First google interview? here are some tips

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I recently gave an interview for google and messed it up. Here are some notes which might help you.

• no, you won't have to code on google docs. they have a bare minimum IDE-ish with basic syntax highlighting, monospaced font and auto indentions unlike docs.
• you might have the coding skills you need, but you definitely need the interview skills as well. you have to make the right decisions under pressure as well as explain it which is not something you'll learn on leetcode.
• google questions are vague. they leave the interpretation up to you. I don't mean it like they're complicated but that they want you to ask as many follow up questions as you can.
• discuss everything, every edge case, every issue you might face, every approach that you can think of. don't type a single line of code until you know everything.
• note down your thoughts as comments, it's easy to forget your train of thought when you're in an interview.
• if you're not sure about what EXACTLY the code would be, write in terms of comments or pseudo code first. then later change it to the exact code. you can do it for sections of code that you don't want to write the logic for right now, like if cases or functions that you want to handle later.
• it's okay to take a 5-10min pause just to think. it's way better than going with the wrong approach. first tell them that you need 5mins to think and make sure to tell them what you were thinking about after the pause.
• can't say this for everyone but your interviewer is literally there to help you. utilize them. it's like you're a driver and they're sitting on the seat next you. they can't drive the car, but they might nudge you to the right directions and tell you how close you are to your destination.
• after the interview, ask the interviewer where you can improve. (this might give you an idea about how you did)