Big Tech

111 questions across 44 core, 47 common, 20 occasional

Core

Common

Occasional

111

Total

Core Questions

Essential fundamentals every candidate should know

CoreEASYAsking QuestionsBEHAVIORAL

Do you have any questions for me?

CoreEASYPersonal PitchBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about yourself.

CoreEASYCompany ResearchBEHAVIORAL

Why Google?

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method (Conflict/Collaboration)BEHAVIORAL

Describe a time you disagreed with a teammate about a technical decision.

CoreEASYIterative Pointer ManipulationTECHNICAL

Reverse a linked list.

CoreMEDIUMSystem DesignTECHNICAL

Design a URL shortener like bit.ly.

CoreEASYCommunication SkillsBEHAVIORAL

How would you explain an API to a non-technical person?

CoreMEDIUMHeap / QuickselectTECHNICAL

Find the k-th largest element in an unsorted array.

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method (Technical)BEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a technically challenging project.

CoreEASYSTAR Method (Learning)BEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to learn a new technology quickly.

CoreMEDIUMMetric Investigation FrameworkTECHNICAL

You notice a 10% drop in daily active users for your product. How do you investigate?

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method (Technical)BEHAVIORAL

Describe your most technically challenging project.

CoreMEDIUMProduct Improvement FrameworkTECHNICAL

How would you improve Instagram Reels engagement?

CoreMEDIUMHashMap + Doubly Linked ListTECHNICAL

Implement an LRU (Least Recently Used) cache.

CoreHARDSystem Design - URL ShortenerTECHNICAL

Design a URL shortening service like bit.ly.

CoreMEDIUMProduct Roadmap PrioritizationTECHNICAL

You are the PM for Google Maps. How would you decide what to build next?

CoreEASYCompany MotivationBEHAVIORAL

Why Google over other tech companies?

CoreHARDSystem Design - NotificationsTECHNICAL

Design a notification system for a large-scale application.

CoreEASYSTAR Method - Data-Driven Decision MakingBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to make a decision without enough data.

CoreEASYSTAR Method - Constructive DisagreementBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager.

CoreHARDSystem Design - News FeedTECHNICAL

Design a news feed system like Facebook or Twitter.

CoreMEDIUMFeature PrioritizationTECHNICAL

How would you prioritize features for a product with limited engineering resources?

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - Cross-Functional InfluenceBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to influence people without authority.

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - Technical DepthBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about the most technically challenging project you have worked on.

CoreEASYCompany Research + Personal FitCULTURE FIT

Why do you want to work at this company?

CoreMEDIUMDatabase SelectionTECHNICAL

What are the trade-offs of using a SQL vs NoSQL database?

CoreMEDIUMScaling StrategiesTECHNICAL

What is the difference between horizontal and vertical scaling? When would you use each?

CoreMEDIUMPerformance OptimizationTECHNICAL

How would you reduce latency in a web application?

CoreHARDML Ranking SystemTECHNICAL

Design Facebook News Feed ranking algorithm.

CoreHARDSTAR Method - ImpactBEHAVIORAL

Describe a time you had to make a difficult trade-off decision (Focus on Impact).

CoreEASYMeta Core ValuesBEHAVIORAL

Explain Meta's company values and how you embody them.

CoreEASYProduct SenseBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a product you love and what you would change about it.

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - Move FastBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you moved fast and broke things (Move Fast).

CoreEASYCompany MotivationBEHAVIORAL

Why Meta over Google or Amazon?

CoreEASYSTAR Method - Customer ObsessionBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer (Customer Obsession).

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - Bias for ActionBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information (Bias for Action).

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - Dive DeepBEHAVIORAL

Describe a time you had to dive deep to solve a problem (Dive Deep).

CoreMEDIUMAmazon Leadership PrinciplesBEHAVIORAL

Explain Amazon's leadership principles and give examples.

CoreHARDSTAR Method - FailureBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you failed (Earn Trust / Learn and Be Curious).

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - Deliver ResultsBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you delivered results under tough circumstances (Deliver Results).

