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This is the account of my interview experience with Google in 2006. I was asked to interview with Google and I received a job offer. But, I declined it. My story is below.
Preamble: Google Job Interview
google contacted me about a position with the print team. i was well paid and was doing well at the company i was with at the time, but i agreed to interview with google anyway. the head of global print operations was under a lot of pressure due to the lawsuits, etc. yet, he needed headcount, especially they needed help with the actual print operation and the quality problems they were having at the time.
the job was for a permanent position — why else would they go through a grueling 2 days of interviews for a contractor? but when i pressed him on salary and asked him to match and provide much more than what i was making and i anchored at an amount, he buckled and made it contractual instead.
he waffled, so i said “no thanks”.
the people i met were nice, very bright, and focused on their work. several of them complained to me about their frustrations that “google was so big and stuck in its ways”. i thought that was interesting. i declined because of the iffy-ness of a contractual job (though the cash would be very good); the high cost of the bay area wasn’t appealing to me at the time; and, the future of the print effort seemed unsure to me – but the vision and promise of google print is very good. those were my reasons. now, back to the google interview below…
The Google Job Interview
back in october 2005, i interviewed with google, for a position with google print. my interview was over 2 days, on 10/12/2005 and 10/13/2005. i didn’t do much to prepare for the interview, except read-up on all the google print controversy regarding the n lawsuits against google print. unlike most companies that fly their candidates out for an onsite interview, google’s policy was for me to pay for my flight, hotel, and food, but that they would reimburse me later.
i thought that was lame and unprofessional; after all, they are the ones that contacted me for an interview and i never applied for a job with them. luckily, i was going to be in that area anyway for business, so i just scheduled my business trip for that week.
day 1, 4 interviews
in the lobby reception desk, i typed my name on this little widget and signed the dotted line. then, this little widget prints a self-adhesive name tag with my name, google, and my location. i gladly took that self-adhesive and put in on my shirt breast. then, i met with the hr people, both of whom were very nice. they were very, very late, but i had fun hanging out in the lobby of 1625 charleston road, building #44. in the lobby were 4 refrigerators full of odwalla drinks; i helped myself to a couple. on the wall was a large flat monitor that showed, in real time, the current google searches. this was really amusing. i remember the following searches:
- size d bra
- how to advertise
- how to make a bomb
- osama
- italian mob + hbo
- catholic anger
this was really cool. finally, the hr folks were ready and brought me into a room next to the korean and chinese speaking engineers. my first interviewer came in late and was really sweaty. he had just ridden his bike to work. he was sorry he was late. he was super nice and his questions were easy. 
the next person was a little tougher; she had been with sun microsystems for several years and was in charge of their warehouse and distribution side. she asked some tough questions, was very open about her frustrations with google, but ended up very nice to me. she was very frustrated that the engineering received so much priority and attention, but operations and business didn’t. she was very open about what irritated her as an employee at google. the next person came in had a background in library science and an mba from michigan. he was really nice too and asked fluffy questions. he wasn’t an engineer and i don’t think he knew what to ask me, so he asked me lame conversational-type questions. i don’t think it was a fit interview either; i think he was just clueless – not in a bad way, just that he just didn’t know what was going on. the next person i interviewed with was sharp; he was a stanford mba and had been in the print industry for a while. he wasn’t quantitative at all, but was nice. he asked me hypothetical questions about potential problems that they face in the print group. the problems were very interesting. there is true innovation going on at google, for sure.
that was it for day 1. there was no lunch, but i was free to raid the fully-stocked kitchen whenever i wanted to; i helped myself to a healthy dose of mountain dew and stopped by the cafeteria for a veggie sandwich. the atmosphere there is very cool and i felt energy and could visually see the innovation going on. very cool. that evening, i went to my hotel and did some work for the company i was with at the time.
day 2, 7 interviews
i did the whole self-adhesive, name tag thing again. got an odwalla (2 of them), then waited. eventually, the hr people came and got me. this day was much tougher than day 1. my first interview was with a former nasa scientist-turned googler. my interview with him was fun and interesting; he proposed several real case studies and problems that they face in the print team. my second interview was with another engineer; he asked me basic questions and one brain teaser. the brain teaser goes something like this, if i remember it right:
you are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?
