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Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

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Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#221

Post by ZNB »

DannyBee wrote: post #36

For all the complaining here, Google's system actually works for Google, so i'm unsure why people expect something to change. The average interview score from a panel of interviews correlates very highly with performance at Google, interviewees report high satisfaction, etc. If those things changed, i'm sure Google would change it. But why would they change it otherwise?

>Google's system actually works for Google

Does it? looking at the pigsty that is the gmail redesign, it sure doesn't feel like they're hiring the brightest they could.

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#222

Post by rvn1045 »

rademacher wrote: post #218

All anecdotal evidence points to arriving at the correct, optimal solution as being key to passing the interview. It also seems like often times the interviewers are not even going to be working with the candidate so their opinion on a 'working relationship' is mostly irrelevant. The objective of asking these leetcode style questions is to find candidates who are willing to put in the time to study. Success signals t…

Didnt the creator of home-brew not end up getting a job at google?

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#223

Post by rvn1045 »

periferral wrote: post #81

I interviewed for a Product Manager role at Google and my experience was awful. Put this things in perspective, I was a Director of PM managing a team at my current role and working a lot with customers, presenting in speaking engagements etc as part of my day to day. I get into the interview and the person on the other side seems to know very little of my background. He says he is a PM and starts with how much is go…

I think the thinking behind not asking about your background and looking at your resume etc - is that these things can introduce a bias. By asking for particular types of questions and training their interviewers in a particular way they are trying to reduce bias and streamline the whole process.

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#225

Post by minimaxir »

rvn1045 wrote: post #222
rademacher wrote: post #218

All anecdotal evidence points to arriving at the correct, optimal solution as being key to passing the interview. It also seems like often times the interviewers are not even going to be working with the candidate so their opinion on a 'working relationship' is mostly irrelevant. The objective of asking these leetcode style questions is to find candidates who are willing to put in the time to study. Success signals t…

Didnt the creator of home-brew not end up getting a job at google?

That 2015 tweet (https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?s=21) helped popularize the Google Interview memes, but things like Cracking the Code Interview still existed long before then.

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#226

Post by [deleted] »

rvn1045 wrote: post #222
rademacher wrote: post #218

All anecdotal evidence points to arriving at the correct, optimal solution as being key to passing the interview. It also seems like often times the interviewers are not even going to be working with the candidate so their opinion on a 'working relationship' is mostly irrelevant. The objective of asking these leetcode style questions is to find candidates who are willing to put in the time to study. Success signals t…

Didnt the creator of home-brew not end up getting a job at google?

[deleted]

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#227

Post by alehul »

rlpb wrote: post #215
periferral wrote: post #81

I interviewed for a Product Manager role at Google and my experience was awful. Put this things in perspective, I was a Director of PM managing a team at my current role and working a lot with customers, presenting in speaking engagements etc as part of my day to day. I get into the interview and the person on the other side seems to know very little of my background. He says he is a PM and starts with how much is go…

> He pauses and says give me a dollar value. He asked you for "how much is google's spend" and you finished your estimations without giving him a dollar value? Did you forget his question? > He doesnt want to understand the logic behind the calculations. From your description that sounds like a false assumption to me. It sounds like despite your estimations you didn't give him an answer to his actual question, and so…

I'm fairly sure that he was speaking his calculations aloud in the process of reaching the dollar value when the interviewer stopped him and asked for an answer.

It's a great interview question in the sense of a Fermi problem (I was once asked by a startup "how many window washers are there in [CITY]?"). The premises you choose and how you evaluate them, however, are so much more important in a Fermi problem than a correct answer. I remember being about 5x off but it was only because of a drastic underestimation on the time it takes to clean a window.

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#228

Post by JeremyBanks »

esoterica wrote: post #65

Anyone who interviews at a "prestigious" company and then complains about how difficult the interview is kind of hypocritical. Google, and other FAANGs/unicorns, make you solve hard algorithms questions because they believe - correctly or wrongly - that in order to succeed as a company they have to filter out the vast majority of candidates who have poor algorithmic skills. They also pay a lot of money because that's…

We’re not complaining that they’re difficult, we’re complaining that they’re stupid and a poor measure. This isn’t jealousy: I was hired by Google twice, but comparing my interviews and outcomes with friends and later coworkers, it seems like I just got luckier twice, and they dropped some way more talented people on the floor. The process is a total crapshoot, but like many things at the company nobody senior enough is willing to take ownership and fix it.

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#229

Post by C1sc0cat »

rlpb wrote: post #215
periferral wrote: post #81

I interviewed for a Product Manager role at Google and my experience was awful. Put this things in perspective, I was a Director of PM managing a team at my current role and working a lot with customers, presenting in speaking engagements etc as part of my day to day. I get into the interview and the person on the other side seems to know very little of my background. He says he is a PM and starts with how much is go…

> He pauses and says give me a dollar value. He asked you for "how much is google's spend" and you finished your estimations without giving him a dollar value? Did you forget his question? > He doesnt want to understand the logic behind the calculations. From your description that sounds like a false assumption to me. It sounds like despite your estimations you didn't give him an answer to his actual question, and so…

And how would an outsider have any idea of the cost do you just mean the plant costs how much does google pay per MW in each locale how much does labour costs what allowance for accrued pension rights.

Re: Google's interview system: it's not about solving the problem

#230

Post by expertentipp »

esoterica wrote: post #65

Anyone who interviews at a "prestigious" company and then complains about how difficult the interview is kind of hypocritical. Google, and other FAANGs/unicorns, make you solve hard algorithms questions because they believe - correctly or wrongly - that in order to succeed as a company they have to filter out the vast majority of candidates who have poor algorithmic skills. They also pay a lot of money because that's…

FAANG companies don't pay anything near 300k USD annually in Europe, it doesn't happen. Probably 20% above the local market average. Their (certainly Google's) recruitment process in Europe is still the same demanding though. These are yet another companies in one's job application queue, and annoying ones.
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