Google: My interview experience
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Google: My interview experience
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Re: Google: My interview experience
#2I didn't see you mention this, but the point of the coding interview is not to see how optimal your solution is (although it helps). It's also to see if you're a good person to work with.
If you nail the problem right away but you don't talk it through with the interviewer you'll be scored lower. They want to see if you'd be a person they'd like to work with on the team, not the quiet person that never collaborates.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#3I didn't see you mention this, but the point of the coding interview is not to see how optimal your solution is (although it helps). It's also to see if you're a good person to work with. If you nail the problem right away but you don't talk it through with the interviewer you'll be scored lower. They want to see if you'd be a person they'd like to work with on the team, not the quiet person that never collaborates.
It sounds then like the interviewer ought to help solve the problem if engaged properly then. I would pull on then if stuck anyway haha.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#4At least they give you some feedback in the end. I had the experience to be rejected after an onsite interview at Amazon, and they did not take the time to give a word of feedback, after I even asked for it.
I see the past interviews were of great help to you to finally get the position at Amazon. I am looking forward to read your third post. Complimenti collega!
Re: Google: My interview experience
#5As always, remember that even technical interviews like this one have an incredible amount of random chance built into the hiring process. This is especially true at a big company like Google (where I work and do interviews). Do they happen to have positions open right now? Did you happen to get asked questions that clicked with you? Was the hiring committee feeling grouchy that day? Did you get an especially harsh interviewer for one of your questions? Did they just hire someone with your skillset and so don't need a duplicate right now?
There's a decent amount that you can do to prepare for one of these things, but there's also an incredible amount you don't have control over. If you don't get the job, it's not a signal regarding your quality as an engineer and you shouldn't interpret it as such (however tempting it may be to do so). Remember, there are many great places to work right now, and your skillset is in demand. If we didn't get lucky enough to hire you, someone else will quite soon.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#6I didn't see you mention this, but the point of the coding interview is not to see how optimal your solution is (although it helps). It's also to see if you're a good person to work with. If you nail the problem right away but you don't talk it through with the interviewer you'll be scored lower. They want to see if you'd be a person they'd like to work with on the team, not the quiet person that never collaborates.
I agree with you. I put more the emphasis on the optimality of the solutions because that was the feedback from the recruiter. During the interviews, I made sure to talk through the problems indeed. That is a whole skill in itself.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#7I'm becoming convinced that the only way to get into Google is to get in as an intern or new grad if OP studied for 6 months and still didn't get an offer.
It doesn't seem that way at other top companies like FB, Amazon and MS from the people I've talked to.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#8At least they give you some feedback in the end. I had the experience to be rejected after an onsite interview at Amazon, and they did not take the time to give a word of feedback, after I even asked for it. I see the past interviews were of great help to you to finally get the position at Amazon. I am looking forward to read your third post. Complimenti collega!
I had the same experience with Amazon--dinged with no feedback.
Normally I'm a sucker for irony, but when they sent me an auto email a few weeks later asking _me_ for feedback (ie, a survey on the hiring process), I didn't find it immediately funny.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#9As always, remember that even technical interviews like this one have an incredible amount of random chance built into the hiring process. This is especially true at a big company like Google (where I work and do interviews). Do they happen to have positions open right now? Did you happen to get asked questions that clicked with you? Was the hiring committee feeling grouchy that day? Did you get an especially harsh i…
I agree with the noise of the process. Actually, the whole experience was a good one for me, maybe I didn't express it in the post? Anyway, I got a job in Amazon UK at the end, so not too bad.
Re: Google: My interview experience
#10I'm becoming convinced that the only way to get into Google is to get in as an intern or new grad if OP studied for 6 months and still didn't get an offer. It doesn't seem that way at other top companies like FB, Amazon and MS from the people I've talked to.
Meh, just try again in a year. High variance.