i had fun trying to solve this one. the answer has to do with the number of days in the year and the probability the person’s birthday falls on the same day as mine (without replacement). i eventually solved it, but it took time learning how to apply probability with no replacement. i tried using 10! (factorial), for some reason, but that was totally the wrong approach. we ended the interview; i didn’t feel as good about that one, because i struggled a little bit through that brain teaser.
my next interviewer asked a lot of algorithm questions. he made me write pseudo-code for a binary search; he had me uml a system; he made me explain cron, diff, the permission system in unix, and had me write a bunch sql queries. this guy was a scientist at epson, the printer company. he was sharp; quantitative but warm. i liked that interview. my next interview was with a nice lady who had been with google for a few years. she was cold, but not mean; observant, but not expressive. i felt that i answered her questions fine and our interview was done. my next couple of interviews were with people that i had interviewed with the previous day, in day 1. those went fine and uneventful. but, by this time of day, i was getting really tired, physically and just tired of interviewing. alas, the last interviewer came, the head of global operations for the google print team. he was very nice, open, and direct. that interview went fine and he openly shared his strong interest in my background and said that i’d be a great addition to the team. he also shared how living in the bay area is so nice and seemed to be trying to sell the location and the company. i saw this as a good sign. our time ended; i left, but before i walked out the building, i managed to steal a few more of those odwalla drinks. i drove to the san jose airport, caught my flight, and went home.
weeks later. . .
the hr guy called and gave me an offer! but, it wasn’t what i was expecting. i was excited for the google stock units (gsu) and the phat salary that would barely keep me alive with the bay area cost of living, but that’s not what i got. instead, google offered me a contractual position, with a very high hourly rate. of course, because it was contractual, there would be no benefits or google stock units. on the phone, on the spot, i declined the job offer. moving to the bay area wasn’t that appealing to me, especially if the job didn’t have google stock units and benefits. the cash was good, but my family needed more than that.
all in all, the experience was okay. there is certainly more hype about google than i believe it really merits. true, they hire sharp — really sharp people; i felt a lot of energy and could see the innovation happening there, but many of them seemed really unhappy. i can’t put my finger on it, but many employees i met really seemed unhappy and many mentioned the intense bureaucracy present at google — the people i interviewed with didn’t seem happy to me. they looked tired and grumpy. i didn’t get a feeling that google treats their people very well. i’m glad for my decision not to join google. but, i’ll always wish i had free reign on those odwalla drinks 
Google Job Interview Update
yes, i recited that brain teaser from memory, so i’m sure i shared it incorrectly. the approach, though, is this: thinking now of probability without replacement,
(364/365) * (363/365) . . .
this is the approach to the problem. given this, would i take the wager? no; it’s a bad bet.
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Google Job Interview by Pete Abilla
Pete Abilla
www.shmula.com
Service Review
Mar 29, 2006
Read this to learn how to get a job with Google.
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I have applied for the Strategy and Business Operations Associate position. Any hint on what to expect?
Thank’s for your post, Pete. It’s great so see what was your experience with your application at Google, and very interesting. I was looking into applying at Google and your post confirmed my toughts about their way of interviewing.
We have a friend who interviewed with Google…the telephone ones and in person…everyone who knew about it ..said he was in…but he was told today by his recruiter that he was a fit technically but there was a cultural mismatch????
Is this a code word?
Cultural Mismatch???
They look for a blend of talent and youth to fit the narrow glass shoe they have dubbed “cultural fit”. If your friend had years of experience, that could be a reason this failed. They prefer people with a few years of professional experience and a lot of CS theoretical knowledge.
He is 37 and they knew this when they asked him to come to Ca for 5 more interviews. A few people who where involved with pushing his resume were shocked. He asked his recruiter to get back with him and give him a more clear description of Cultural Challanges…Mismatch….whatever they used and he has heard nothing.
He is crushed…
They did say he could reapply but the passion they once had for him has appeared to have died…
Is this common?
Interesting. I was 37 too when they flew me to CA, after 4 phone interviews, for 6 more interviews. I have made clear from the beginning that I was not a CS per training but anyway they flew me over. And tossed me afterwards.
