Google New Grad R1: Determinable Player Rankings and Behavioral Interview

Role: Software Engineer, New Grad
Result: Final outcome not disclosed
Report time: April 2026

R1 contained one technical interview and one behavioral interview, held back to back.

Coding: determine uniquely known rankings

There are n players with unique true ranks from 1 through n. A higher-ranked player always defeats a lower-ranked player, but the ranks are initially unknown.

Given m results of the form a beat b, find every player whose exact rank can be uniquely determined and return that rank.

The candidate built a directed graph. For every player, they counted:

• Players reachable in the original graph, who are weaker
• Players reachable in the reversed graph, who are stronger

A player's rank is uniquely determined when weaker + stronger = n - 1. The candidate reached this criterion after an interviewer hint.

Practice: Determine Player Rankings

Behavioral interview

Topics included:

• Conflict
• A challenging situation
• The candidate's most successful experience
• A tight deadline
• Going beyond expectations
• Responding when a plan changes

A commenter disputed an example, but the candidate did not provide an additional example or correction. The graph criterion above is the complete rule the candidate reported.