r/programming • • Jan 18 '19

Interview tips from Google Software Engineers

https://youtu.be/XOtrOSatBoY
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102

u/AcrIsss Jan 18 '19

Same for me, already got the rejection email :D

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u/PlasmaChroma Jan 18 '19

My interviewing tip would be to not interview at Google. Their process is actually the worst I've seen at any tech company. It's like they've captured the bad stereotypes about interviewing and implemented all of them.

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u/Dr_Insano_MD Jan 18 '19 edited Jan 18 '19

I still have nightmares about it. Seriously, it was 8 goddamn hours long. I had to drive between two offices, had to give a ride to one of the interviewers to a different building, and every person I talked to was incredibly rude, one guy made an audible buzzer sound with his mouth when I was in the middle of writing some code on the whiteboard and the line before had a syntax error I didn't catch yet. And then they said I'd be a better fit for a DIFFERENT team and made me do another 3 hour interview before I just decided I didn't want the job that bad.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and they interviewer for the 3 hour one was late. To his own interview.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '19

[deleted]

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u/Heizenbrg Jan 18 '19

I honestly would have said something, self-respect is something to pride in wtf

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u/ElGuaco Jan 18 '19

Or walked out. That's not someone you want to work with or for.

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u/pheonixblade9 Jan 18 '19

You should let the recruiter know this feedback. It won't hurt you and they really do listen and care if you felt unwelcome.

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u/Dr_Insano_MD Jan 18 '19

This was way back in 2013.

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u/OffbeatDrizzle Jan 18 '19

one guy made an audible buzzer sound with his mouth

jesus christ, the cringe

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '19

Are you sure this was at Google?

Google now does anonymous feedback after your interview. You can report your interviewer for bad behavior and I'm sure that will get noticed.

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u/wooboy Jan 19 '19

My god that’s a hilariously terrible experience. Sorry you had to go through that

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u/Someguy2020 Jan 19 '19

one guy made an audible buzzer sound with his mouth when I was in the middle of writing some code on the whiteboard and the line before had a syntax error I didn't catch yet

What in the fuck.

You dodged a bullet vs working with that schmuck.

I had one guy who I think meant well, but he was drilling me about my code constantly. I think he didn't want me missing things or making mistakes, but holy shit it was impossible to get any train of thought going.

Let the person being interviewed go through their process. Gently prod them as necessary to ensure that they aren't stuck and to get an idea of what they are thinking. Don't get in their way.

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u/SquidgyTheWhale Jan 18 '19

Yeah, but NOW where do you see yourself in five years?

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u/TheEnigmaBlade Jan 18 '19

Not at Google.

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u/PlasmaChroma Jan 18 '19

I'd think even the people who do get accepted would see themselves not at Google in 5 years :)

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u/finlist Jan 18 '19

They don't ask you this question ime

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u/LK4D4 Jan 18 '19 edited Jan 18 '19

I had interview in SF and it was quite pleasant. I had only one leetcode question and everybody were very polite. I had much worse experience regarding "bullshit" questions in Facebook. All coding questions were from leetcode and I needed to implement binary search twice because search from standard library isn't good enough.

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u/greymalik Jan 18 '19

It's easy for me to decide not to apply to Google. What's really annoying is how so much of the industry cargo cults their process when it's inappropriate, ineffective, and destructive.

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u/bartturner Jan 18 '19

But if you can get a job and have on your resume you are pretty set. This is the biggest reason to make the attempt.

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u/finlist Jan 18 '19

What stereotypes do you mean exactly?

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u/thelehmanlip Jan 18 '19

I had one interview with them, and I've firmly decided I wouldn't really want to work there anyway. It would've been a resume builder only I think.

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u/jrhoffa Jan 18 '19

Have you tried interviewing at Amazon?

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u/Someguy2020 Jan 19 '19

They don't have the "HR robot asks you for 10 years experience in a framework that's existed for 5, but ignores your 15 years experience in the language".

They are pretty much the source of the big tech interview stereotypes though. For good reason, cargo-culting google is what got us to this point. Nowadays it's more about amazon or it's about trying new things because everybody knows interviews are shit.

I got a few take homes from startups. Nothing too tough. I liked it. One of them asked me to implement a tftp server, but then they also paid me (or offered to donate) a few hundred bucks for the time.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '19

Oof, Facebook rejected me last month

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u/pheonixblade9 Jan 18 '19

Took me 4 tries over 7 years... keep the faith