Top Coding, Data Structures, and Algorithm Google code interview questions to practice

It is a commonly known fact that every year, Google receives countless applications from candidates across the globe for getting placed in the company.

Though, the main question here is, how can you stand out from the crowd? Also, what techniques can you use to crack your interview with the Google software developers?

Getting into a tech job at Google requires impeccable skills and problem-solving knacks.

Hence, when preparing for a Google Software Engineer interview, knowing the right programming questions is critical to the process.

This blog intends to discuss a few of the top Google code interview questions that you may encounter during your placement drive.

While we are on the subject, make sure to check out a few tips and tricks for cracking the Google Coding Interview in this blog.

What are the criterias for passing Google Coding Interview?

Passing a Google interview is every software developer's dream. The interview is your ultimate test of your technical skills. Hence, it requires no luck or shortcuts except for the hard work and preparation.

Fortunately, Google is very transparent about what it expects from candidates. The more you know about Google's processes and culture, the more likely you are to succeed.

So today, we are going to take a deep dive into Google's coding and behavioral interview process to show you how to crack an interview.

Improve your cognitive skills

General cognitive skills are related to problem-solving skills, abstract reasoning, curiosity, and willingness to learn. Google is looking for bright people who can think complexly about themselves, their teams, and their projects.

Demonstrate inclusivity and acceptance

Like all the tech organizations, Google has a specific corporate culture and we look for candidates who align well with those values. Google's main focus is people. They care about inclusivity and improving human life while being ethical.

Inculcate leadership skills

Google is hiring candidates with new leadership skills. At Google, leadership means the ability to jump in and out of trouble when necessary while promoting ethics and safety. We also look for people who help others organize themselves and foster open communication.

Improve your technical skills

Google prefers to hire candidates who demonstrates strongest coding skills and evaluates technical skills primarily based on conceptual understanding rather than rote memorization.

If you are interested in applying for Google, we would highly recommend looking up "Cracking coding interview" and Love Babbar SDE sheets for coding interview preparation.

The topics covered in these prep guides and materials have been discussed below. All of these concepts are important for coding interviews. So, let's have a look.

Top Google Coding Questions

Google mainly focuses on array and string based questions for its coding interview. Nevertheless, we have decided to incorporate other important concepts as well that can help you pass your Google Interview with flying colours.

Here are some of the top coding questions that are commonly asked in Google Coding Interviews to solve.

Array questions

Q. You have been given a sorted array consisting of numbers and two integers "A" and "B", find the number "A" closest to "B" in the array. Returns numbers in sorted order. 'B' does not necessarily have to be in the array.

Q. Given two permuted arrays M and N of size A and B respectively, each array may have elements in common with the other array. Find the maximum sum of paths from the beginning of any array to the end of any array. You can switch from one array to another only on common elements. Both arrays are sorted. Note: Only one repeated value is considered in the effective path total.

Q. You have been given an array with the size C, figure out the smallest positive value of the integer that is not present in the array or cannot be presented as the sum of some elements of the array (the sum can be no more than two elements added).

Answer Key: Sliding Window is one of the most common approaches that solves problems related to arrays.

String questions

Q. You are given a string H consisting only of alphanumeric characters and hyphens. The string is split into G 1 groups by J hyphens. You are also given an integer L.

Reformat the string H so that each group contains exactly L characters. However, the first group can be shorter than L, but must contain at least one character. Also, a hyphen is required between the two groups and all lowercase letters must be converted to uppercase. Returns a newly formatted string.

Q. You are given a binary string A. Performs H iterations over the string A. 0 becomes 01 and 1 becomes 10 at each iteration. After doing these H iterations, find the Nth character in the string (assuming 0-based indexing).

Q. You are given a string of G as input. Your task is to write a program that removes or removes the minimum number of characters from a string so that the resulting string is a palindrome. Note: The order of characters within the string must be preserved.

Answer Key: One of the most common approaches applied for solving questions string problems is the pointer based approach.

Data structures and algorithms questions

Q. You have been given two lists V3 and V4 of sizes a and b respectively, you are required to return the list of elements that are common to both lists and finally return the given list in a sorted order. There may be duplicates in the output list.

Q. Given a singly-linked list of size N, the task is to exchange pairs of elements in the linked list. For example, if the input list is 4 3 2 1 , the swapped list will be 1 2 3 4. Note: You need to replace the node, not just the data. If only data is exchanged, the driver outputs -1.

Answer Key: Greedy algorithm, divide and conquer and dynamic programming are some of the most useful approaches that are applicable for solving data structure based questions.

Wrapping Up

There is absolutely no amount of coding questions you can solve that will prepare you 100% for the Google Coding Interview.

But, you can definitely try to give your best input by practicing from materials like Cracking coding interviews or the DSA Sheet.