A Google engineer who's interviewed 120+ people uncovers Google's interview process. Tons of valuable insights and tips about how to pass the technical interview at Google.

1. THE GOOGLE INTERVIEW PROCESS UNCOVERED
A Googler describes Google’s interview process
Date: March 2014
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2. Source
A software engineer at Google
Has been working there for 6 years
Has interviewed over 120 people at Google
http://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/
1z97rx/from_a_googler_the_google_interview_process
2Sunday, April 6, 14

3. Step 1: You apply for a job
You apply directly through the website, or
A recruiter contacts you (they found you on LinkedIn), or
Someone refers you
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4. Step 2: Looking at your resume
Your resume needs to be relevant. Either:
You’ve got a BS in CS / EE / Math / Physics
You’ve got a few years of experience
You’re a contributor to some well-known open-source project
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5. Step 3: Interviews Round 1
A Google recruiter calls you
They ask a few simple questions
E.g. “What’s faster - Quicksort or Bubblesort?”
If you answer these correctly, you go to the next round of the
Google interviews
If you fail, don’t give up: start improving your skills
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6. Step 4: Interviews Round 2
A Google engineer calls you & interviews you for 45 minutes
Only about 1 in 10 candidates passes this step
Be prepared to talk to an engineer who expects you to fail, and
would rather be doing something else
Different people at Google have different interview styles
Two main interview styles
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7. Google Interview Style 1
“Cover as much ground as possible”
5-10 different questions spread across your areas of expertise
E.g. if you’re interviewing for sysadmin or system engineering,
you may be asked questions about networking, unix, coding,
security, etc.
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8. Google Interview Style 2
One hard problem split into two subproblems: easy “warmup”
question followed by a “real” question
“Warmup”: “Reverse a string in place” or “Implement atoi()”
A good candidate should be able to solve it in about 5 minutes
If it takes you too long: “no hire”
“Real”: can barely be finished it in 35 minutes
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9. Interview Style 2
Examples:
“Remove duplicates from a list of strings that doesn’t fit in
memory”
“Count the number of disjoint objects in a bitmap”
“Implement a program that plays Tic Tac Toe”
Most candidates can’t finish it in 35 mins, but that is OK.
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10. Step 5: Interview feedback
The Google interviewer writes an internal report that includes a
score
Don’t ask how you did - you won’t be told (due to legal reasons)
The report goes to the recruiter, who will decide what the next
step should be
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11. Step 6: Interviews Round 3
Same as round 2, but with a different Google engineer
Second round candidates are much better than first round
candidates
If you pass again: onsite interviews at Google!
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12. Step 7: Onsite Interviews
Google flies you to one of their offices
3 interviews. 45 minutes each
Lunch
Then 2 more interviews
Same as the phone screens, but face to face
If you fail the first 3 interviews, you may be walked out after
lunch
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13. Step 7: Onsite Interviews
The collected feedback goes to a committee of senior Google
engineers
They look at the feedback for 3-5 minutes
In exceptional cases, they may decide there is not enough
information, which leads to more interviews
If they decide to hire you, the recruiter will call you to make an
offer
Google pays very, very, very well.
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14. Tips
Make your CV short and sweet. Never more than 2 pages
Put your skills on your CV
DO NOT START WRITING CODE IMMEDIATELY
Ask questions if something is not clear
Do not be shy to call your recruiter if you don’t hear from them
for a week in the middle of the interview process
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15. Free Resources
http://www.hiredintech.com: Free course to prepare you for the
interviews. By ex-Google, Microsoft, Nvidia engineers.
http://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/: The CS Career
Questions subreddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/
1z97rx/from_a_googler_the_google_interview_process: The
original thread on Reddit.
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16. FREE RESOURCES
http://www.hiredintech.com
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17. FREE RESOURCES
http://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/
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18. GOOD LUCK!
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