Starting with Google in a few weeks and am curious what onboarding and the first week looks like? Will I even meet my team in the first week? Any feedback appreciated :-)

My recruiter mentioned that she can’t disclose the outcome of my onsite rounds but o need to first matched with the team and then go with HC for the final outcome. I am totally confused about this whole situation is this an indication of favorable outcome has anyone been ever rejected by Google even after they are matched with a team ?

Am I being lowballed? I received an offer with an $86,000 base salary, a $15,000 bonus, and 125 RSUs. I have four years of networking experience, one year of leadership experience, an MBA in IT Management, and several IT certifications. Does this seem competitive for my background?

Hi all, I just recently took 1st round of Google interviews (my 2nd time interviewing for google) but got rejected by the recruiter for not being strong enough in the coding round. However the feedback he gave me didn't seem right at all (and I was too devastated in the moment to bring it up).

Googlyness - nothing but praise, said he's never seen feedback so positive, clear Leadership skills and should pushed to L4/L5 level

Coding round - Said the solution had a few bugs and I took too long to implement not leaving enough time for follow-up ups. This makes no sense to me. The interviewer joined about 5 mins late and seemed quite chill and friendly, we had a short introduction with each other and then he dropped the question about 10-15mins in. Reasonable directed graph question. The pressure hit me here but I think I coded up a very clean looking solution, and I self corrected 1 or 2 bugs after looking at it. No major guidance here apart from a detail about the "visited" hashmap logic. I'd say it looked really clean, had good code style and the shape was 100% correct (I confirmed with chatgpt afterwards)

I finished about 30 mins later. I asked if he wanted to ask follow-up questions, he said "no it's fine, you already explained a few performance trade offs, it's just a screener, we get people who can't even code". This made me feel pretty good and optimistic. We then spent the next 10 mins just talking about general working at Google questions. I left feeling that surely, this is a pass at least for a initial screener.

I get the feedback call a few days later and the recruiter informs me that it's bad news, I didn't implement the solution fast enough, it was full of bugs and didn't leave enough time for follow-up questions. I accepted it in the moment but pondering about it, I'm like WTF? Bugs I'll accept, but the rest seems like total BS. Am I just reading too much into it or does this seem like fake news?

I have a Google FDE interview coming up soon for London.

I have very less leetcode experience. I started learning only a couple days ago, but am able to clear and solve 60% of the medium level questions as of now.

I really want to get into Google, but I also heard they’ve reached headcount…

I’m thinking of rescheduling from this week to next. (In 8 days instead of 3-4) so I get more time. Do you think the recruiter will just not let me do the interview since the headcount has been reached and I want to reschedule?

Hi everyone,

I have a Google Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) interview in about 2 weeks and would really appreciate any guidance from people who've gone through the process recently.

These are the notes I took from my recruiter call.

AI / Agent Interview

• 1 scenario with ~3 questions
• No coding, whiteboarding, or presentation
• Scenario: Working with a large enterprise customer that wants to modernize operations and improve productivity using LLMs/AI agents
• Data sources may include internal CRM systems, Google Drive, Office 365, etc.
• Assume sensitive enterprise data

Topics expected:

• Scoping & discovery
• Defining an MVP
• End-to-end production system design
• Deployment, scalability, monitoring, and evaluation

Coding Interview

• Standard software engineering interview
• One LeetCode-style medium/hard problem
• Around 20–30 lines of Python
• No dynamic programming
• Recruiter mentioned questions involving strings and/or graphs
• They also mentioned there may be a systems-oriented problem (e.g., implementing a tracker or parsing a nested string format), with an emphasis on reasoning rather than writing a large amount of code.

I'd love help with any of the following:

• A suggested 2-week study plan.
• Example AI/agent system design questions that are similar to the actual interview.
• Coding question patterns that are worth prioritizing.
• Experiences from anyone who interviewed recently—what was the interview actually like, and how do you wish you had prepared differently?
• Recommendations for mentorship, mock interviews, or practice partners familiar with Google's FDE interview.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Guys, I was kinda confident for this role. It was business system analyst, supply chain. I am a data engineer with almost 4 years of experience in a product based. I have been working with erp data the whole time so this role was aligned to me in many ways. But agh! How can someone even fail at GHA!
Darn it, ig help me understand what to prepare for a GHA. Also how long after this can I apply now ?

Hi everyone,

I recently completed the interviews with Apple and had a follow-up call with HR. During the call, they discussed my salary expectations, and walked me through how the compensation package is generally structured.

However, they didn't give me any actual offer or specific numbers. A few compensation figures came up during the conversation, but the recruiter made it clear those were just based on their previous exp and not an indication of my actual package. They also mentioned that the hiring team would take some time to evaluate all of my interview performance before making a decision and numbers.

I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm wondering if this is generally a positive sign or if it's just a standard part of the process. Has anyone who's interviewed with Apple had a similar experience? Did you eventually receive an offer?

