Google (Senior) Software Engineer interview questions
based on 358 ratings - Updated Jun 12, 2026
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Candidates applying for (Senior) Software Engineer roles take an average of 30 days to get hired, when considering 1 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Google overall takes an average of 39 days.
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I applied online. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Google (San Jose, CA) in Nov 2016
Interview
First interview was just a phone pre-screening, very simple. Second interview was a 45min technical interview. This one was very difficult. Made more so because it was difficult to think of solutions while being watched. You had a shared document that both you and the interviewer could edit. A "take home" test would have been more realistic.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Aug 2014
Interview
Pretty standard interview process. Based on employee recommendations, Google waived off phone interview. Five 1:1 interviews - Coding, Algo, and System Design. No puzzles or trick questions. I talked with 2 teams and decided to not join because offered opportunities did not align with my career goals at the time.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Coding questions around recursion, hashing, binary trees, etc.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Google (New York, NY) in Aug 2016
Interview
I was brought into the New York City office for five forty-five minute problem sessions, one with two interviewers, and the other four with only a single interview. In each, I was asked to solve a technical problem, writing my software solution onto a whiteboard, this program complete enough to actually run. I was not able to complete solve all five of the technical problems I was given.