Questions d'entretiens chez Google

Candidature

J'ai postulé via une recommandation d'un employé. Le processus a pris 4 semaines. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google (Mountain View, CA (États-Unis)) en avril 2014.

Entretien

Direct onsite because I interviewed in the past and did well that time. From the time I sent my resume to interview day: 2 weeks. From interview day to offer over the phone: 2 weeks.

The syllabus for the interviews is very clear and simple:
1) Dynamic Programming
2) Super recursion (permutation, combination,...2^n, m^n, n!...etc. type of program. (NP hard, NP programs)
3) Probability related programs
4) Graphs: BFS/DFS are usually enough
5) All basic data structures from Arrays/Lists to circular queues, BSTs, Hash tables, B-Trees, and Red-Black trees, and all basic algorithms like sorting, binary search, median,...
6) Problem solving ability at a level similar to TopCoder Division 1, 250 points. If you can consistently solve these, then you are almost sure to get in with 2-weeks brush up.
7) Review all old interview questions in Glassdoor to get a feel. If you can solve 95% of them at home (including coding them up quickly and testing them out in a debugger + editor setup), you are in good shape.
8) Practice coding--write often and write a lot. If you can think of a solution, you should be able to code it easily...without much thought.
9) Very good to have for design interview: distributed systems knowledge and practical experience.
10) Good understanding of basic discrete math, computer architecture, basic math.
11) Coursera courses and assignments give a lot of what you need to know.
12) Note that all the above except the first 2 are useful in "real life" programming too!

Interview 1:
Graph related question and super recursion

Interview 2:
Design discussion involving a distributed system with writes/reads going on at different sites in parallel.

Interview 3:
Array and Tree related questions

Interview 4:
Designing a simple class to do something. Not hard, but not easy either. You need to know basic data structures very well to consider different designs and trade-offs.

Interview 5:
Dynamic programming,
Computer architecture and low level perf. enhancement question which requires knowledge of Trees, binary search, etc.

At the end, I wasn't tired and rather enjoyed the discussions. I think the key was long term preparation and time spent doing topcoder for several years (on and off as I enjoy solving the problems).

Conclusion: "It's not the best who win the race; it's the best prepared who win it."

Négociation

You can and should negotiate politely. You are in a stronger position if you have another offer, but even otherwise, you should ask for more of every type of payment!

Candidature

J'ai postulé via un établissement de l'enseignement supérieur ou universitaire.. Le processus a pris 2 semaines. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google en avril 2015.

Entretien

Phone interview:
The Interviewer was late for 20 mins... Ask nothing on my resume.
Tow questions:
1) A string consists of ‘0’, ‘1’ and '?'. The question mark can be either '0' or '1'. Find all possible combinations for a string.
2) Give you a text file, remove duplicated lines.
    Follow up: If the file is very large, general hash map takes too much spaces, come up with a better solution.

Candidature

J'ai postulé en ligne. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google.

Entretien

I first had a phone screen interview. After this, I was asked to come onsite for further interviews. I had 4 whiteboard and 1 lunch interview with the Youtube team. After this, I was told that my application is going through the Hiring Committee.

Hiring committee asked my HR to find a team for me before giving any decision. I then had two phone interviews with different teams in Android. I informed my HR that I am interested in the first team. Next day, HR emailed me and said that this team no longer has an open position. I again went through the same process. This time, platform team was interested in talking to me. I gave 2 phone interviews wherein they made me write code. After their feedback, I was put through the Hiring committee again and this time I got a thumbs up from them. 1 week after that I was put through executive committee and got my offer.

I had 7 other offers and my HR asked me about all of them before putting me through executive review. They gave me more than any other company I had offer from.

Candidature

J'ai postulé via une recommandation d'un employé. Le processus a pris 4+ semaines. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google (Mountain View, CA (États-Unis)) en juillet 2015.

Entretien

The interview went seemingly smoothly, except for a couple quirks in the code on the whiteboard. The questions were way easier than I expected. The interviewers were not intimidating at all and did not try to make the process stressful. I felt like I passed and according to HR, the overall feedback was positive. My application went to the hiring committee which, in turn, rejected the offer.

Candidature

J'ai postulé via une recommandation d'un employé. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google.

