Google Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated Feb 12, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 1068 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 1068 ratings
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| 51–60 of 1,068 Google Interviews | Sort by |
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Jan 16, 2012 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 (took 2 months)
I was contacted by an in-house recruiter. After a short phone call with her, a phone screen was set up.
The phone screen took approximately 1 hour. I was only asked one question (very technical CS related), which I had to code in a shared Google doc. After I was finished, I had a chance to ask the other person questions. A few hours after the phone screen was finished I received a call from my recruiter... they wanted to set up a 1:1 interview in Mountain View, CA.
The Mountain View interview lasted an entire day. The day was scheduled as such: 1:1 interview 1, 1:1 interview 2, lunch with my phone screen interviewer, 1:1 interview 3, 1:1 interview 4. Each interview (and lunch) took about 1 hour. The questions ranged from semi-advanced CS topics to probability and statistics.
They emailed me about a week after the onsite interview to let me know that they weren't going forward with me.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Jan 16, 2012 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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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 2012 (took a day)
Recruiter booked 2 phone screens. Google docs were set up as a medium for coding problems. One of the interviewers seemed to want to see me fail, the other was very friendly and helpful. They ask fairly difficult coding problems, and expect you to code them on the Google doc page provided.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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AdWords Associate at Google
Posted Jan 11, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jun 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 6 weeks)
I had one phone interview asking about my interest in the position, and they went over my resume in great detail. The next phone interview was scheduled with the manager of the position I was applying for, and we talked more about the position and he asked me some logic questions (how many houses are painted red in Canada?, etc). The talk went well, and he said that it looked like I had a good resume to match the position. An on site interview was scheduled for three weeks away, and I asked for the day off work ahead of time, and read up on AdWords and AdSense extensively, but then on the day before the interview, they called to say that it had to be cancelled because of a recent staff meeting with senior management, and that they no longer wanted to fill the open position. It was very unexpected, and I was bummed out after all the planning ahead for this interview, but that's life! They were very apologetic about it, and everyone I talked to throughout the process was professional and sounded like a good person, so I'm planning on trying again if the opening ever comes up again, or something similar to it.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
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Sales Analyst at Google
Posted Jan 10, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 in Dublin, County Dublin (Ireland) (took 2 months)
Very nice process, they seem to care more whether you are a salesman and whether you are 'a google person' than really creative or innovative. Don't focus on learning about Adwords, just make sure you're able to sell yourself (or anything).
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a Skills Test.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Jan 6, 2012 — 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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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2010 in San Francisco, CA (took 3+ weeks)
Everybody that interviewed me was generally pleasant. Lots of emphasis on puzzles, which I tend to enjoy, but don't find to be very effective interview questions.
Interview Questions
How can you determine which one weighs less in 3 weighs?
Now how would you do it if you didn't know if the odd coin weighs less or more?
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and an IQ/Intelligence Test.
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Software Engineer New Grad at Google
Posted Jan 5, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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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 Nov 2011 (took a day)
The entire interview was in Portuguese. It took almost 1 hour.
First, the interviewer asked questions about my past experience, but he kept interrupting me when I was explaining the projects I've worked, so please be succint in this part.
Next, he asked me to describe two data structures: binary search trees and hash maps. He asked questions about the Big-Oh details of these structures and where both could be applied in real world projects. Then he asked me to describe the various methods of handling hash collisions.
Then he moved to the main part of the interview, the programming problem: "Given a list of integers that fall within a known short range of values (like 7 values), how to find the median value?". After he asked how I would solve it without initially knowing the range of values. The first one can be solved by simply couting using an array with length equal to the number of values. The complicated one can be solved by using a Selection algorithm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_algorithm).
I only gave a suboptimal answer to the complicated version of the problem. Also, I was very nervous and the interviewer kept interrupting me while I was talking. He had no patience at all and didn't let me think loud.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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Senior Software Engineer at Google
Posted Jan 9, 2012
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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 Dec 2011 (took 3 months)
There was an initial phone screen to cover fit and possible openings. This was cultural and focused on achievements as well as communication skills. Then there was a long gap to schedule an in person technical round. This consisted of a few engineers and was very technical. There was no strong communication of expectations of the role and the title and many groups spoke. Another round of interviews happened two months later and it was the same process with vague communication of possible roles.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
Inappropriate?
Account Manager at Google
Posted Jan 7, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2011 (took 4+ weeks)
I spoke with the Google HR recruiter on the phone and with one other individual before I was flown to one Google location for a series of 4 interviews (2 in person, 2 video conference). All went well, but they decided to move me to interview for an account manager position with a different team (they thought it would better fit my skill-set). I went to another Google location for another series of interviews (2 in person, 2 video conference), and hit it off with everyone except the last one- the decision maker (higher up- not sure of his title). His questions were more cryptic and less skill based than the others I had. This was ultimately the reason I didn't get the offer, according to the HR recruiter's feedback. I was at least glad he was honest with me. After talking to 8+ people and having rave reviews from everyone except one, it was a little disheartening that there wasn't more conversation among the group to determine if I should move on in the process.
In the end, I don't think Google is a good fit for me, because I'm looking for a company with less hierarchy and traditional corporate politics. Based on the experience, it looks like there is plenty of that internally.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
Inappropriate?
Software Developer at Google
Posted Jan 2, 2012 — 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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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jul 2011 in Bangalore (India) (took a day)
The interview process with Google is robust and aimed at hiring the best brains in Computer Science, though it is a bit taxing on the applicant.
I had to first go through a phone screening round. I was asked questions about basic CS stuff. Difference between Hash Tables and Binary Search Trees, why balancing a tree is important. Then 2 algorithmic questions were asked which I was supposed to code on a shared web document. The first one was to find out number of unique elements in an array. Second one, umm, I don't remember, sorry. There was also a question on designing a file sharing mechanism.
The on site interviews were on a more intense level. I had 5 one-on-one interviews each lasting close to 1 hour.
Overall, even though I didn't get through, the experience was positive as it underscored areas I needed to look into. As with all good CS companies, Google looks for robustness of code, simplicity of solutions and of course the efficiency.
Interview Questions
Write a method to pretty print a binary tree. Don't make any assumptions, i.e. the tree could be highly unbalanced.
Given a dictionary segment a piece of un-spaced text to find meaningful words. e.g "makemytrip"->make my trip
A design question (don't remember) and another question on adversarial mini-max search
3rd Round:
Write a method to find the next ancestor of a node in a Binary Search Tree.
Write a recursive function to convert Binary Code of a number into its equivalent Gray's code and the other way round.
4th round:
Given two sorted arrays, find the kth minimum element of both.
Given a set of intervals, find the interval which has the maximum number of intersections.
5th round:
This one was focused on previous projects and experience and how good I was at what I had been doing.
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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Inappropriate?
Training Specialist at Google
Posted Jan 2, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Jul 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 2 days)
A totally amazing and very different interview process. The interview questions were based on four components: cognitive, technical, culture fit, and (sorry can't remember the last category), I think it was team player. The hiring manager was wearing pajamas because it was pajama day at Google. Awesome culture and it is the people who are allowed so much creative freedom that make it wonderful.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Know what you are willing to settle for before the negotiation phase. Some benefits are negotiable and some are not. They will not say "no" to every request you may make that is reasonable and researched.
Other Details
I got the interview through a Staffing Agency and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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