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How I (almost) got an internship at Google

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Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#21

Post by 27182818284 »

bad_user wrote: post #18

given two full hours and any high-level language (including pseudocode) only 10 percent of professional programmers implemented binary search correctly, according to Jon Bently. Wow! I'm not particularly intelligent and I'm not in the top 10% -- but I could implement an in-place quick-sort in C in 10 minutes that my interviewer could run with only a minor fix (forgot a semi-colon), and I even described the parallel v…

Not that strange actually, as others mentioned, edge cases, etc.

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/06/extra-extra-read-...

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#22

Post by bad_user »

ernestipark wrote: post #19
bad_user wrote: post #18

given two full hours and any high-level language (including pseudocode) only 10 percent of professional programmers implemented binary search correctly, according to Jon Bently. Wow! I'm not particularly intelligent and I'm not in the top 10% -- but I could implement an in-place quick-sort in C in 10 minutes that my interviewer could run with only a minor fix (forgot a semi-colon), and I even described the parallel v…

Don't be so pompous. Most people know how to implement it, it's not a difficult concept. It's just that there are edge cases and intricacies of implementation that yield bugs.

The quote I'm referring to mentions pseudocode, which makes integers overflowing and stuff like that irrelevant, since that's dependent on the integer representation you're using.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#23

Post by dman »

bad_user wrote: post #18

given two full hours and any high-level language (including pseudocode) only 10 percent of professional programmers implemented binary search correctly, according to Jon Bently. Wow! I'm not particularly intelligent and I'm not in the top 10% -- but I could implement an in-place quick-sort in C in 10 minutes that my interviewer could run with only a minor fix (forgot a semi-colon), and I even described the parallel v…

Ive choked on some very simple programming problems in circumstances where I am being closely watched. I need to be by myself to think about problems and attack the problem incrementally. Somehow having an audience seems to force me to attack the whole problem at once before writing anything. In short, I don't know if my experience is unique but there might be other programmers who under perform when being closely watched.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#24

Post by pgbovine »

michaelpinto wrote: post #15
elbenshira wrote: post #3

My story: After my technical phone interviews, I got "accepted" as an intern, meaning I was in the Intern Pool of Rot, where I waded and waited for a team to fish me out. I waded and waded for a couple of months, hoping for a kind suitor. The HR woman always told me that she was "optimistic" about my prospects, so I rejected offers from other companies. Then a really cool opportunity came, and I accepted that offer b…

Somewhere in that pool of rejected interns is the next Bill Gates...

i doubt future-bill-gates would have the patience to apply and wait for big company internships. he would probably be spending that time hacking, hustling, and creating his own software business.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#25

Post by kin »

marvin wrote: post #13

I wouldn't bother applying. Why the hell would you want to work a company that runs you through the gauntlet like this, only to give you the chance that maybe you'll get hired? I mean, this is obviously a really skilled guy who has lots of prospects. Why are Google so popular anyway? I genuinely don't get it and would love to know from someone who has specific knowledge. Do they pay better than everyone else? Work on…

I'm not a Googler, but I know many and yes, Google pays well, they work on very very interesting problems. Ex-Googler does have a ring to it when you apply for jobs. There are awesome benefits like amazing facilities and lunch everyday, on-site massages, fitness centers, etc. The environment is that everyone around you is incredibly intelligent so just being there is intellectually stimulating and feels like you're a student. Though working at Google is definitely not what it used to be, it certainly has its perks.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#26

Post by saturdayplace »

michaelpinto wrote: post #15
elbenshira wrote: post #3

My story: After my technical phone interviews, I got "accepted" as an intern, meaning I was in the Intern Pool of Rot, where I waded and waited for a team to fish me out. I waded and waded for a couple of months, hoping for a kind suitor. The HR woman always told me that she was "optimistic" about my prospects, so I rejected offers from other companies. Then a really cool opportunity came, and I accepted that offer b…

Somewhere in that pool of rejected interns is the next Bill Gates...

