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Google interview themes
What people report studying for — not a take-home dump. Last editorial update 2026-09-01.
Rounds you should expect
BigQuery
Why DATE(ts) = ... scans the table. Clustering vs partitioning. maximum_bytes_billed.
SQL
Windows and anti-joins. They still open a pad even on a cloud team.
Design
Slots vs on-demand, labels for FinOps, and an authorized view that does not copy PII.
From the question bank
hard · SQL · SQL
NULL = NULL is unknown. How does that bite a MERGE or an anti-join?
Practice →medium · SQL · SQL
QUALIFY vs a CTE for window filters — when do you use each?
Practice →medium · SQL · SQL
A query is correct but scans last year. How do you prove partition pruning?
Practice →hard · SQL · SQL
EXPLAIN says Hash Join. When do you want Nested Loop instead?
Practice →easy · Orchestration · Airflow
TaskFlow vs operators. When do you still write a classic Operator?
Practice →hard · Orchestration · Airflow
setup/teardown vs a hope that the cluster terminates.
Practice →medium · Coding · Spark
Broadcast join vs shuffle join. What is the failure mode of a hint?
Practice →easy · Coding · Spark
UDF vs Spark SQL expr for a string normalize. Which do you merge?
Practice →medium · Warehouse · BigQuery
A query scanned 4 TB. Name three fixes before you buy more slots.
Practice →medium · Warehouse · BigQuery
On-demand vs editions / slots. How do you explain the bill to a PM?
Practice →easy · Warehouse · BigQuery
Streaming inserts vs load jobs. When is streaming the expensive habit?
Practice →hard · Warehouse · BigQuery
Authorized views vs copying a table into another project. What is the governance answer?
Practice →