My Google Interview Experience
I have attended Google Interview 2 times till date. Both the times I got REJECTED!
In my opinion, Google Interview is all about luck! Well, I will tell you the reason!
In other companies, interview is like - they will ask one question and you fail to answer that question at first attempt! You go back and study that question and clear your next interview when the same question is asked! In general, if you consider normal programming question, you may get OOPS Concepts, String Reverse, etc. This you can study/prepare and clear your interview after 1st or 2nd attempts.
When it comes to Google . .
You read books, write code regularly, watch videos, practice in GitHub/LeetCode, and so on. You prepare for a Google Interview years and more! The coding question you will get during the interview is nowhere related to the study you have done so far! It is purely a RANDOM question! and moreover it is upto the interviewer at that point! It might be a Tree or Linked List or Matrix. No one can imagine what sort of problem.
Interview Experience 1:
06-07-2021 : I sent an email to Google HR to refer my profile for the relevant role at Google.
17-08-2021 : I got an email at 11:21 AM IST from Google HR for the Introduction Call. I have accepted the same.
17-08-2021 : Introduction Call with Google at 01:00 PM IST.
18-08-2021 : I got an email from the Google Recruiting Coordinator to fill the Candidate Availability Form for the interview.
18-08-2021 : I have filled the form by scheduling 5 slots between 10:00am - 11:45pm IST, Monday - Friday. I also replied to the email stating the same.
26-08-2021 : Google Interview at 10:30 AM IST.
26-08-2021 : After my Interview, I sent an email saying - Everything went well and I'm waiting for the next steps. { A nice gesture!)
No update since then!
20-08-2021 : I have sent an email asking the status of my interview!
No update since then!
28-09-2021 : I have sent an email asking the status of my interview!
28-09-2021 : I got a call from the Google HR and recieved an email with interview status
REJECTED
Interview Experience 2:
17-05-2022 : I sent an email to Google HR to refer my profile for the relevant role at Google.
18-05-2022 : I got an email from Google HR for the Introduction Call. I have accepted the same.
02-06-2022 : Introduction Call with Google at 01:00 PM IST.
02-06-2022 : I got an email from the Google Recruiting Coordinator to fill the Candidate Availability Form for the interview.
02-06-2022 : I have filled the form by scheduling 5 slots between 10:00am - 11:45pm IST, Monday - Friday. I also replied to the email stating the same.
14-06-2022 : Google Interview at 01:30 PM IST.
30-06-2022 : I got an email from Google HR stating hiring team has decided not to move forward with my profile.
REJECTED
I have been preparing since 4 years when I first interviewed at Google 06-07-2021. I referred resource's like GitHub, HackerRank, LeetCode, Stack Overflow, YouTube, etc. Also, I had extensively invloved in reading and writing articles/blogs across C# Corner, Dev Community, Medium. I followed and connected with a lot of folks over GitHub and LinkedIn.
Practice, Practice, Practice!!!
Talk through your thought process about the questions you are asked. In all of Google's interviews, our engineers are evaluating not only your technical abilities but also how you approach problems and how you try to solve them.
Ask clarifying questions if you do not understand the problem or need more information. Many of the questions asked in Google interviews are deliberately underspecified because our engineers are looking to see how you engage the problem. In particular, they are looking to see which areas leap to your mind as the most important piece of the technological puzzle you've presented.
Think about ways to improve the solution you'll present. In many cases, the first answer that springs to mind isn't the most elegant solution and may need some refining. It's definitely worthwhile to talk about your initial thoughts to a question, but jumping immediately into presenting a brute force solution will be received less well than taking time to compose a more efficient solution.
Access to a computer at the time of interview is required as you will be requested to write and share code. Interviewers use Google Docs to facilitate coding in real time.
Couple of pointers to bear in mind during the interviews:
Coding rounds: Emphasis on Syntax, Naming, Organisation and testing. Please take care to use the best features of the language. Ensure a high level of code readability (use good variable names etc). Be particular about boundary conditions and incorporate the same in your answer. Do test your code independent of the interviewer hinting to do so.
Data Structures: Emphasis on right tools for the job, varieties of DS (Lists, Hashtables, Stacks, Queues, Graphs etc). Don't force a question into a structure that doesn't fit.
Algo: Binary search, sorting, Recursion, Dynamic Programming, Time & Space complexity. Try to start simple and improve.
A simple elegant solution is preferred. You are expected to hit the optimal solution, and be able to discuss alternate methods and their tradeoffs. Time complexity analysis is expected.
Efficacy: Fast solutions with minimum guidance is expected.
Remember to think out loud - ask for clarifications - check corner cases - pay attention to the interviewer's hints/ clues.
15 Minutes Before the interview:
Once The Interviewer Joins . .
Now they will ask you to share your screen and open the Google Doc. link.
There are 2 chances:
Now start coding . .
Not finished yet!
Almost you reached end of the interview!
Done! Interview is completed!
What Next?!
That's al!! Go out and RELAX!!!
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