The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Google in Jan 2010
Interview
Phone interview with an engineer. He started with an introduction of himself and the position and then we dived right into a programming problem. He shared a Google Doc with me and asked me to type in the solution. Afterwards, he asked me some Java syntax questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a string and a list of character mappings of the form (a=>j,k), (d=>r), (t=>r,q,e,y), print out all the possible variants by applying the mapping to the original string.
example:
string="foo", mappings = "o=>1,2", "k=>d,l,w"
output:
foo
fo1
fo2
f1o
f11
f12
f2o
f21
f22
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Google (New York, NY) in Jan 2010
Interview
Recruiter was main point of contact. Processed resume/experience and setup interviews.
Two 45 minute technical phone interviews spaced about 3 hours apart. Asked about entries on resume and previous work experience. Then some problem solving questions, and finally some algorithms question. One included coding on a collaborative document on Google docs. Both asked time complexity related questions.
Few weeks later, scheduled 3 on site interviews and lunch. Each 45mins-1hour long. Questions here were more focused, mainly picking a topic and sticking with it. No time complexity, but quite a bit of coding. Some questions on statistics, many on data structures, some on API design.
Overall had a great time. The engineers I talked with were intelligent and fun. In the end I think it was a few poor answers during the phone screen that prevented any offer, but a good experience overall.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Given a stream of integers of unknown (possibly large) length, how would you pick one at random? Now prove its random.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Jan 2010
Interview
I contacted a recruiter I found online. He scheduled a phone interview for me. The interview consisted of few questions on Java and an algorithm question. I was asked to write a function to find an intersection from 2 sorted arrays. And the interview ended. With little more practice one can crack the interview easily. "Programming interview exposed" book really helps you prepare for the interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a function to find intersection of 2 sorted arrays.