I decided not be devastated because I might not have been happy over there, despite the perks they offer. If they do not like me, I figured out that I might not have liked them too. Moreover, being rejected by Google is acceptable: when you reach for the (so-called) top, you must be ready to miss.
What a bummer of a story. I’d rather be pheasant hunting than job hunting!
What are the odds of 2 grandchildren being born from 2 different sets of parents on the same calendar day?
The same odds as the ones for a Google product to leave its beta state!
how many after the last interview did they contact you?
thanks
how many weeks after the last interview did they contact you?
thanks
None. I contacted them after two weeks of silence to learn that my application did not go through the committee. Period. No reason why.
thanks for the reply but the question was actually adressed to the blog owner…
how many weeks later did they contact you to make the offer for the position you mentioned in the post.
thanks
I also wrote up my experience with interviewing at Google. I had a good experience, despite not getting an offer.
*** The link below states it more discreetly, but mathematicians and their hard science breathren, as a group, are among the stupidest people on the planet. ***
Undoubtedly said by someone who couldn’t factor a second-order polynomial if their life depended on it. Believe it or not, mathematicians “and their hard science bretheren” don’t actually work on stuff this trivial. It’s strictly a rat-simple hypothetical, suited to the first week of Probability 101.
*** seriouslty. google in my opinion is heading for 100$ end of the year…***
Well here it is 2007 and it’s sitting around $500. I guess your opinion isn’t worth a hell of a lot, is it?
Thanks for the post.
I submitted my resume for a Media Coordinator position at Google/YouTube thru the website.
It is in the advertising sales category so I am hoping it will be easier to land it then an engineering / technical position.
Anyone have any info on that kind of job? It has been almost 2 weeks since I submitted the resume online. How long does it take to hear back?
Any info is much appreciated! Gracias!
I didn’t apply for a job position at Google, but a recruiter from them contacted me. I told the recruiter that I wasn’t interested, and that it would be extremely hard to convince me to move away from my current job. I told them that I would not be able to work in certain areas for a while (due to my current position at a competitor), and that I would also demand a good relocation package. Despite all that, the recruiter told me that they would still be interested in a phone screening. I did the phone screening and all their questions made sense: how to optimize certain aspects of Google, like file transfer, etc. I was then asked to interview at their site.
I should say that I’ve talked with 4 interviewers, and 3 of them were nice and polite. I found a little disrespectful that one of them invited someone to join the interview to be “trained”, but that was acceptable. What was not acceptable was the behavior of one of the interviewers. The interviewer asked me a few dumb questions, and I literally decided to joke back, simply answering with enough high-level jargon that I couldn’t be considered wrong, while not giving him any specifics. I know several of the keywords that the guy was looking for in my answers (inverted index, Markov model, etc.). I simply refused to say any of the “keywords”. The interviewer wasn’t able to understand anything without the keywords being said, and from that interview on my interest simply wasn’t there. If what takes to succeed in a Google interview is to memorize a lot of keyword, then I don’t want to work in such company. Worse is that I really detected a little of the “we are the champions” attitude, even coming from people that clearly had no relation whatsoever with Google’s success. That is what was really unacceptable: I know folks that really changed Computer Science history, and are extremely approachable. And here I was, talking with people that could be considered bystanders at Google, and one of them behaving like if the company couldn’t survive without him.
Things then got really bad when an interviewer asked: “Why do you want to work at Google?” You should see the surprise in his face when I told him that I didn’t really apply for a job at Google, but given a very good offer, I would consider working at Google. Yet, this was one of the nice interviewers, and he had nothing to do with the moronic behavior of the previous one. But that was the key moment: I perceived that, when you “just talked with a moron”, some of the attitude sticks to you. Probably I would soon be a moron if working along such people for long. Luckily, that won’t happen.
This has been the best and most informative Blog about the Google Interview Process. First of all, THANKS to Pete for sharing his experience and starting off a string of responses.
I also applied for a position with Google around 3rd week of December. It’s a for a non-technical position (Enterprise Customer Support Administrator). Few days later, I received an email with a little “let’s talk about you” questionnaire where you had to explain yourself and answer some questions pertaining to the position. After that I received another email from my recruiter to set up for a phone interview.
