Google SWE Intern interview questions

Variation of Unique Paths problem

OA (Online Assessment): "Given a string, find the longest substring with at most K distinct characters." (LeetCode Medium variant) "Design a rate-limiting algorithm for an API." (Pseudocode + complexity analysis) Phone Screen: *"You’re given a grid representing a maze (0 = path, 1 = wall). Find the shortest path from start to end."* (BFS/DFS follow-up: optimize for time/space). Final Round (Coding): "Implement an autocomplete system using a trie. How would you handle scaling to millions of users?" (Trie operations + discussion on caching/sharding). System Design Lite: "How would you design a tinyURL service?" (Focus on hashing, collisions, and database schema)