Google 2026 New Grad OA: Moving Tokens, Common Digits, and Interface Pitfalls

Role: Software Engineer, New Grad
Result: OA completed
Report time: November 2025
Application: Referral

The candidate applied with a referral on the second day the role was open, received the OA on November 12, and completed it on November 15.

Question 1: collect coins with three-step moves

A board string contains T, C, and .. Every token moves exactly three positions to the right, cannot land on another token, and collects a coin when landing on it. Return the maximum coins.

Practice: Maximum Coins With Moving Tokens

Question 2: largest common-digit group

Given integers from 10 through 99, select the largest group whose members all contain at least one common digit.

Practice: Maximum Elements With a Common Digit

OA environment

The candidate found the interface unfriendly:

• Few supplied test cases
• Compile errors did not identify the exact line
• Typing an opening brace did not automatically insert the closing brace

They spent substantial time creating their own edge-case tests and recommended that later candidates do the same.