Behavioral

Practiced/helped from Rob 

Focus on Leadership
- Make decisions when you don’t have all the facts
  - Operate with ambiguity
  - Tell me about a time you worked against a tight deadline and didn’t have enough time to consider all your options before making a decision?
    - STAR Method
      - Situation: Answer what is the situation
      - Task: What was your task?
      - Action: What did you actually do?
      - Result: What was outcome, why did it matter (impact), what lessons learn?
    - EX: move quickly cause no time, result: make sure the analysis was conservative so but it doesn’t make too much detail, so the program can move forward and not delay in schedule
      - Learn: learned what stakeholders assumptions are valid

Mistakes 1. Don’t generalize 2. Don’t identify your own contributions, don’t focus/say “we”

Guidelines for Speed (Bias for Action)

Move quickly on project when info is lacking
Know when to consult with others and not consult with others
Willingness to make small progress instead of “analysis paralysis”
Carefully considering what gets done right away (priority of project/dev time)

Guidelines for Ownership

Tell me about a time you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility.
- Wants to show that you do more than your assignment
- You take ownership of the project
- Actively making improvements outside area of responsibility
- Owning mistakes/decisions
- Take accountability of dependencies of your work
- See things through to completion
  - Lam Research -> Arm analysis

Write 10 examples - with STAR - Reference notes when you are answering

Amazon: - 5 people, 2 behavior each - -

topic: “Insist on highest standards” - Builds systems that are scalable and meet customer needs - Communicates and gets agreement on expected standards - Sets and commits to goals that are challenging yet realistic - Reviews work extensively and offers high quality feedback - Communicates and gets agreement on expected standards - Continually tries to improve processes

Topic: “earns trust” - build positive working relationships by treating others and their ideas with respect - Seeks out and accepts feedback for self or team - Takes responsibility for shortfalls - Openly acknowledges mistakes - Provides feedback to others in a respectful manner - Represents data and information entirely transparently - Honors commitments and makes good on promises - Example Question: tell me about a time you didn’t meet a commitment -

topic: Disagree and commit - Disagrees with peers and supervisors using data to thoughtfully explain counter-arguments - Stands up for what they believe is in the best interest of the company and customer - Advocates clearly passionately for beliefs - Openly supports and commits to decisions that have been made, even if not originally in agreement 

Topic: Learn and be curious - Seeks opportunities to explore new possibilities and learn new skills - Shows curiosity about how things work - Accepts new and challenging situations, despite the risk of failure - Willing to pursue knowledge that does not have an immediate gain or deliverable

Google Interview Prep 2

Googliness: Don’t be an asshole

STAR  S - Situation you were in T - Tasks assigned A - Actions you took R - Results of Actions (impact/lesssons)

They will probe deeper on things like "what would you do differently" or "how did that person respond" or "what specifically was your contribution versus the team's."

https://www.reddit.com/r/datacenter/comments/1tpnkpl/curated_list_of_mostasked_googlyness_google/

Prep 4-5 STAR stories

Tell me a responsibility you took outside your assignment.
- Lam Research Robot Arm realignment
- Alignment was off for position of robot due to new frame of reference
- I was only assigned to crunch the numbers and the team discussed possible solutions
- Had to work ahead and find alternative reasons for problem
Tell me a time when you disagreed with a teammate
- A group meeting with older coworker was set on the repeated center position attempt robot path
  - I said we need an alternate solution he wouldn’t listen
  - I said take offline
  - I showed robot path being in hexagonal optimal he agreed
  - Presented in next meeting
Tell me a time helping someone outside your project
- New hires after project
  - Delayed vacation in order to train new hires on project codebase
Making a decision with insufficent info
- New release of android app with new UI
- Have to release app without upper management review due to it being overhead
- Create multiple UI’s in order to be able to switch quickly
Recovering from mistake
- We collected data from time of flight sensors to determine accuracy of robot position
- The units were off by a factor of 10 and so when we deployed into testing environment our tolerances were not accurate
- Swapped the time of flight sensor by testing alternative sensors in accuracy to get position

1.⁠ ⁠What’s one challenging task you’ve worked upon? Why was it a difficult tech problem? 2.⁠ ⁠⁠Did you ever get negative feedback? How did you handle it? 3.⁠ ⁠⁠Did you ever have conflict with a teammate? How did you resolve it? 4.⁠ ⁠⁠How did you share responsibility within a team? 5.⁠ ⁠⁠What were some of the long term (>3 month) projects you worked upon? Were you able to complete them? What was your role? 6.⁠ ⁠⁠Did you ever lead a team or guide teammates? 7.⁠ ⁠⁠Tell me about a situation when you showed bias for action to improve tech or remove bottlenecks. 8.⁠ ⁠⁠Tell me about a time in the past where you exceeded expectations. 9.⁠ ⁠⁠What was the team size? How did you approach a new problem? How did you align team and managers with your approach?

