The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Google in Feb 2011
Interview
Two back to back 45 minutes phone interviews. The interviewers were not native speakers, and it was a bit hard to understand their questions.
First interview consisted of general questions about complexity of different algorithms.
Second interview asked to solve two problems and code them in language of choice
First interviewer seemed happy with my answers. He even tried to help with hints.
Second interviewer was a bit grumpy and seemed disinterested in the interview. I solved both questions but did not give right complexity for the first problem. Also my code must have looked a bit primitive since I used plain C to code.
Did not get the offer but don't think the questions were out of reach. It was a reasonable experience.
Advice: get a lot of sleep before interview. I haven't and by the second interview I was already drained
OA with three questions to solve. Each problem was a leetcode medium or hard question. I was given I think about two hours for the three questions. The site automatically locked after the given time.
The overall process was challenging but well-structured, taking a few weeks from start to finish. It began with an initial recruiter screening to discuss timeline and background. This was followed by rigorous technical interviews focusing heavily on Data Structures, Algorithms, and problem-solving (expect LeetCode Medium/Hard level questions).
After passing the technical rounds, I moved into the Team Matching phase. This involved a behavioral and technical discussion with the actual Hiring Manager to see if my past projects (C++, hardware, system architecture) aligned with the team's needs. Once the manager gave the green light, the file went to the global compensation committee. The final step before the official written offer was an automated ID verification process (via Veriff) to confirm my legal name for the contract. The recruiting team was great, but be prepared for the final administrative steps to take a bit of patience!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Walk me through the architecture of the most complex system you have built. What were the biggest performance bottlenecks and how did you solve them?
The first step was OA, then two 45-minute technical rounds with engineers. These rounds had one coding question + multiple follow-ups. There was some time left at the end for questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One question tested my knowledge of recursion, hashmaps, and backtracking.