Google Internal Technology Residency Program Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Nov 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 1+ week)

I interviewed for the IRTP position after Google came to my school. I spoke to a recruiter and about a week later I was invited to do a technical interview over the phone. The interview was with an operations engineer and he started the technical questions right away after saying hello. There was no room for formality or discussing your resume/experience. The initial screen is to weed out anyone that does not meet the qualifications and it is intense. I would recommend studying up on protocols, system administration, and the specifics of Linux/Windows/Mac administration. I forgot the difference between hard and soft links and didn't know a lot about how OS X loads certain background processes. A lot of the questions required you to solve technical problems like if a router goes down and how it loads IP tables. Study hard! Also remember to ask questions at the end of the interview, that can be a deal breaker. Ultimately I didn't make the cut but it was a good experience.