I thought heck, for a company that receives more than 3100 Resumes in ONE DAY, I wasn’t doing too shabby. So I had my first round of general phone interview then had another Phone Interview that was focussed more on the position (about 30 mins.) I wasn’t too sure about how I did at the 2nd one, but I received an email within a few mins. They have now invited me for an on site interview at their Mountain View HQ. So far, I haven’t been asked any of those “How many golf balls can fit in a bus” kind of questions. So, now I’m just looking forward to the on site interview and not really worrying about it. If it happens, it happens, if not then well I’ll appreciate the experience of making it there.
So if anyone has any tips, or any recent interviewees, please share your thoughts. Also, does any know if Google pays “for the airfare/living/transportation” expenses??
By the way, this comment…
Anon said,
November 12, 2006 @ 6:57 pm
I would rather work for start-ups like youtube, than for salary payouts at companies like Google
I bet he didn’t know at the time that one day Google will own YouTube
> Also, does any know if Google pays “for the airfare/living/transportation” expenses??
Yes, they pay for flights and car and reimburse all your extra expenses within a few months.
Best of luck!
D.
Hi from Mountain View to all. Yes, I’m a Googler now
Oh, this is so 2006 nowadays
Few more questions
Interview At Google
Google Top Interview Questions ( around 30 With Solutions)
Google Interview for Freshers
lol 2 odwalla drinks each time. those things are thick and i cant usually finish even 1. ur really funny with those odwalla drinks
Good article!
By the way, I’ve put together 140 Google interview questions. Your readers might find it helpful.
Check it out: http://blog.seattleinterviewcoach.com/2009/02/140-google-interview-questions.html
- Seattle Interview Coach
I had 2 interview with Google. I answered correctly every question. I have 15 year of experience and I also remembered (I don’t know why
) things about O(nlogn) O(n^2) and other kinds like that. I don’t know experience of Google people who make the interview but I think there are a lot of things more useful that complexities one that a person know at univertity and see on Wiki if he needs it later. I waited 3 months for an answer. I asked Google many times an’answer without nothing back. After more than 3 months, maybe because I stressed them, I had the famous mail “Thank you from Google” saying that “at the moment” I don’t fix blah blah blah. I wrote again to know WHY I’m not good for them. I sent the mail 3 weeks ago and maybe I have to wait again 3 months to have an answer. Maybe I’m simply… old for them (35) but I expected more from Google in terms of “people management”. If they treat people as a number, maybe it’s better for me not to be engaged. I’m really disappointed…
Bye
Luk
Great post – I loved the puzzle and couldn’t help but try and figure it out.
If I we’re asked that same question I would absolutely take the “wager” as long it was exactly as you worded it. If true, then despite the fact that your friend has a much higher earning potential than you – you’re still giving up the chance at an opportunity by declining.
As phrased, the wager does not result in one person having to pay the other for each person they ask – instead, each friend simply “gets” money from somewhere for each birthday.
I’m not sure if this is how it was meant to be understood but I can see how it might be reflective of opportunistic thinking.
Thanks for the great post!
Cheers,
Kris S.
In regard to the brithday problem, I thought that 23 is for the cases that also includes 3, 4, and 5,… people who have the same birthday.
Noboday asked if the problem is asking the probability of only 2 people who have the same birthday. To get a 50-50 chance, how many people should be there for only two people who have the same birthday?
My calulation is this: Combine_x_2 * (1/365), where x = 20. So, it is not 23 if it asks only 2 people sharing birthday.
Is there any comment on the anwser (20)?
Thanks!
In regard to the birthday problem, 23 is for the cases where it also includes 3, 4, 5, .. people who have the same birthday for a 50-50 chance.
What if it asks for exactly only 2 people who has the same birthday?
Here is my calculation:
Conbination_X_2 * 1/365 = (X!/((X-2)!*2!)) * 1/365 > 0.5
where X = 20
Surpisingly, nobody ever asked for the chance of exactly only 2 people who have the same birthday among a group of people.
