephrase Question With all that in mind, i want to rephrase the question. "What is your favorite software product and what features in this product"See full answer

Anish G. - "How would you improve a water bottle? To start, I want to ask a few clarifying questions about this problem: Are there specific users you had in mind? Start with users: Lifestyle: People that think water bottles are fashionable and buy based off of social media trends, put stickers or decorate their water bottles, hydroflask users, stanley cup, owala Athelete: gatorade squeeze bottle easy quick hydration Traveler, hikers, backpackers: larger capacity nalgenes or durable plastic water bot"See full answer

Jane D. - "My approach to dealing with difficult stakeholders has always been: Engage - Directly engage with the stakeholder, meet or chat Listen - Listen to what they have to say, patiently. Understand - Understand their POV, even if it is impossible at some times Ask - Ask clarifying questions. Why? When? What? Engage again - Keep them in the loop until there is closure For example, we were in the final stages of a very important, strategic project for our organization. I was leading th"See full answer

Nicola R. - "You shouldn't hire me if you're looking for someone to simply write code in large volumes without considering the bigger picture. I'm someone who thrives on solving root problems, building, cohesive systems, and ensuring stakeholder alignment. If the priority is speed over thoughtful analysis, I might not be the best fit. However, if you're looking for someone who can drive meaningful and scalable solutions, collaborate effectively, and contribute to long-term success, then I believe I'd bring s"See full answer

Vani B. - "Clarifying Questions Before diving in, a few questions to align on scope: Apple Maps is pre-installed on all iPhones and iPads, correct? We're keeping the web channel but focusing on the app? Core use case: navigation, nearby search, traffic, location sharing, place discovery? Are we targeting the US only, and what's the market share goal? Assume answers: Yes to all. Currently 5% share, target 20% in 18 months. 80% owned by Google Maps. Reframing the Problem A 5% → 20% jump i"See full answer

Sreenisha S. - "Let me tell you about a time where a website I managed suddenly showed slow performance and the mistake on our side was it was unnoticed until a user reported the issue to management. As a PM for that project, I took full responsibility of the situation and worked with the engineering team to quickly resolve it. This mistake taught me the importance of focusing and monitoring non functional requirements as well in addition to new feature development /adoption where I was mostly spending my time"See full answer

Debajyoti B. - "Clarifications: Which aspect of birthday are we thinking about designing a product for? Birthday reminder, birthday planning, event management or birthday wishing?- People are generally reminded of their birthdays by their friends/family, social media, their own self awareness, so its not a critical problem to solve Social apps like FB have birthday wishing features for the larger audience & for wishing friends/family, people would generally call or wish in person Manag"See full answer

Rushab S. - "Before we can delve into opportunities to increase revenue and create a roadmap for next 5 years, let's look at Spotify's Vision and Mission Statement Who are the key stakeholders currently in spotify's ecosystem and how does spotify make revenue What are some of the key market trends that impact the stakeholders in the spotify's ecosystem Spotify's Vision and Mission Statement Mission: Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity Vision: Spotify's vision is to be"See full answer

Varun G. - "Constrain the requirements (The final product should be somewhat like Neptune AI and also enable for A/B testing) Do some back of the envelope calculations Start explaning your system with appropriate architecture diagrams Optimize for scale Answer any questions Wrap-up"See full answer

Kartikeya N. - "Let me first start with some clarifying questions What do we mean by 10x? User engagement/ revenue/ acquisition?: Revenue Are we looking at global revenue or from a particular market like USA?: Global Are there any constraints or timelines for this ask?: Not much constraints, lets aim for a 10X increase in 5 years Sure, let me first start with the Goal of Duolingo. Duolingo’s aim is to simplify language learning and make it entertaining as well as educational. It is known for it’s use of"See full answer

叶 路. - "from collections import deque def updateword(words, startword, end_word): if end_word not in words: return None # Early exit if end_word is not in the dictionary queue = deque([(start_word, 0)]) # (word, steps) visited = set([start_word]) # Keep track of visited words while queue: word, steps = queue.popleft() if word == end_word: return steps # Found the target word, return steps for i in range(len(word)): "See full answer

Ross B. - "I most want to communicate a few principals of conflict resolution that I believe were integral in this situation, which are mutual respect, a results orientation, an unwavering focus on the user. To that end, here’s how I’d like to structure this answer: First, I’ll tell you about the project we were working on, to provide some background for you. Second, I’ll describe the disagreement. Third, I’ll describe how we arrived at a solution, and finally, I’ll discuss how those 3 conflict resolut"See full answer

Theodore (teddy) W. - "So here is what I would do if I had to designing a system to log messages in order involves several considerations, including the choice of software, hardware, storage mechanisms, and scalability. Here’s how I would approach this: 1. Requirements Analysis: Message Format: Define the structure of the messages to log (e.g., text, JSON). Volume: Estimate the expected volume of messages per second. This will help in determining the infrastructure requirements. **Order Guarantee"See full answer

Anonymous Flamingo - "Design a washing machine for Google Step 1: Building Context through clarifying questions Are we looking at building a complete washing machine(new line of business) or a connected app for washing machine like Android Auto? Any specific geography to look for Goal? Increase usage of any specific google product or introduce smart white goods hardware Step 2: Target users Individuals Single Family Couple Hotels Students Laundromats **Apartments/Studen"See full answer

Noe L. - "First, I’d want to clarify what’s driving the lack of adoption. I’d ask:What does “unclear roadmap” mean? Is this an internal issue where we’re not addressing customer pain points, or is it a matter of customers not understanding how to use the product? Is this feedback coming from all enterprise customers across verticals, or is it isolated to a specific group? How long has this been going on? Has it been over a quarter? Assuming this is a widespread issue impacting all customers"See full answer

Anonymous Muskox - "DoorDash - An online Food Ordering and Food Delivery Company. What is the Goal of the DoorDash? The goal is to empower local business and connect to the users. Who are the the different stakeholders involved to achieve this Goal for DoorDash? Users Restaurant Partners Delivery Partners What they need to do to achieve this goal? More users have to come on the platform for ordering Restaurants has to fulfil the requirement of maximum number of Users Delivery part"See full answer

Aabid S. - "We had a huge launch on September 1st of this year where we completely redesigned our application from the grounds up and also migrated to a new platform (React.JS). This project took us 8 months and the launch was a huge deal for the team. Unfortunately the launch wasn't as smooth as we expected and despite doing multiple rounds of QA, some major issues cropped up in the core part of the app right after launch and our client was quite upset since it was disrupting their day-to-day workflow. "See full answer

Tesvara J. - "First, I'll ask some clarifying questions and redefine the scope for us, ok? So, Can we assume that we are working at a company that has discovered a way to travel through time and we have this patented state of the art technology? Sure! Ok, then I will think of this problem from the perspective of a business if that is ok? Yes Is the traveling process instant or lengthy? Assume instant. Can I assume there are no idea constraints and that since time travel is existing that ther"See full answer