Tell me about a project you are proud of
Tell me when you had to change somebody's opinion
- offline argument with older engineer
- lam realignment
tell me when you were wrong
how did you help a peer struggling with work?
how did u push forward with a project when u didn't have all the info?
Comfort with ambiguity
User focus (can u share a time u advocated 4 users even when it was hard?)
Collaboration (resolving conflicts etc)
Humility + learning mindset
Innovation (taking risks, having bold ideas)
if you were working as a team and only memeber of the team got credit for it, how will you handle it
If someone/yourself in your team go yelled at how ill you handle
If you had a deadline but some last min changes came etc
taking initiative beyond your role, helping a teammate.

Leadership Questions

What was the hardest scenario you had to deal with?
What was the most innovative thing you ever done?
Tell me about a time you failed miserable and didn’t suceed?
Tell me your working style?
Your project is running behind schedule, you are overworked, what do you do?
How do you handle peer conflict?

—

collecting the different questions candidates have reported using Gotham Loop and running them on Mock Platforms like Apex interviewer

https://www.tryexponent.com/practice  Google technical question: https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/6887031/google-virtual-interview-determine-preci-gc2m/

General google technical questions: https://prachub.com/companies/google?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=andy

Google Behavioral Prep 3

Explore your past experiences and how you've demonstrated our core values, leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving in real-time situations.

General behavioral

A time your manager set reasonable demands → follow-up: unreasonable demands
- My manager spent a month with the team determining the scope of the new robot deliverables, allowing for plenty of time in development of the project
- When I initially came, the project deadline was too tight and the robot was not meeting reliability/repeatibility constraints
  - Increased other members of the team to join in a evening shift to accomplish more data gathering
One of the biggest accomplishments of your career
- Developed a software feature for an android app for measuring micron precision of semiconductor wear
A time you faced a challenging situation at work
- The bluetooth feature had no support, the suppliers of the device were sending unhelpful responses
  - No support for android devices in SDK
- Looked for local bluetooth apps to see if I can develop connectivity
  - decoded bluetooth string and added it to app
How you manage multiple priorities; dynamic vs repetitive environments
- Find out what is most important for team/company
  - Many projects that aren’t super interesting are highest priority for company
- Repetition is common, I generally automate/quickify the repetition as much as a I can
  - If I can compartmentalize individual pieces to do all at once in assembly line fashion
  - Or create automation script like my gamenight/bbq events
A time you set a goal and how you approached it
- Working on this software project for some client at the moment
- Broke down the project into 3 major parts and gave cost per part
A leadership style you liked from a past manager and how it shaped you
- High trust in my skills, so higher independence
  - allow me to set deadlines due to idea of length of time for project
A time you got critical feedback — how you responded and improved
- I got a review that I was too causal in my messages via teams
  - I took it well as I felt like my appreciation of a familiar attitude is not seen universally
  - And went about only giving a more friendly/familiar gesture once I know the person rather than immediately
A disagreement with a colleague/manager — how you resolved it
- Upper employee example for 8 paths
How you prioritize multiple tasks/projects, with an example
- Android vs robot development
  - Focus on robot development and offshore handled android development
A critical project under a tight deadline — how you delivered
- Dual shifts bringing in team members from team to run extra testing without complete knowledge of project
How you handle work that keeps getting de-prioritized and changed
- I enjoy work for two aspects, one for learning and the other for creating something better for society
- I understand work deliverables don’t work out and has a lot of factors
- I generally can rationalize the concept of learning being rewarding enough

Project & ambiguity

A time you faced ambiguity in project requirements
- Same UI example as above
- Unsure which UI was satisfiable by customer or upper management and needed to deliver product
A time you had to get people aligned on a decision
- Same as older employee example
- Robot position XYZ better than repeatedly in single place
- Offline discussion + Later presented and tested on robot
Handling people who disagree with a majority (non-work) decision
- Offline example
A time you dealt with last-minute project changes
- We were developing a time of flight sensor integration for the robot control
  - decided to change to solenoid piston that determines position if depressed instead
Prioritizing under multiple critical deadlines
- Android - robot example

Technical / role-related

You're on Google Photos; your feature detects smiling faces. How do you identify false positives and what do you do?
- Build a ground truth dataset smiling/nonsmiling + edge cases
- Adjust threshold based on dataset or provide more data
- test new
A time you worked on multiple projects simultaneously
- Android - robot example
A challenging technical problem you solved recently and the result
- PID tuning for time of flight sensor
- Kept oscillating so added a PID algorithm to tune
How you ensure code quality (yours and the team's), with an example
- Code syntax defined online in github per language
- Now you can use AI tools like autopep8 to format
  - Or AI to check code quality
A significant production bug — how you handled it
A time you misunderstood requirements — how you fixed it and what you learned
A time you had to learn a new tech/tool quickly