Please comment on my answer = 20 people, i.e., among 20 people, only 2 people sharing the same birthday has a better-than-even chance. Here, I did not use “at least”.
Thanks!
Hi Friends this is Khamruddin….I am sharing my experience with you…
Recently I attended an interview in Motorola on rolls of Kelly Services for Solaris System Support….In the interview panel 2 Hr people are there and they started the discuss with a sentence “ Ok Lets have a friendly chat with you” and ask me several questions and the interview was around 1 hour…
1) What are you expecting from Motorola?
How to see the telnet service status?
2) What are your roles & responsibilities?
3) How u backup & restore?
4) What is the Model No. of your backup machine? Is the Machine is connected to the servers?
5) Explain about Backup types?
6) What is a Switch?
7) Can you write the command to disable/enable telnet service?
9) How to see the detail description of any service (eg:snmp,telnet etc)?
10) What is this ifconfig?
11) What is NIC?
12) What is this sfe0, le0, hme0, pcn0? Why the NIC cards have different naming convenstions?
13) You have mention in the resume @ roles & responibilities that Partitioned the disks, created new file systems, mounted them and changed the /etc/vfstab entries.(Where and When u use this)?
14) What is df –k and df –h? What is k, h refers?
15) What description will it give when u type #ifconfig command?
16) When did u complete your Sun Certification exam?
17) When is Ur graduate passout?
18) You are working at Gcentric Technologies right? Where it is located.
19) What project they handle and can u explain where they use Solaris in there project?
20) Explain about /etc/syslog.conf. What is the use of it? Can u write the configuration of this file?
21) How You Schedule the events? Write it on the paper?
22) Questions on Process Management?
23) How to format any type of file system?
24) Where will u check to solve any hardware problem or etc?
25) What is SVM?
26) Can u explain the RAID Concept? Use the White Board and explain?
27) Can mirroring is possible with 2 disks?
28) How to check the status of Meta devices?
29) Although u have SVM, then Wat is the need of VERITAS Volume Manager?
30) VxVm comes with Solaris isn’t?
31) What are the daily activities you do in your company on Solaris machines?
32) What is flash archive? What is the purpose of that?
33) You have 1+ year’s exp on Solaris? With in 1 year of Experience what are the problems you faced? Can u list all the problems? (The interviewer noting all the problems what I told)?
34) What is nfs? Explain the configuration of nfs?
35) Do you install packages in Solaris? If so how many times u installed the package?
36) How to mount CD/ROM or any external hard drives?
37) What are zones?
38) Do u installed VERITAS s/w at any time? Is your company using VERITAS?
39) Did you open the sparc PC’s and saw any time? Like assembling & dissembling of Sparc PC’s?
40) What is ISCSI?
41) How to see what type of SCSI devices/controllers we have?
42) What is SMF?
43) Suppose if you got any problem in PCs? How will you handle it?
44) How many servers are there in your company? What is the model and type of server it is?
45) Did u any time opened the Sun Servers and see how many hardisk are there/how many processers etc.Did you check any time?
46) What workstations you people use in your company?
47) How many web developers are there in your company?
48) What is the size of Ur team?
49) Where the .conf files resides?
50) Do you got any hardware problems/errors at any time?
51) What is crashdumps? What is the location of crashdumps file?
52) You got a problem in your sparc system. Where will search for the information?
53) Do you heared about solve.com website?
54) Do you heared about OMC?
And then he explain the roles and responsibilities of the job position?
and here the interview was ended?
After 2 days I got a call that I was selected for Motorola…
All the Best see you soon @ Motorola…
What school did you go to and do you think where you get your degree is the most important to google.
P.S. could you get hired there with just an undergrad in software engineering or would I need at least a masters?
I’ve gone through the interview process twice now with Google (once in 2007 and once in 2010), and since the more information out there for those undergoing pre-Google-Interview stress, the better, I wrote it up:
http://www.stochasticgeometry.ie/2010/07/20/interviews-google/
probably you could think of birth day as day and not date of births so out of 10 people you gt to know who born on say day i.e maonday to sunday… in that sense… ur probablity base redues to just 7 daysin week from 365 days ur calculating thinking it as date of birth…. it mite nt be rite bt dat way i wud accept the wager….
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