Entretien

The first round was with the HR and then with the hiring manager.The phone interview with the hiring manager was basically questions from my resume, hypothetical situations, case studies.Was told during the interview that I was selected for the next round.

Candidature

J'ai postulé en ligne. Le processus a pris 4+ semaines. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google (Mountain View, CA (États-Unis)).

Entretien

After you're contacted by a recruiter he/she will set up an initial call that's about 15-20 minutes. That first discussion is really just to get to know you a bit and make sure you're qualified to move forward. Be prepared to answer why you're interested in this job specifically (not just because it's google) and why google (the perks alone probably isn't the best answer).

Round 2 is 2 30 minute phone interviews with a manager and current Associate Account Strategist that involve behavioral and hypothetical questions. You're given info on what that means and how to prepare but basically behavioral is "tell me about a time when..." and hypothetical is "what would you do in xyz scenario?" Preparing for the behavioral is time consuming if you're really looking to nail them but not difficult. What I recommend is looking at the job posting and writing down all the traits/skills they're looking for, then turn those into potential questions to prepare for. For example, if the job says they're looking for someone who's creative, then be prepared to answer, "tell me about a time when you came up with a creative solution to a problem." Prepare for about 10-15 of these and eventually you'll realize you have a handful of practiced stories that can be applied to multiple types of these questions. Definitely practice these out loud before your interviews and don't expect to be able to read a story pre written on the spot. For the hypotheticals it's more about your thought process than your answer. Just try to be natural, confident and enthusiastic.

For me the more prepared I was the more relaxed I felt and the more I was able to have fun with the interviews while still conveying my relevant qualifications and competence. You'll also be expected to have a basic knowledge of adwords (also look up Adsense just because you should know the difference) but I didn't get any direct questions about these. It's just good to know beforehand. Remember, this is about getting to know you not whether or not you're an expert in their topics yet so don't go nuts studying this. You're not expected to be an adwords expert. After round 2, you go to the office and have 2 30 minute onsite interviews (same question types and prep as the previous round). Make sure you have good questions ready for all rounds, and consider asking something that gets the interviewer to open up a bit. For example, "what's the coolest project you've gotten to work on at google?" Or "what do you think is the toughest thing about this job?" Try to get them thinking, sharing, and seeing you as someone interesting to speak with. After that round, you're info goes to the hiring committee, which objectively reviews all your interviewed feedback and resume. That takes about a week. The whole process start to finish is about 6 weeks but my recruiter was incredible in speeding up the process because I had other interviews simultaneously. I told her right away that because google was my first choice I wanted to move through the process as quickly as possible before getting an offer from someone else. She absolutely could of have been better about that. I cannot say enough good things about googles recruitment process. From start to finish, they work with you and give you all the info you need right away. Also, my recruiter was so great about answering all my questions and acting as a supportive cheerleader throughout the process. Such a strong recruitment team and I am so grateful!

Candidature

Le processus a pris 3+ mois. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google (Mountain View, CA (États-Unis)).

Entretien

Extremely unimpressed with Google, in every area I had expected a lot better. Inattentive, lazy recruiters. Incorrect prep and advice videos. Poor interviewers. Incredibly slow process for no reason (I knew this going in)

The interview was actually very easy, but about half of the interviewers were not asking questions that would let you judge talent. Following their own advice about interviewing turned out to be a mistake - their interviewers didn't follow it! Everything they said to study never actually came up. I made it to the final stage, was wanted by a team manager, and the mysterious final hiring committee rejected my application. Ridiculous. This experience made me sell my Google stock.

Candidature

J'ai postulé via un recruteur. Le processus a pris 3+ mois. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google.

Entretien

The process was smooth. The recruiter kept me in the loop through the whole process and was prompt with responses. I had two phone interviews and had to code on Google docs. The questions were not too difficult and the interviewer helped me if I got stuck.

Questions d'entretien d'embauche

Entretien

The interview process is not that long. Interviewer was direct to the point. Questions were a bit difficult for first timers but nothing out of the regular questions being asked for an interview

Questions d'entretien d'embauche

Candidature

J'ai postulé en ligne. J'ai passé une entrevue à Google.

Entretien

There is a multiple stage interview process with an informational part and a technical component where you are asked to solve problems. There are more parts that I did not get to.

Questions d'entretien d'embauche