Google 2026 New Grad R1: Restaurant Waitlist Design and BQ

Role: Software Engineer, New Grad
Result: Passed R1
Report time: November 2025
Application: Applied online

Coding: restaurant waitlist

Design a restaurant waitlist that can add a party, remove a party, and serve a suitable party when a table becomes available.

The candidate emphasized that the interviewer cared about continuous communication. Every assumption had to be stated clearly, followed by the implementation that matched that assumption.

In the comments, the candidate confirmed that this was not the same problem as LeetCode 1845 and felt that the interviewer had designed it specifically for the interview.

Practice: Restaurant Waitlist

Behavioral interview

Questions included:

• How the candidate handled conflict with a coworker
• What they did when another person's work affected their own
• A time their opinion of a coworker changed from negative to positive
• What they had learned from a previous manager
• The project they were most proud of