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Google

Four published hiring attributes, each assigned to specific interviewers, and a hiring committee of Googlers who never met you making the actual decision from written notes.

The Google process

3 of 6 stages you can practise here

  1. 01
    Resume review and online assessment

    A human resume screen, for early-career roles often paired with the Google Hiring Assessment, a situational questionnaire rather than a coding test.

  2. 02
    Recruiter screen30 minchill

    The 30 minute recruiter call that opens a Google loop. Background, motivation and level fit, not technical.

    recruitermotivationlevel fit
  3. 03
    Coding phone screen45 minrealistic

    The 45 minute coding phone screen, in a bare shared doc. One medium problem, explained before it is written, then follow-ups.

    codingdata structuresalgorithms
  4. 04
    Onsite loop

    Five 45 minute rounds. For L3 and L4, four coding rounds plus a Googleyness and leadership round; for L5 and above, three coding rounds, one system design, and Googleyness and leadership. Each round is assigned one or two of the four attributes, and interviewers write up evidence rather than a verdict.

    4 rounds you can practise

    Behavioral · leadership and Googleyness30 minrealistic

    The leadership and Googleyness slots of an L3 loop. Judged on evidence a committee who never met you can read.

    googleynessleadershipambiguity
    Role related knowledge30 minrealistic

    The RRK slot, spoken not coded. Whether your claimed depth is real when someone digs into it.

    role related knowledgedepthfundamentals
    Onsite coding45 minbrutal

    An onsite 45 minute coding round. Harder, deeper follow-ups, and the optimality bar is real.

    codinggraphsdynamic programming
    System design45 minbrutal

    The L5+ system design round. Drive it: requirements, architecture, tradeoffs, and what breaks at scale.

    system designscalabilitytradeoffs
  5. 05
    Hiring committee

    Googlers who never met you read the written packet and make the call. This is why unsupported claims fail here: the room cannot vouch for you, only the notes can.

  6. 06
    Team match and offer

    Matching to a team with headcount, then senior review before an offer is extended.

Common questions

What does Google look for in interviews?
Google hires against four published attributes: general cognitive ability, role related knowledge, leadership, and Googleyness. Each interview in a loop is assigned one or two of them to probe, and the interviewer knows which one they own.
What is Googleyness?
Googleyness is Google’s term for cultural and behavioral fit with how the company works. It covers intellectual humility, comfort with ambiguity, conscientiousness, a bias to action, collaboration, and putting the user first.
Who decides whether Google hires you?
Not your interviewers. They write up what they observed and pass a packet to a hiring committee of Googlers who never met you. The practical consequence is that an answer which charmed the room but left no concrete evidence behind has nothing for the committee to read.
What is a Google GCA interview?
GCA stands for general cognitive ability. It assesses how you approach a problem you have not seen before: how you structure it, what you do when your first approach fails, and how you learn, rather than what facts you have memorised.
How many coding rounds does Google have?
Usually a 45 minute technical phone screen, then coding rounds at the onsite: about four for L3 and L4, and three for L5 and above (who also get a system design round). Coding is done in a shared Google Doc with no autocomplete or code execution.
Does Google ask system design?
Yes, for senior candidates. L5 and above get a dedicated system design round, and it increasingly appears at L4 too. L3 and new-grad loops generally do not include one.

Sources

Built from what Google publishes about its own process and from real interview data. No leaked question lists. The questions you get are generated against your own resume, so they are not from anyone else's interview.

Sources last checked . Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.