I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Tel Aviv) in Mar 2010
Interview
Everything was run online very efficient and correctly. Personal emails with relevant questions. No feeling of automatic processing.
A telephone interview was setup with someone from Ireland or elsewhere in Europe. I did not get any information as to the title and position of the interviewer nor what to expect. I thought it was a HR interview and it turned out to be a professional interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Basically asked me how Google can beat Apple. It was some years ago when android was still much behind both market share and technology wise. Easy to answer the question, but the dude did not like my answer. What a pity, Apple would have been out of business if they has listened to me...
Very self-driven, first of multiple rounds, where I had to take the initiative to arrive at the problem, constraints, approach, solutions, tradeoffs and reasoning behind it in a matter of 30 minutes.
You would have to do a hiring assessment first, then a recruiter screening follows. First round interview with the hiring manager. Majorly product sense and product improvement. The questions were not direct though.
Overall a lot of steps to the interview process. Talked to different people and had opportunities to ask questions. Many different stages which made it a lengthy process overall. Wasn't too bad.