iOS growth engineering on Google Photos onboarding

Interview prep for the Software Engineer, Mobile (iOS) role on Google Photos' Onboarding iOS Growth team in Sydney. The team runs experiments on first-run onboarding to lift new-user growth metrics, so expect focus on iOS app development, Swift/SwiftUI, and shipping measurable product features rather than pure algorithms.

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Likely format

Google SWE loop typically includes a recruiter screen, 1-2 coding phone screens, then an onsite/virtual onsite with coding, Googleyness/behavioral, and role-related (mobile/systems) rounds.

What this interview tests

iOS app development with Swift/SwiftUI or Objective-C
Data structures and algorithms applied to mobile/app problems
Debugging, triaging, and resolving issues in an existing codebase
Designing and shipping a new product feature end to end
Cross-functional collaboration (Android counterparts, PM, growth experiments)
Architectural improvements to existing mobile features

Common question themes

Walk through designing an onboarding flow experiment on iOS and how you'd measure success

Swift/SwiftUI concepts and how you'd structure a growth-experiment-friendly view

Debug a reported crash/regression in an existing iOS feature

Coding: a data structures/algorithms problem

How would you improve the architecture of an existing onboarding feature

Behavioral: cross-functional work with Android/PM/global eng teams

How candidates describe it

Real Software Engineer interview stories — retold from candidates' public write-ups, with sources.

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A referred candidate interviewed for an L4 software engineer role on a Google Cloud team in Bangalore, going through a phone screen, three onsite coding rounds (the third left unfinished), and a culture conversation, only to have the hiring committee offer L3 instead of L4; the candidate obtained the compensation letter and declined the next day because the pay was below their current salary.

Interviewed 2021 · Bangalore, India

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Google L3 software engineer interview: phone screen, four coding rounds, and the Googleyness round

A candidate with two years of experience went from recruiter outreach to offer over about four months. The onsite was four 45-minute coding rounds — three of them featuring binary trees — and one round turned into a 25-minute chain of follow-ups about approximating an optimal solution at scale.

Interviewed June 2020 · Bangalore, IN

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Google L4 Software Engineer Interview: Eight Rounds, No Offer

An L4 Software Engineer candidate went through two phone screens, three onsite rounds, a culture conversation, and a team-matching call with a Google hiring manager, then watched the process stall for about a month and a half over a tightened experience requirement before an added extended round ended without an offer.

Interviewed February 2024 · Not specified

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