'Most eliminations happen at this stage…' Google software engineer shares important tips, tricks to crack interview

Google

Getting a job at Google is a dream for many, but the interview process can feel overwhelming. If you’re wondering what really helps, software engineer Anu Sharma has shared some valuable tips.

Sharma, who now works at Google, didn’t get in on her first attempt. In fact, she was rejected twice before finally making it. She says most people get eliminated in the initial screening round, so focusing on this stage is key.

“These topics are asked in Google screening rounds! I got rejected here twice because most eliminations happen at this stage, so clearing it should be your priority,” Sharma shared on X (formerly Twitter).

What to focus on for Google’s screening round

If you’re serious about landing a job at Google, Sharma recommends dedicating time to mastering these core topics:

–Arrays: Sliding window, two pointers, binary search, sorting, greedy algorithms

–Strings: Palindromes, pattern matching

–Stacks and Queues: Next greater/smaller element, BFS (Breadth-First Search), flood fill

–Trees: Binary trees, BSTs (Binary Search Trees), traversals

–Graphs: DFS (Depth-First Search), BFS, Dijkstra’s algorithm, MST (Minimum Spanning Tree using Prim’s/Kruskal’s algorithm), DSU (Disjoint Set Union)

–Heaps: Min/max heap, Kth smallest/largest element

–Recursion and Backtracking: Highly important! Focus on permutations and combinations.

What to skip

Sharma warns against wasting time on topics that rarely come up in screening rounds. “Don’t waste time on segment trees and tries,” she advises. Instead, focus on understanding time and space complexities for commonly used data structures and algorithms.

Google interviews are tough, but with the right preparation, they’re not impossible.If you’re aiming for Google, use her tips to focus on the right topics and improve your chances.