Google Software Engineering Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated May 28, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 422 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 422 ratings
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| 41–50 of 422 Google Interviews | Sort by |
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Mar 10, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2011 (took a day)
a google engineer called me and give me an phone technical interview. firstly, introduce yourself , please focus on the working experience. second, used the good doc to catch some algorithm, data struct problems.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Mar 7, 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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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 (took 2 days)
Two phone interviews, had to write code in real time. The interviewers were very friendly.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Mar 4, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jun 2011 in Zurich (Switzerland) (took a day)
Bad call quality prevented me to answer the questions properly.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Mar 4, 2012
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 (took a day)
There are two phone interviews, each of them lasts 45min. The first one is quite easy, how to merge two sorted arrays. However, you need to come up with different solutions and then compare the time complexity.The second interview is all about graph. It is a pity I have not prepared this part before. So failed...
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Feb 27, 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 Feb 2012 in Mountain View, CA (took a day)
I submitted my resume and received a response the next day. About 2 weeks later I was invited onsite for an interview. I interviewed with 5 engineers from various parts of the company and had lunch with another engineer. Overall it was a great experience and at the time I remember thinking that regardless of the outcome, I really enjoyed it.
In terms of preparation, the usual stuff applies. Read up on your algorithms and data structures (Cormen), practice writing syntactically correct code on a white board under pressure. Also, I found that engaging the interviewers and talking them through my own thought process helped a lot.
The interviewers were smart, engaging and fun to talk to which gave me a pretty positive impression of the company overall. I was worried that with Google's growth people might not be as passionate as they were when the company was smaller but that was certainly not the case.
About a week after the onsite interview I received an offer.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
The offer was very competitive. I had a fairly high competing offer which helped, they basically matched the competing offer. Since I had a much better impression of Google's culture and the opportunities for growth I decided to go with them.
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Mar 1, 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 Feb 2012 (took 4 weeks)
After applying online I was contacted by e-mail from one of their recruiters.
First a general phone screen was scheduled, followed by a technical phone interview. During the phone interview I had to solve 2 programming questions using Google Docs. As the interviewer was pretty happy with my performance, I was then invited to an on-site interview, which consisted of five 45mins long 1:1 interviews. Most interviewers were really friendly and would give you hints at the right moments. The questions were challenging, but fair. Just make sure that you know your CS101 stuff, as there is a strong focus on data structures and algorithms. Moreover, make sure to prepare for system design questions as this plays a vital role at Google.
Two weeks after my on-site interview I received feedback from the recruiter telling me that my application was unsuccessful and that I could try again in a year. Overall, I had a pretty good interview experience, it's just a bit frustrating that the company policy prevents the recruiter from giving you detailed feedback concerning your performance.
Interview Questions
How can you determine whether two persons are related or not?
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Feb 23, 2012
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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 Oct 2011 (took a day)
I submited the application online. Then they contacted with me in about 2 weeks and scheduled 2 phone interviews. Each lasted 45 minutes. During the interviews, there are all coding questions. They are all about implementing a class to solve actual problems. The most important data structure I think is the hash table, because all the problems are finally using a hash table structure to improve the performance.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Feb 20, 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 Aug 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took 3 weeks)
I had 2 phone interviews with Google. Interviewers asked me about my research topic and how it can be associated with Google products. They also asked to write a code for coding question. I think it was related with geometry.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Feb 19, 2012
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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 2011 in Sydney (Australia) (took 4 months)
I was contacted in September via linkedin. I sent the recruiter my CV and haven't heard from them for a month. After contacting them again the recruiter scheduled me for a phone screening. Just a week after the first phone screening I was scheduled for another one which I took a month later. Both phone screenings lasted exactly 1 hour. On the phone I talked to junior/average Engineers, who asked quite simple questions about Data Structures. After the second interview I was invited for the 1:1 meeting. Again there were some delays in organising the interview and I ended up going to Sydney in January.
I was interviewed by 4 people, with increasing difficulty. The questions weren't too hard, consisting of coding, estimation and design questions. I did struggle in understanding a simple question and ended up spending a lot of time discussing the task. The impression from the interview was good, but two weeks later I got a rejection. No information was provided.
Generally, you need to prepare for the interview in overall. Don't just focus on learning algorithms. Rehearse behavioural parts before going to the 1:1.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Google
Posted Feb 22, 2012 — 0 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 Jan 2012 (took a day)
After applying online, a recruiter emailed me and asked for experience I had with programming. A couple days after I responded, she scheduled me for two back-to-back 1-hour interviews with Google engineers. I will honor the NDA and won't reveal the questions themselves, but they involved data structures, algorithms, and Object-Oriented programming.
Unfortunately the first interviewer and a very thick accent and was difficult to understand. Other than that, the interview process went pretty smooth.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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