CoreEASYCompany MotivationBEHAVIORAL

Why Amazon over Google or Microsoft?

CoreHARDSTAR Method - Disagree and CommitBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you disagreed and committed (Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit).

CoreMEDIUMSTAR Method - AchievementBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about your most significant accomplishment (Deliver Results).

CoreEASYCompany MotivationBEHAVIORAL

Why Apple over other tech companies?

Common Questions

Frequently asked in interviews

CommonHARDFull Stack KnowledgeTECHNICAL

What happens when you type google.com into a browser?

CommonMEDIUMProduct ThinkingBEHAVIORAL

What is your favorite Google product and how would you improve it?

CommonHARDSystem Design - CachingTECHNICAL

Design a distributed cache system.

CommonHARDSTAR Method (Conflict)BEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager or team lead.

CommonHARDSystem Design - Experimentation PlatformTECHNICAL

How would you design an A/B testing platform?

CommonMEDIUMProduct Metrics FrameworkTECHNICAL

How would you measure the success of YouTube Shorts?

CommonMEDIUMSTAR Method (Problem-Solving)BEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to debug a difficult issue.

CommonMEDIUMSystem Design - Rate LimitingTECHNICAL

Design a rate limiter for an API.

CommonMEDIUMSTAR Method - Product Failure and LearningBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you shipped a product that failed. What did you learn?

CommonHARDDistributed Systems - CAP TheoremTECHNICAL

Explain the CAP theorem and its implications for system design.

CommonHARDSystem Design - MessagingTECHNICAL

Design a real-time chat application like WhatsApp or Slack.

CommonHARDSystem Design - Real-Time MatchingTECHNICAL

Design a ride-sharing matching system like Uber.

CommonHARDSystem Design - AutocompleteTECHNICAL

Design a search autocomplete system.

CommonMEDIUMProduct Strategy - Feature DecisionTECHNICAL

Should Spotify add a social networking feature? How would you decide?

CommonMEDIUMOKR FrameworkTECHNICAL

What is your approach to setting OKRs for a product team?

CommonMEDIUMBuild vs Buy Decision FrameworkTECHNICAL

How would you decide whether to build a feature in-house or use a third-party service?

CommonMEDIUMProduct Improvement - Conversion OptimizationTECHNICAL

How would you improve the checkout experience for an e-commerce site?

CommonMEDIUMTechnical Debt ManagementBEHAVIORAL

How do you handle technical debt in a fast-moving team?

CommonMEDIUMPrivacy by DesignTECHNICAL

How do you think about data privacy in product design?

CommonMEDIUMProduct Vision and PassionCULTURE FIT

If you could build any product, what would you build and why?

CommonMEDIUMArchitecture PatternsTECHNICAL

Explain microservices vs monolithic architecture. When would you choose each?

CommonEASYSTAR Method - Process ImprovementBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you improved a process or system.

CommonHARDSystem Design - RecommendationsTECHNICAL

Design a content recommendation system for a streaming platform.

CommonMEDIUMSTAR Method - Scope ManagementBEHAVIORAL

Describe a time you had to ship a product with tight deadlines. How did you decide what to cut?

CommonMEDIUMSTAR Method - Stakeholder ManagementBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to say no to a stakeholder.

CommonEASYSTAR Method - MentorshipBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you mentored or helped develop a teammate.

CommonMEDIUMProduct Improvement - OnboardingTECHNICAL

How would you improve the onboarding experience for a B2B SaaS product?

CommonMEDIUMProduct Improvement - AccessibilityBEHAVIORAL

How would you improve Google Maps for users with disabilities?

CommonEASYNetworking FundamentalsTECHNICAL

Explain the difference between TCP and UDP. When would you use each?

CommonMEDIUMDistributed Systems - Consistency ModelsTECHNICAL

Explain eventual consistency and when it is acceptable.

CommonHARDSystem Design - Distributed SystemsTECHNICAL

Design a system for delivering push notifications to millions of users.

