Chances for Google offer? Virtual onsite experience
The recruiter gave me the option to interview as either an L4 or L5 and I decided to interview for L5. First interview I had a medium problem. The interviewer agreed with my solution before coding it and said the code looked good to them after I was done. This one might be a lean hire since the problem wasn't hard and I think the interviewer typically asked 2 problems. Second interview The question was hard. I talked about the brute force solution and interviewer agreed that I can code it out to start out. Then I had to get a hint on how to optimize it, but as soon as I got the hint, I coded it up and the interviewer was happy at the end. This one might be a lean hire since I had to get a hint in order to solve it optimally. Third interview The question was a medium-hard that was tricky. The interviewer was extremely happy with my proposed solution before coding it. After and during coding, the interviewer was happy too and at the end of the interview, they said I had done a great job. This one might be a strong hire or hire. Fourth interview The leadership and googliness interview had the toughest questions I've had for a behavioral interview. The interviewer didn't seem too satisfied with my answers and kept digging deeper. Overall, I think in this one I didn't demonstrate red flags, but it'll probably get me down leveled. Fifth interview System design went well. The interviewer was happy with the choices and justifications I made along the way. In this problem I reached talking about scalability, how to deploy the solution, and how to expand the scope later on. I think this might be a hire or at worst lean hire. The recruiter also already has me matched for a specific org, but not necessarily a specific team. I'm still unclear on how that works exactly. I have several internal references one of which is a previous manager that works at G now. Overall, huge props to the Google interviewers. They were kind and collaborative.
Can't say in my opinion you could get both of them but chances are leaning towards L4 if not backed with YoE
I mock interviewed OP for system design interviews and helped with some feedback, tips and resources. If anyone else is interested please feel free to DM me. Only people preparing for Senior level roles.
I recommend this mock interviewer. The feedback and tips they gave helped get my system design skills to the next level. The price was also reasonable compared to the alternatives.
Read more details about my process here: Check out this post! "Need System Design Mock Interview? (Tech Industry)" https://us.teamblind.com/s/aQjuCAjJ
Not sure what leads Google to downlevel so much these days. My experience was getting several L5 equivalent offers elsewhere easily, but despite performing better than usual in my G interview they leveled me at L4 promising to redo a coding round to level me at L5 following team match. Got one boring-sounding team interview that I rejected, then radio silence for a month. Ended up dipping out of the process for a company that doesn't put candidates through that bs. Several friends have had similar experience where G will offer N-1 and then press you to redo a round to get approved for N. Feels like negging strategy to weaken the candidate's mentality before lowballing them... Not sure how much this is even tied to interview performance.
If we fail the re do round, do we still get the downlevelled offer?
Yoe? Seems to correlate with their offer
8 YOE
Update: going to hiring committee
HC recommended to hire at L5 since I nailed the system design. I am over the moon right now. It's unreal!!!
Not related to your question but Can you give details on Googliness and leadership interview? What are they looking for differently?
All I can say is I wish was more prepared for hypothetical leadership questions