A Google mock interview is the closest you can get to the real loop before it counts: 45 minutes, a plain shared doc, an interviewer who pushes follow-ups, and a judgement on whether you'd pass. This guide covers each round Google runs in 2026, practice questions in Google's style, and how to run mocks that actually change your result.
Book a Google mock interview → L4 or L5? Practise system design →
Why mocks matter so much at Google: the coding bar is high, but most rejections come from how candidates perform under pressure. They go quiet, skip edge cases or freeze on a follow-up. One engineer who got a Google L4 offer in India said they did more than 20 mock interviews before feeling confident in the format. That's a lot. It's also normal for people who pass.
The Google Interview Rounds Your Mock Should Copy
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Stage | Length | What happens
Recruiter call | 30 min | Background, level, timeline
Technical phone screen | 45 min | 1 coding problem + follow-ups
Onsite coding | 3–4 x 45 min | DSA problems in a shared doc
System design | 45 min | L4 option, standard at L5+
Googleyness & Leadership | 45 min | Behavioural and scenarios
Hiring committee | No interview | Reviews all feedback
Team match | Calls | Find a team, then the offer
[[/table]]
A few 2026 details worth knowing:
- At least one round may be in person. In 2025, Sundar Pichai said Google would bring back at least one in-person interview round, to make sure candidates have the fundamentals down. Run at least one mock on a whiteboard or paper so it doesn't throw you.
- Rounds can come in batches. One L4 candidate in May 2026 had two rounds scheduled first, with the other two booked only after feedback on those.
- The phone screen is sometimes skipped, for candidates who've interviewed at Google recently or who have a competing deadline.
- No autocomplete. Google interviews use a plain shared editor, so practise without your IDE's help.
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What Google Scores in Every Round
Google's own hiring pages list four things it looks for, and your mock interviewer should score you on all four:
- General cognitive ability. How you break down a problem you haven't seen before.
- Role-related knowledge. Data structures, algorithms and, at senior levels, system design.
- Leadership. Stepping up when it matters, including in a group or with no formal title.
- Googleyness. Comfort with ambiguity, collaboration and how you treat people.
Interviewers write detailed notes, and the hiring committee decides from those notes alone. So anything you think but don't say out loud doesn't exist for the committee. That's the single best reason to practise with a person: they tell you what they could and couldn't follow.
Google Mock Interview Questions to Practise
These are practice problems in the style Google candidates describe, each with the kind of follow-up a Google interviewer adds. They aren't leaked questions. Give yourself 45 minutes per question, including the follow-up.
- Meeting rooms. Given meeting start and end times, return the minimum number of rooms needed. Follow-up: return which meeting goes in which room, then handle meetings added one at a time.
- Grid with keys. Find the shortest path through a grid where some doors need keys you pick up along the way. Follow-up: what changes if there are 10 key types instead of 3? This tests BFS with extra state.
- Autocomplete. Build a structure that returns the top three most frequent words for a typed prefix. Follow-up: support updating word frequencies quickly. A trie with cached results at each node is the usual start.
- Bursting balloons. One L4 candidate reported getting LeetCode's Burst Balloons in an onsite, a hard interval-DP problem. Practise explaining why you choose the last balloon to burst, since that insight is what the interviewer waits for.
- Stream median. Return the running median of a stream of numbers. Follow-up: support deleting a number. Two heaps work for the base case, and deletion makes you rethink the structure.
- Googleyness and Leadership. "Why Google?" and questions about handling conflict with other teams come up often. Prepare two stories about disagreement and one about helping someone else succeed.
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How to Run a Google Mock Interview That Helps
A mock only helps if it feels like the real thing. Set it up this way:
- Use a plain shared doc or a basic editor, with no autocomplete and no running code until the end.
- Keep to 45 minutes, with about 5 minutes for introductions and 5 for your questions, as Google does.
- Ask your interviewer to stay mostly quiet and give hints only when you're stuck, the way Google interviewers do.
- Get written feedback on all four Google criteria, plus a straight answer: hire, lean hire or no hire.
- Do one in person on paper or a whiteboard, since Google may hold a round that way.
How many mocks you need depends on your starting point. A sensible plan is one mock a week in the first month of prep and two a week in the last two weeks. Pick a different interviewer each time, so you don't get used to one style.
Google Mock Interviews by Level
L3 (new grad, 0–2 years). Almost entirely coding plus Googleyness. Your mocks should be 80% DSA, timed and talked through.
L4 (2–5 years). Mostly coding, and some loops swap one coding round for system design. See our Google L4 interview experience for the full L4 loop and the questions candidates reported.
L5 and above. System design becomes a deciding round alongside coding and leadership. Read our Google senior software engineer interview experience for how the senior loop works.
Wondering what each level pays? Our Google salary in India guide breaks down base, stock and bonus from L3 to L7.
Every Google mock should end with a clear hire or no-hire, and the reason. Book a Google mock interview with a FAANG interviewer →
FAQs
What is a Google mock interview? A practice interview that copies Google's format: 45 minutes, one coding problem with follow-ups, a plain shared editor, and feedback against Google's hiring criteria.
How many Google mock interviews should I do? It varies, but plan for several. One L4 candidate who got an offer did more than 20. One a week early on and two a week near your onsite is a good rhythm.
Does Google still interview in person? Google said in 2025 it would bring back at least one in-person round for engineering roles. Ask your recruiter how your loop will run.
Is there system design in the Google L4 interview? Sometimes. Some L4 loops use three coding rounds plus Googleyness, others two coding rounds, a system design round and Googleyness.
What does Google look for in interviews? General cognitive ability, role-related knowledge, leadership and Googleyness, judged from your interviewers' written notes by a hiring committee.
Where can I do a Google mock interview? On Intervue you can book a 1:1 Google mock interview with an interviewer from a top tech company and get a written feedback report.
Book Your Google Mock Interview
You can know every pattern and still lose a Google round to silence, a missed edge case or a rushed follow-up. A Google mock interview with a FAANG interviewer on Intervue puts you in the real format, scores you the way Google does, and shows exactly what to fix before your loop.
Book your Google mock interview →
Keep going with our Google L4 interview experience, the Google senior software engineer interview and our list of the best mock interview platforms.
