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Google Software Engineer System Design Questions

120+ questions from real Google Software Engineer System Design rounds, reported by candidates who interviewed there.

120
Questions
8
Topic Areas
10+
Sources

What does the Google System Design round test?

The Google system design round assesses a candidate's ability to architect scalable systems. Software Engineer candidates are typically asked to design a large-scale service or platform from scratch, covering database choices, API design, scaling strategy, and failure modes.

Top Topics in This Round

Google Software Engineer System Design Questions

Google onsite

System Design 2020

1) System design --> build system for generating unique id (roughly) incremental.. 2) Coding --> best place to build house in available spots with closest roundtrip to all stores 3) coding -->...

I have appeared for google interview. 1 st round- screening round 2nd round - coding round they asked me this question in 2nd round Imagine you have a robot that sends status...

Google

Graph 2021

I interviewed with google starting last year in december. Went through the Prelim round, the interviewer asked a medium problem that asked for Topological sorting. Coded the solution in 5 minutes...

Recently, I went through a Google system design interview where I was asked to design an end-to-end system for Google’s employee cab transportation service. The goal was to optimize cab allocation, ro

If you’re preparing for system design interviews, there’s good news and bad news. **Bad news:** system design feels open-ended and intimidating. **Good news:** interviewers ask a **very repeatable set

I recently appeared for a Google interview. In Round 1, I was asked two questions. Question 1: Given a CSV string containing a list of ordered products, find the top K most sold products from the data

Anyone have a site for AI proctor practice?

Ai Interview,Oa,System Design,Interview Prep 2026

Had one of these interviews for a mid level AT&T role recently. Terrible experience all around: * The only coding question was incredibly vague (something like "design a scheduler that accepts 5 r

Hi everyone, I’m currently working at Google as a Software Application Development (SAD) Apprentice, and I have about 1 year to prepare for SDE-1 roles at top product-based companies. I’ve started pla

Google interview need advice

Dsa,System Design,Behavioral,Googliness,Interview Outcome,Google 2026

Hi all, I have given google interviews for Application engineer role. In total there were 5 rounds. 2 DSA, system integration, googliness and System design. My take on rounds - 1st DSA average accordi

Google recruiter reached out - should I ask for some time?

Interview Prep,Dsa,System Design,Career,Google 2026

Hello, I was reached out by a Google recruiter for EU opportunities. I have not given a single interview in several years. I believe I can handle system design but LC/DSA scares me as I have not been

Just wrapped up a month-long sprint where I interviewed with around 40 companies. The market is definitely tough, but people are hiring if you can actually get past the resume screen. I wanted to dump

How would you design an AI + human review system for tender responses?

System Design,Ai,Ml,Rag,Knowledge Management,Human In The Loop 2026

Had an interview recently and one question has been stuck in my head, so I wanted to ask people here how they’d think about it. The scenario was basically this: A company wants to use AI to help answe

I'm currently preparing a bank of STAR stories for a behavioral interview round, I'd like to ask for a feedback on a story for "Tell me about a time you failed" \-- I once was tasked with implementing

disclaimer: lowkey this is just me yapping/ranting about my experience for this recruitment cycle cause looking back i realized that big tech interviews are really easy IF you do the proper preparatio

Got a 6-month Amazon SDE (AIML) internship — how do I maximize PPO chances?

Amazon,Internship,Ppo,System Design,Interview Prep 2026

Hi everyone, I recently received an offer for a **6-month SDE Intern role (AIML domain) at Amazon (Hyderabad)**, likely in DSP (Last Mile Tech), starting this July. I’m currently in my 3rd year, and t

How to be a CS major in 2026 (for incoming freshmen)

Career,General Experience,System Design,Ml 2026

Woohoo. You just got into some decent school, and want to work at FAANG once you graduate. Maybe you're in this field because you're a die-hard computer or programming nut. Or maybe you're in this fie

Got it. thanks.

Interview Experience,System Design,Career 2026

Are you the kind of person who likes to follow a reddit story? Who remembers previous posts? me neither. But I like the story that has an ending. [part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/comments/1

Prepping for Google L5 Onsite Interview (US)

Google Process,Onsite,L5,System Design,Dsa,Kubernetes,Golang,Infra 2026

Hey everyone, looking for some advice. I’ve been invited for an onsite interview at Google for an L5 Infra role (Kubernetes + Go). The recruiter mentioned there will be two coding rounds and one syste

I am currently preparing for system design interviews and have few questions for folks who have experienced it already. Does the interviewer provide most of the functional requirements or are we suppo

During a scheduled 60-minute System Design interview with Google, the session deviated significantly from the recruiter's explicit instructions to prepare for a deep dive into system architecture. Des

What to Expect in the Google System Design Round

The Google Software Engineer System Design round has a specific calibration purpose distinct from other rounds in the loop. Across 120+ verified reports on LeakCode for this exact round type, the consistent expectations: clear scoping of the problem before diving into a solution, explicit reasoning about complexity, structured handling of edge cases, and the ability to discuss trade-offs between two reasonable approaches.

Reports tagged with the System Design round at Google show recurring patterns in difficulty and topic distribution. The System Design round is typically 45-60 minutes; the interviewer is calibrated against a specific rubric. The discriminator between candidates who advance and candidates who do not is rarely the final correctness of the answer. It is the path: did you clarify, did you verbalize your approach, did you handle edge cases, and did you communicate throughout.

How To Prepare for This Specific Round

Filter the questions below to the most recent reports (past 6-12 months). Questions tagged for this exact round type from this exact company at this exact role level are the highest-signal data available. Older reports may reference questions that have since rotated out of the company's pool.

Practice 4-6 representative problems from this set under timed conditions. The goal is not memorization (companies rotate questions); the goal is to internalize the patterns the interviewer typically reaches for and the depth of follow-up to expect. Reports on LeakCode also tag the typical follow-up depth at this round type, which is the discriminating signal between hire and no-hire calibration.

System Design Round Timing and Format

The System Design round at Google typically runs 45-60 minutes. Use the first 2-3 minutes to clarify requirements; you should never start coding or designing without verifying the input/output format, constraints, and edge cases out loud. Use the next 5-7 minutes to verbalize your approach before writing any code. The middle 20-30 minutes are implementation. Reserve the final 10 minutes for testing with concrete examples and discussing optimization or trade-offs.

Time budget discipline is one of the most reliable senior-vs-junior discriminators in this round. Strong candidates verbalize where they are in their budget out loud ("I've used about 20 minutes, I have 15 minutes left for testing and one optimization"). This signals engineering maturity to the interviewer and creates positive feedback they can capture in writing.

Common Failure Modes in This Round

Reports tagged "no hire" at Google Software Engineer System Design commonly cite: coding silently without verbalizing approach, jumping to implementation before clarifying requirements, missing edge cases (empty input, single element, very large input), producing working code that the candidate cannot refactor when asked, and failing to test their solution with concrete examples before declaring done.

The single most predictive failure mode in 2025-2026 reports: not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers at all FAANG companies are explicitly trained to weight this dimension. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's notes.

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