Google PhD New Grad Onsite: Two OOD Rounds and an Additional Interview

Role: Software Engineer, PhD New Grad
Result: Additional interview requested after the onsite
Report time: February 2026

The onsite contained two object-oriented-design questions.

OOD round 1: restaurant waitlist

The candidate used a HashMap and queue to implement a restaurant waitlist, completed follow-ups, and analyzed complexity.

Practice: Restaurant Waitlist

OOD round 2: heap-based ad retrieval

The second task used a heap to implement a method described only as get_ads. The candidate completed follow-ups and complexity analysis.

The source does not preserve ad fields, ranking rules, eligibility or filtering behavior, requested output, or the follow-up requirements, so no exact practice question is linked.

Additional round

Google requested another interview after the onsite. The candidate was told by both email and phone, and the additional round did not need to be onsite.

Commenters speculated that two similar OOD rounds did not provide enough independent hiring signal or that one interview had been rated weak. The candidate did not receive a confirmed explanation, so those reasons remain speculation.