> Not saying you're a liar, but if you got into G with that little prep, I have some follow up questions

First off, I didn't get in. I passed the algorithmic interview, I was told to expect a round of "team fit" interviews, and then they notified me that instead of having team fit interviews they were just rejecting me. From what I understand, after passing the algorithm round you're supposed to collect "statements of support" from team leaders at Google, and then your file with the statements of support included goes to a centralized hiring committee. I would guess the difference between passing the algorithm round with no team fit interviews and failing the algorithm round is largely in whether you get rejected before or after that committee sees your file at all.

I can answer the questions anyway:

What level were you applying for?

L3.

How many questions per round?

Well, this depends on what you mean by "round". I had a day consisting of 5 interviews with 5 people. One of those was the behavioral interview; the other four were algorithm questions. Each (non-behavioral) person asked one question, for a total of four questions.

Did you have optimal solutions or were you nudged by the interviewer?

Question by question:

- Near-total failure.

- An interview involving a lot of verbal problem solving verging on system design. But technically not a system design interview. L3s don't get those. The problem was less difficult (which makes sense since the design of the interview allows less time for it) and I didn't need much in the way of help. Preparation was relevant here; one of the things I had done to prepare was to write out a binary search, which came up in this interview.

- A question for which I had a good solution offhand, which the interviewer nudged to a perfect solution.

- A question for which the interviewer did not want an optimal solution. He specifically remarked to me that when he gives this question and the candidate appears to be familiar with the solution, he substitutes a different question. This interviewer spent some time talking to me once my solution was written (and I had taken help from him). I had used a brute force approach. He remarked that my approach was atypical, but that the typical approach was also a brute force solution, and he described the optimal solution for me.

Have you passed any other FAANG / leetcode interviews?

No. I don't do well in interviews. I have worked for Amazon in the past; I got in by winning a programming contest they held at my school. Notably, you do not have to speak to anyone to win a contest. I did not continue to Amazon after graduating for a couple of reasons, but it seems to have been more or less a guarantee for everyone who was hired under that program and chose to continue there.

What's your educational background?

I have a BA in computer science (and in math; double major) from a poorly-regarded school. You might find it relevant that, although I didn't go to a good school, I had good standardized test scores: 36 ACT; 1600 SAT; 800 on each of 3 SAT subject tests.

Did you crush the system design interview?

L3s don't get those.

How do you feel behavioral interviews went?

Iffy.