Big tech · Mountain View, California

Google.

Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Drive, Photos and Google Cloud, all serving billions of users.

its questions lean on

caching
storage at scale
indexing
rate limiting and abuse prevention
stream processing

The rounds, as candidates describe them

CodingThree coding rounds of about 45 minutes, solved in a shared doc.source ↗
System designOne system design round at L5 and above.source ↗
Googleyness and leadershipOne behavioural round.source ↗

Reported by candidates

From public interview write-ups; each links its source.

Design a Distributed CacheSystem design
IP-11 · Design a Distributed Cache →W04 · DAY 01 · Caching Patterns →W01 · DAY 04 · Hot Keys and Skew →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 Bangalore, selected (2025) ↗
Design an Image Hosting ServiceSystem design
SQ-08 · AWS S3 →W04 · DAY 05 · Multi-Tier Caching →SQ-21 · Instagram Feed and Stories →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 Bangalore, offer (2024) ↗LeetCode Discuss · Google Staff SDE Hyderabad, "Design Google Photos" (2024) ↗
Design a Rate LimiterSystem design
IP-02 · Design a Rate Limiter →W01 · DAY 03 · Rate Limiting at Scale →W09 · DAY 05 · Security Architecture →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google India L5 results, rate limiter with DDoS prevention (2024) ↗LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 Bay Area, block fraudulent requests to a social network (2022) ↗
Design a Logging SystemSystem design
W08 · DAY 01 · Event Ingestion at Scale →W10 · DAY 02 · Observability →W03 · DAY 01 · Queue vs Stream →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 Mountain View, log aggregator (2020) ↗
Design a News Summary App (Inshorts)System design
IP-07 · Design a News Feed →IP-05 · Design a Web Crawler →W07 · DAY 02 · Indexing Pipeline →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 onsite Bangalore (2026) ↗
Design a Real-Time Trending Topics ServiceSystem design
W08 · DAY 02 · Streaming vs Batch Processing →SQ-10 · Twitter/X →IP-16 · Design an Ad Click Aggregation System →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google Staff SDE Hyderabad, trends from real-time tweets (2024) ↗
Design a Service That Indexes a Social Network's FeedSystem design
W07 · DAY 02 · Indexing Pipeline →W07 · DAY 01 · Search Fundamentals & Architecture →SQ-10 · Twitter/X →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 India, offer (2024) ↗
Design a Logger Rate LimiterLow-level design
LLD-03 · Design a Rate Limiter →LLD-08 · Design a Logging Framework (Pub-Sub) →reported in:LeetCode Discuss · Google L5 onsite Bangalore (2026) ↗LeetCode Discuss · Google L6 (2021) ↗

Likely, from what they build

Our pick, not a report: questions that fit Google's products.

Design a Search EngineSystem design
SQ-05 · Google Search →W07 · DAY 03 · Query Processing & Relevance →IP-05 · Design a Web Crawler →
Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete)System design
IP-09 · Design Typeahead Search (Autocomplete) →W07 · DAY 04 · Advanced Search Features →
Design a Video Streaming ServiceSystem design
SQ-19 · YouTube Video Platform →SQ-06 · Netflix Streaming →
Design a Collaborative EditorSystem design
SQ-20 · Google Docs Collaboration →W05 · DAY 04 · Conflict Resolution →
Design a File Sync ServiceSystem design
IP-10 · Design a File Sync Service (Dropbox / Google Drive) →SQ-08 · AWS S3 →
Design a Proximity ServiceSystem design
IP-13 · Design a Proximity Service →W01 · DAY 01 · Partitioning Deep-Dive →

Study path

Every lesson the questions above point to, once, in order.

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