Google Engineering Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated May 23, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 50 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 50 ratings
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| 41–50 of 50 Google Interviews | Sort by |
Engineering at Google
Posted Mar 1, 2010 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 4+ weeks)
Google basically does not care what you have done, and doesn't interview you for any particular position. They mainly want to know if you are talented at answering academic computer science questions. Does this build a good company? I don't think so, but it's up to them to decide that, I guess. Six interviewers asked me incredibly detailed data structure and algorithm questions. Nothing that anyone asked me would have distinguished me from a recent graduate. I thought I did pretty well, but apparently not well enough. My recruiter sounded as surprised as I was that I didn't get an offer. Apparently anyone who interviews you can veto - so it's everyone's loss that one of my interviewers was a terrible interviewer. Be sure to buy, and at least skim, a copy of "Programming Interviews Exposed; Secrets to Landing Your Next Job" (Mongan/Suojanen/Giguere?), recommended directly by Google recruiters. Best of luck.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineering at Google
Posted Feb 15, 2010
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2009 in Mountain View, CA (took 2 weeks)
Applied for an entry-level engineering position online. Was contacted pretty quickly by an HR rep, who checked my basic credentials (school, when I could start, etc) and scheduled two phone interviews with engineers.
I was expecting some of those weird "Google" questions like "How many ping pong balls can fit in a school bus?" but apparently they don't ask anything like that anymore. Most of the questions were about algorithms and data structures, so definitely brush up on those. (Hint: when in doubt, just say you'll use a hash table)
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineering at Google
Posted Feb 11, 2010
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2010 (took 1 week)
Asked "brain-teaser" type questions, similar to those found on the Analytical section of the GRE. Would definitely suggest reviewing such questions first, before trying to interview. Seemed like some of the asked questions were directly pulled from the GRE. Great emphasis was spent on investigating if one would fit within Google's culture. How to handle interpersonal conflicts and crisis management seemed important.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, an IQ/Intelligence Test and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineer at Google
Posted Feb 6, 2010 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2009 (took 2 weeks)
First a recruiter contacted me via phone and email and asked for some basic information. She explained their hiring standard is looking for good generalist, so I'll be interviewing with several engineers from different teams. Then she arranged one round of phone screening with a person, who asked about my resume questions and some simple programming and design questions. Then next stay she contacted me for arranging an onsite. The onsite was with 6 engineers, from 3 year googler to googler from start-up, including a very senior engineer/researcher. They are all very kind and interview is quick-paced. On average each asked 3-5 questions covering algorithm, coding, knowledge, experience, design, and my research. They passed on a piece of paper to avoid asking same questions.
Interview Questions
Reason for Declining
Got a better offer from another company
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineer at Google
Posted Jan 16, 2010
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2009 (took 4+ weeks)
I applied on their website and they found a position relevant to my education and courses. They made me schedule a phone interview. The interview was for about 45 minutes and was heavy on the technical side. I managed to answer 75% of the questions but they declined my candidacy after the phone round. It took them 4 weeks to get back to me with the results.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineer at Google
Posted Jan 7, 2010
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2008 in Seattle, WA (took a day)
I got a call to schedule a initial phone interview. It was scheduled in a week, but the questions they asked me was somewhat unanswerable under my knowledge. So I failed.
I want them to go little easy on the interview and try to get to know the candidate a bit more than just asking the whole bunch of difficult questions. I don't like that!!!
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineer at Google
Posted Dec 17, 2009
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2007 in Mountain View, CA (took 1+ week)
Google contacted me, they had my resume from an old interview many years ago.
After a few email exchanges about available positions, a phone screen was arranged.
During the phone screen they asked technical questions to gauge my skills.
It looks like I did well because after that I was invited for an on-site interview.
If I remember correctly, first I was interviewed by 2-3 people (like a panel interview)
and one of them was dialing in from a different location. They asked mostly general and
architecture questions. After that I had two one on one interviews. The first one was with
a software engineer who was very polite and asked me about general programming stuff.
The second one was with a network / sysadmin but he was rather rude, and flatly refused
to answer any of my questions during the course of the interview. It was like, I had to answer
questions only, and not ask anything. I felt very uncomfortable and disappointed.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineering at Google
Posted Dec 5, 2009
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2009 in Mountain View, CA (took 6 weeks)
Don't bother reading these questions. It won't help. Google's interviews are set up such that the questions either have impossible answers, or the problems are changed so much looking them up won't matter. You just have to have very solid computer science fundamentals and show enthusiasm. For such a large company, the interview process feels so ad hoc that it almost deterred me from accepting an offer. I ended up accepting, but I'm hoping the interview process will be improved so others won't make a decision the other way.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineering at Google
Posted Aug 7, 2009 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jul 2009 in Mountain View, CA (took 4 months)
It takes FOREVER from when you apply to get an interview (in the ballpark of 4 months, easily). You'll get contacted by various HR people, who don't really coordinate with each other.
The interviews themselves were fairly difficult technical questions; I'd recommend studying extensively and being systematic in your approach.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a Presentation and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Engineer at Google
Posted Jun 28, 2009
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2007 (took 2 days)
Referral by former coworker led to contact by Google Recruiter.
Telephone interview (45 mins) with recruiter.
Telephone interview (90 Mins) with member of hiring group.
in person, 1:1 interviews with hiring group, 5 interviews, 45mins each over two separate dates
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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