I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Seattle, WA) in Sept 2010
Interview
Google contacted me and told me that they were looking for developers in the Bay Area and New York City. Their internal recruiter set up an interview with one of their developers.
The interview was on the phone, as well as via a google docs. The interviewer did not know how to start the interview, so I asked "do you want me to tell you about projects I am currently working?" He said that was a good idea, but I could tell he was not listening because he was eating. I'm serious. Turns out he was 23 years old, and it was obvious he did not want to be doing the interview.
He asked a couple of puzzle-type coding questions, which I kind of flubbed, but I talked through the problems and data-structures. I didn't find the cute coding "trick" he was looking for obviously and told me I should interview for a tester position -- because Google is looking for "hard-core" programmers.
While I've been writing software for over 17 years, I have never tested software -- but he didn't know that because, well, he never looked at my resume.
I thanked him for his time, and asked him what product he worked on: Google Chat.I do not think that product exists anymore.
Overall: Unprofessional, rude, condescending, slightly humiliating, irritating.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It was unexpected that he didn't actually ask any real questions --they just want puzzle-solvers.
The interview was way more challenging than I anticipated, especially the technical rounds. I was thrown off by the depth of the DSA questions. One standout was a coding question about finding the median of two sorted arrays, which I recognized instantly — it was the same problem I had worked through on PracHub. The behavioral questions felt less intense, but the overall vibe was stressful. Ultimately, I didn’t receive an offer. It was a tough experience, but I'm grateful for what I learned along the way.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given two sorted arrays of size m and n, find the median of the combined sorted array in O(log(min(m,n))) time.
The interviewer was very nice, one interviewer didn't show up so I rescheduled it. When I didn't come up with the best solution, the interveiwer was very patient and give me hint as many as possible
1 screening round + 3 onsite round
All rounds were focused on DSA that included topics like strings, linked list, heap and dynamic programming. Screening round had 2 questions on qualifying which I was eligible for onsite and Googliness rounds. The whole process took nearlying 2.5 months
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