CommonHARDSystem Design - Data PipelineTECHNICAL

Design a system for processing and analyzing large-scale log data in real time.

CommonMEDIUMProduct Strategy - ConversionBEHAVIORAL

You are the PM for Spotify. How would you increase subscriber conversion from free to premium?

CommonMEDIUMProduct Decision MakingBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about a time you had to make a product trade-off between user experience and revenue.

CommonMEDIUMSystem Design - SecurityTECHNICAL

How would you design a permission and access control system for a large SaaS application?

CommonHARDProduct ThinkingBEHAVIORAL

How would you improve Facebook/Instagram? (Product Sense)

CommonMEDIUMML Product MetricsBEHAVIORAL

How would you measure the impact of a new machine learning model deployed in production?

CommonHARDSystem Design - StorageTECHNICAL

How would you design a system to handle file uploads at scale (like Google Drive)?

CommonHARDSystem Design - Ephemeral ContentTECHNICAL

Design Instagram story features (upload, view, 24hr expiry).

CommonMEDIUMDatabase ScalingTECHNICAL

What is database sharding and when would you implement it?

CommonEASYSystem Design - InfrastructureTECHNICAL

Explain how a load balancer works and describe the main algorithms used.

CommonMEDIUMGraph Algorithms - DFSTECHNICAL

Implement a function to detect cycles in a directed graph.

CommonHARDSTAR Method - AmbiguityBEHAVIORAL

Tell me about the most ambiguous project you worked on (Be Bold).

CommonHARDAnomaly Detection SystemTECHNICAL

How would you detect fraud in Amazon transactions?

CommonMEDIUMSystem Design - Rate LimitingTECHNICAL

Design a rate limiter.

CommonHARDMachine Learning System DesignTECHNICAL

Design Amazon's recommendation system.

CommonHARDSystem Design - MessagingTECHNICAL

Design the iMessage system.

Occasional Questions

Asked for specific roles or levels

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - Distributed StorageTECHNICAL

How would you design Google Drive's file storage system?

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - Fraud DetectionTECHNICAL

How would you detect and prevent fraud on a payment platform?

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - Task SchedulingTECHNICAL

How would you design a distributed task scheduler?

OccasionalMEDIUMProduct Improvement - Local SearchTECHNICAL

How would you improve Google Search for local businesses?

OccasionalMEDIUMInternational Product LaunchTECHNICAL

How would you approach launching a product in a new international market?

OccasionalHARDAPI Design PrinciplesTECHNICAL

How would you design an API for a third-party developer platform?

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - Account SecurityTECHNICAL

How would you design a system to detect if a user account has been compromised?

OccasionalMEDIUMSystem Design - Feature FlagsTECHNICAL

How would you design a feature flag system?

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - Inventory ManagementTECHNICAL

Design a system for managing inventory across multiple warehouses.

OccasionalEASYEngineering Culture - DocumentationCULTURE FIT

What is your approach to writing good technical documentation?

OccasionalMEDIUMFeature Deprecation DecisionTECHNICAL

How would you evaluate whether to sunset a product feature?

OccasionalHARDML System DesignTECHNICAL

How would you design a system to detect fake reviews on an e-commerce platform?

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - Collaborative EditingTECHNICAL

Design a system for real-time collaborative document editing like Google Docs.

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - PaymentsTECHNICAL

How would you design a payment processing system?

OccasionalHARDSystem Design - NetworkingTECHNICAL

Design a URL routing system for a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

OccasionalMEDIUMCloud ArchitectureTECHNICAL

How would you reduce the cold start time of a serverless function?

OccasionalHARDGeospatial System DesignTECHNICAL

Design a proximity service like "Find Friends Nearby" on Facebook.

OccasionalMEDIUMProduct Strategy - InternationalBEHAVIORAL

How would you approach building a product for an emerging market like India or Southeast Asia?

OccasionalHARDVideo Streaming SystemTECHNICAL

Design Amazon Prime Video streaming service.

OccasionalHARDML System - Speech RecognitionTECHNICAL