Mentoring & leadership

A time you advocated for yourself or a teammate
- A new hire was pitching a new idea changing the computer vision camera system
- Pitched to team to invest in the camera as the cost to implement might be tight but buying it is very affordable
- Develop when time comes
Helping an underperforming team member improve
- Pranav in India didn’t know how to work on the project that I was co-assigned with him
How you mentor juniors, with a successful example
- We can do peer coding, might be very scary at first
  - generally show them something I have never touched and see how I struggle rather than an example of im good at
  - allow them to work on it with me to get comfortable
Challenges you've faced mentoring juniors
- Difficulty in them taking initiative
  - if you show them importance of it and how to tackle new problems
  - they become comfortable with you so it becomes more ease to pitch new ideas
What you'd do if a junior was underperforming and delaying tasks
- Pranav example
  - See if there are rodeblocks in difficulty of the work

Team dynamics & conflict

A time you worked with someone outside your team
- I worked with
A conflict with a colleague and how you resolved it
- Older coworker example
What you'd do if your team wasn't bonding → follow-up: as team lead?
- there are smaller methods of bonding like crafting or something outside of pure code where there is less ego involved
- during meetings you can promote someone’s ideas that keeps getting shut down by someone else
  - it is harder to keep shutting down someone that other ppl agree with and creates more respect for them
A time you proposed an idea the team disagreed with
- robot motion
Cross-team collaboration experience
Handling a colleague who was difficult to work with

Goals & manager expectations

Your idea of a perfect manager — would you be that manager?
- High trust in my work
- Takes my opinions/ideas seriously
- Values the team and the health of each person as a person
A time you worked outside your role definition
- Robot misalignment example
Something valuable you learned from a colleague
- Intern example
  - putting sensitive data online
A time your work was deprioritized mid-project
- android - robot example
- or not shipping robot to china
What excites you / areas you want to explore
- Learning anything new

Deadlines & process improvement

What you'd do if you were going to miss a deadline
- Try to identify and address it early
- Speak to team/manager/stakeholders early
(As a PM) approvals are in, a friend suggests a helpful change — what do you do?
- Depends on how much impact in provides
A process or system you improved and its impact
- I implemented the Jira ticketing system and daily standup
- Also implemented a daily testing report for team
How you'd approach a strict-deadline project
- Ensure we have the system mapped out in advance
Your most challenging project
- robot alignment issue was challenging

Miscellaneous / life

A time you solved a customer pain point
- manual implement content and have checking done with another member
- created vba scripts to automatically check the content on spelling/grammer/character etc
Biggest hurdle in life — why it mattered, how it affected you
- starting job unsure where i can apply my skills
Why you're leaving your current orgs
- bigger impact than local impact feels more appropriate
Unreasonable tasks from a manager — how you handled them
- see if we can break them up + get support
Last-minute code changes — how you felt about them
- see if can implement in next release
How you stay current with industry trends, with an example
- stay on hackernews
If you were asked to work on an entirely new tech stack, with a new team, how would you approach it?
Follow up on the above: Let's say you are unable to find any relevant resources and documentation to help you ramp up, what do you do? (This was asked since in the above question I had said that I will refer to any documentation available, along with a few other action items)
How do you ensure accessibility in the work you do?
If you identified that a junior team member requires additional training how do you help them?
How do you handle different perspectives around you and how do you make sure that you are being inclusive of everyone's perspectives? Other than these, I was asked the following question from your list: How do you ensure the quality of your code and that of your team? Can you provide an example where your focus on quality made a difference?
Have you encountered unreasonable tasks from your manager? How did you handle them?
Describe a situation where you had a disagreement with a colleague or manager. How did you resolve the conflict, and what was the outcome?
Tell me about a time when you received critical feedback from your manager. How did you respond, and what actions did you take to improve?
How do you mentor junior team members? Can you share a successful mentoring experience?
Tell me about a time when your work was deprioritized mid-way through a project. How did you handle the situation? Follow-up: How would your approach change if you were the team lead?
Describe a time when you had to make last-minute changes to your code. How did you feel about it?

Tell me about a time a new joinee joined your team Tell me about the risk you took to achieve the goal Tell me about a moment in your life when you went above and beyond Tell me about the area you have been improving for the past one year How did you manage your team through different projects Tell me about a time you advocated for yourself or someone on your team. Describe a situation where you helped an underperforming team member improve.

1️⃣ What would your ideal team look like? 2️⃣ If you were the manager, how would you ensure internal/external factors don’t affect the team’s ideal setup? 3️⃣ As a manager building a team of 10, how many SDE1/SDE2/SDE3 would you hire—and why? 4️⃣ Talk about a time when you missed a personal goal. 5️⃣ What would you do differently to ensure such goals are met next time? 6️⃣ Describe an incident that changed your perception of someone (in school or at work). 7️⃣ Share an initiative you took for a customer that made an impact. 8️⃣ If asked to organize a non-work team event , what would be your considerations in planning ( share about inclusivity here )

I was asked, If you are planning a group out of a team and some of the members cancelled at the last moment, what would you do??

How to handle the question if I have not faced a situation that the interviewer has asked me to describe? Do I answer, "I have yet to face something like this, but if I am in this situation I will .........." or just "incorporate in into an imaginary situation and explain?

describe a time when you sacrificed your own team to benefit another team