Thanks in advance!

I have an interview lined up with Apple on the coming Friday, it is for SDE role | Early careers at Apple(Specifically, AIDP org). Please let me know how the first round(the online interview) goes, what i should be focusing on, what i should be studying, etc.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming Google Android interview, and the interview schedule mentions the following:

• One Android Domain Knowledge, Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms interview (45 minutes)
• One non-technical behavioral interview (45 minutes)

I'm trying to understand what the first round is actually like.

A few questions for anyone who has gone through it recently:

1. Is the interview primarily DSA-focused with a few Android questions, or is it mostly Android-specific (architecture, lifecycle, threading, Compose, performance, etc.)?
2. If it's Android-heavy, what kinds of problems are typically asked?
3. Are we expected to implement an entire Android feature (e.g., ViewModel, Repository, Compose UI, networking, etc.) in a plain text editor, or is it more like writing individual classes/functions or designing part of a system?
4. Is the coding done in a Google Docs-style editor, a shared editor, or something with syntax highlighting?
5. How much emphasis is placed on Android APIs versus clean coding, object-oriented design, and problem-solving?
6. For those who interviewed recently (2025–2026), what topics would you recommend prioritizing?

I'd really appreciate hearing about recent interview experiences or any advice on what to expect.

Thanks!

Hello Everyone,

I recently applied for a Senior Product Manager (SPM) role at Google India. After submitting my application, I received and successfully completed the Google Hiring Assessment (GHA). It's been two weeks since then, and I haven't heard back from the recruiter. Is this a normal part of Google's hiring process?

Also for my understanding, can someone clarify whether SPM is L5 or L6?

I have got offer from Google India and will be joining around mid august.

Details:
Clg: Tier 1
Yoe: 4
Current TC: 55L

Google Offer
Level: L4
Base: 42L
Variable: 15%
Equity: 75k (38%, 32%, 20%, 10%)
Joining Bonus: 5L
Other benefits: 3.3L

I have accepted this offer.

I have few questions, can existing googlers please answer them

1. When is google review cycle and would I be eligible in it? How hard is to get RSU/Raise?
2. How much variable % is given to me, say if I got rating of 4? or 3?
3. What does welcome kit contain? do we get phones as well?
4. How to excel there and difficult is to get promoted to L5 there?

Thanks,

I am working in a organization right now ,which have 4 years of bond now I have submitted some of my dad's medical documents and asked for a release,now my current org stating that they can only give me a termination letter mentioning due to medical emergency you have violated the policy and we are terminating you

Now in amazon ,I have doj on July 20 ,I tried to contact my recruiter but he is not replying properly,I told hime all my situation and he is saying your bgv is cleared and you can submit the reliving letter or service letter once you join amazon ,but I will have only termination letter ,my doubt is can I submit it ? Will amazon accept it ,I have selected through auta as sde 1

Hi everyone,

I recently received an informal/verbal offer from Google for an L5 Software Engineer role in either Hyderabad or Bangalore.

The recruiter shared the following tentative compensation over a phone call:

Base: ₹48 LPA
Annual Bonus: ₹7 LPA
Stocks (RSUs): ~₹40 lakh (to be honest, I couldn't remember the exact number)
Relocation: ₹5 lakh

I haven't received the official written offer yet, but the recruiter asked whether I'm generally comfortable with these numbers before moving forward.

I'm trying to understand whether this is a reasonable offer for the current market. Sites like Levels.fyi show compensation that's quite different, but I also know the hiring market has changed over the last couple of years.

If anyone has recently joined Google India at L5 (or has recent knowledge of L5 compensation), I'd really appreciate your insights:

1. Is this a typical starting offer?
2. How much room is there to negotiate the base, equity, or sign-on bonus?
3. Are there any negotiation tips before the official offer is generated?

For context, I have 12 years of software engineering experience across full-stack development, cloud.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hey everyone, just wanted to share a pretty baffling interview experience I had today with Netflix for a L4 Software Engineering role.

I hopped on the initial screening call with the recruiter, and right off the bat, I was surprised that they started asking me actual technical questions. It was a short, high-level technical screen, but I felt like I was nailing it and we were having a great conversation.

Then, after about 20 minutes of going back and forth, the recruiter finally asks about my work authorization. I mentioned I’m on CPT/OPT, and they immediately shut it down and said Netflix isn't hiring anyone with that status right now.

I’m just incredibly frustrated. Work authorization status is a hard binary filter. Why on earth is it not the literal first question asked in the call (or better yet, filtered through the application form), rather than waiting until the final minutes after making a candidate do a technical screen?

It feels like a massive waste of time for both parties. Has anyone else encountered this with Netflix recently, or are other big tech companies starting to do this too?

Hello everyone, would be extremely grateful if anyone can help with personal interview prep for SDE as a fresher. Got in through Amazon University Talent Acquisition. Looking forward to it.