Google's system-design rounds prize crisp requirement-gathering, quick capacity estimation, and a clean read and write path.
In 2026 common prompts include a URL shortener handling billions of redirects, a typeahead or autocomplete service under a 100ms budget, and a distributed rate limiter shared across services. Interviewers push hard on the distributed-consistency trade-off, sharding and caching, and how your numbers back your choices. They want a candidate who states assumptions, does the back-of-envelope math out loud, and defends a single design against its alternatives rather than hedging across all of them.
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Recruiter screen and coding phone screen
Onsite coding rounds on DSA
System-design round on a large-scale service
Behavioral (Googleyness) round, then hiring committee
Round 1 (45 min)
coding phone screen on data structures and algorithms.
Round 2-3 (45 min each)
onsite coding rounds.
Round 4 (45 min)
system-design round with capacity estimation.
Round 5 (45 min)
Googleyness and leadership behavioral round.
Sourced from 2+ candidate post-mortems. Hit Practice to answer any one with AI voice feedback.