An 8-week program targeting the Google L5 hiring bar.
Files
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
01-plan-8-weeks.md |
The week-by-week schedule. Start here. |
02-coding-checklist.md |
DSA topic checklist with Google-weighted problem sets. |
03-system-design-curriculum.md |
Building blocks + 12 design problems + a repeatable framework. |
06-system-design-reference.md |
The depth behind the curriculum: every building block with its tradeoffs, plus a skeleton for each of the 12 problems. |
04-behavioral-story-bank.md |
STAR stories mapped to Googleyness & Leadership themes. |
05-practice-log.md |
Daily log. The single most useful file — fill it in every session. |
weeks/week-NN.md |
Day-by-day problem list for that week, with named problems and exit criteria. |
SITE.md |
How to run the companion website in site/, and how progress is stored. |
The website
site/ renders everything above as a static site with browser-local progress
tracking — tickable checklists, editable practice logs, and a dashboard that
measures your logged entries against the Week 7 targets.
cd site && npm install && npm run devThe markdown files here stay the single source of truth; the site reads them in
place. See SITE.md for building, deploying, how progress is stored,
and how to add weeks/week-02.md so new weeks appear automatically.
The loop you are preparing for
- Recruiter screen — resume walkthrough, level calibration, logistics.
- Technical phone screen — 45 min, 1–2 coding problems in a shared doc.
- Onsite (virtual), 4–5 rounds:
- 2–3 × Coding (45 min each)
- 1 × System Design (45 min) — a real gate at L5, not a formality
- 1 × Googleyness & Leadership (behavioral, 45 min)
- Hiring Committee — reviews written feedback, not the interviewers’ votes alone.
- Team match — you can pass the loop and still wait for a team.
The four rubric attributes
Every interviewer scores against these. Write your prep around them, not around problem counts.
- GCA (General Cognitive Ability) — how you decompose an unfamiliar problem. Assessed in every round. This is why thinking out loud is not optional.
- RRK (Role-Related Knowledge) — coding fluency, system design depth, domain expertise.
- Leadership — emergent leadership: driving ambiguity, influencing without authority, raising the bar.
- Googleyness — collaboration, comfort with ambiguity, bias to action, intellectual humility.
What “L5” changes vs L4
- Coding must be clean and correct on the first pass, with complexity stated unprompted and edge cases handled before being asked.
- System design is weighted heavily — you are expected to drive the whole session, not answer questions.
- Behavioral answers must show scope beyond your own tasks: cross-team impact, mentoring, technical direction.