I doubt it. The next Bill Gates isn't hoping to get noticed by some company. He's out making something and/or hustling for deals like the actual Bill Gates did. The next Bill Gates is most definitely NOT languishing unnoticed in some intern pool waiting to be discovered like some Hollywood wannabe starlet.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#27

Post by cmansley »

This was exactly my experience. Everything from the two technical interviews with the addition of a third to the technical questions with queries about bugs in the code. I think 2->3 conversion is exactly what you said. The first two interviewers split on their opinion of you, so you get scheduled a tie-breaker interview. Unfortunately for me, the tie-breaker interview was my worst, partly due to me and partly due to non-existant feedback for 45 minutes on the part of the interviewer.

But, I believe there is a method to the madness. They have so many qualified applicants that they would rather err on the side of caution. They would rather reduce the false-positives even if the number of false-negatives grows. They can afford this luxury. They want the best and they can afford rejecting good candidates.

My favorite way of thinking about this was from Steve Yegge's blog post about the interview process : "Because of the inherently flawed nature of the interviewing process, it's highly likely that someone on the loop will be unimpressed with you, even if you are Alan Turing. Especially if you're Alan Turing, in fact, since it means you obviously don't know C++"

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#28

Post by rdtsc »

I hate little programming puzzles that you have code by hand or little word problems, or trick questions that you have to think "out of the box".

In many years of programming I don't remember having to write a binary search in C, by hand, in a text document, without being able to compile and test. Or having to dictate a Python program over the phone to someone.

I certainly do not remember ever having to solve stuff like:"One train leaves Los Angeles at 15mph heading for New York. Another train leaves from New York at 20mph heading for Los Angeles on the same track. If a bird, flying at 25mph, leaves from Los Angeles at the same time as the train and flies back and forth between the two trains until they collide, how far will the bird have traveled?" NEVER.

I had to implement & modify algorithms from scientific papers, I had to work with complicated lockless versions of data structures, but I probably couldn't write the binary tree search in C over the phone. If that's that Google uses to hire then I will never work at Google.

EDIT: Alright, got a angry and used the 'fuck' a little too much.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#29

Post by mdwrigh2 »

clawr wrote: post #16
elbenshira wrote: post #3

My story: After my technical phone interviews, I got "accepted" as an intern, meaning I was in the Intern Pool of Rot, where I waded and waited for a team to fish me out. I waded and waded for a couple of months, hoping for a kind suitor. The HR woman always told me that she was "optimistic" about my prospects, so I rejected offers from other companies. Then a really cool opportunity came, and I accepted that offer b…

The process isn't too different now. My first interview (on campus) was mid January of this year. About a month later (mid February) I had another technical interview, after which I was put into the pool of possible interns. Then in mid March I had a "host interview" with my eventual manager, which resulted in an offer. A two month intern hiring process, when other companies make decisions within a week of the interv…

My process was the exact opposite. I did my two technical interviews back-to-back on a friday afternoon (4-6pm EST, so late in the day), and had been accepted to the applicant pool within the hour, with a host matching interview being setup 30 minutes after that. I interviewed Monday with my host and his manager, and was told that they were willing to host me and were going to start the approval process for an offer. I had the official offer by the end of the week.

So in under a week, I went from initial interview, to official offer. This is by _no_ means typical (and my recruiter even commented on how unbelievably fast it was), but it _does_ happen.

Re: How I (almost) got an internship at Google

#30

Post by kenjackson »

bad_user wrote: post #22
ernestipark wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be so pompous. Most people know how to implement it, it's not a difficult concept. It's just that there are edge cases and intricacies of implementation that yield bugs.

The quote I'm referring to mentions pseudocode, which makes integers overflowing and stuff like that irrelevant, since that's dependent on the integer representation you're using.

It depends on how the test was given. For example, did they ask you to write quicksort == you submit a version and then they grade it. If so I can imagine a lot of little mistakes... from the integer overflow issue (if they did pick a language), to off by one errors, to not handling empty lists, or the case where the item isn't in the list, or other errors that if someone were to say, "it doesn't work with this input" you could easily fix it, but if not given a chance for correction many could easily get wrong.
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