The most visited website worldwide is google.com. Various other google owned websites like YouTube are also on the list of most visited websites. Landing a job at Google is 8 times harder than getting into Harvard: Google’s acceptance rate is 0.67%, while that of Harvard is 5.2%. In 2019, Google received more than 3 million applications but eliminated 99.3% of them. This is majorly due to Google’s tough interview process. You can learn more from the Google cloud architect course.
This blog on Google Interview Questions will help you to pass the interview & land a job at Google.
- What is Google?
- How to Apply for a Job in Google Company?
- Google Interview Process
- Google Interview Rounds
- How to prepare for Google Technical Interview Questions?
- How to prepare for Googliness Round Questions?
- How to prepare for Google Behavioral Questions?
- Bonus Google Interview Tips
If you’re not into reading, you can also check out our video on Google Interview Questions.
What is Google?
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin on September 4, 1998, while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University.
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that has specialization in Internet-related services and products, which include a search engine, online advertising technologies, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
How to apply for job in Google Company?
- Look for a matching job profile at google’s careers page.
- Once you’ve found a job opening you want to apply for, click the APPLY button on the top of the job description.
- Sign in to your Google Account.
Take note of which email you use to sign in and apply. As google will send you notifications and updates at this address.
When you’re signed in to a Google Account while applying for a job, only data that you explicitly put into the application form is sent to Google Staffing with your application. - Upload your resume, fill out the details in form, review the filled details and submit it.
Google Interview Process
Recruiter Connect:
- It is highly recommended to maintain a good LinkedIn profile.
- It is also advised to connect with existing google employees for the referral purpose.
Once the HR recruiter connects with you & your interview is scheduled then the next step is
Interview Rounds:
- The interview round starts with an initial screening interview.
- The later rounds are more technical & focuses on Data Structure algorithm skills.
- There is also a unique behavioural round called Googliness which is started by google in recent times
So there are a total of 5-6 interview rounds.
After Interview:
- Performance of a candidate is evaluated based on the past interviews.
- All of the interviewers hold a meeting to make a final decision on hiring.
Hired:
Once the team & candidate both are comfortable & ready to start, the offer letter is generated & candidate is hired.
Google Interview Rounds
There are a total of 3 interview rounds:
Telephonic interview: This is also known as the phone screen round. This will last for 45 to 60 minutes, likely on Google Hangouts. So the Google employee will test you with the easy coding questions related to data structures and algorithms. You will solve these on a Google doc or on a whiteboard using around 20 or 30 lines of codes is important to communicate your thought processes & your work. This is how they evaluate your general cognitive ability as well. You can expect an open-ended coding challenge here.
Asking questions for clarification is a great way to demonstrate a problem Solving skill. If you finish before the time ends, look for ways to optimize &, always be sure to consider corner and edge cases.
Algorithm and DS interview: Also known as downside interviews. So if you pass the pre-screen, you will be invited to an on-site interview. You will meet with the full six Google employees for 45 minutes each. These on-site interviews will heavily focus on data structures and algorithms. You will be writing code either on a whiteboard or the Chromebook. Any of them and which they will provide. So of course, because of the security reasons, it’s a good idea to ask the recruiter beforehand, so you can, like, practice properly, the on-site interviews means the algorithm data structure interviews.
Googliness interview: The on-site interviews also hold the feature of behavioural interview questions, which Google names as the googliness interview. To assess who you are as a potential employee. Google wants to see that you fit with their company values. So be sure to prepare for Behaviour interviews as well.
How to prepare for Google Technical Interview Questions?
There are three types of technical problems that you can expect to see in a Google interview.
System design questions: These questions are asked to check your ability to handle high level system design with scalability in mind.
Coding interview challenge: These questions are asked to check your knowledge of data structures and algorithms to optimise a solution to common problems.
General analysis questions: These questions are for checking your thought process through mathematical or opium based questions.
So, there are various strategic Concepts that you need to be good at or you need to practice before going for an interview at Google. One needs to be clear with concepts like sorting, data structures, graphs, recursion, object-oriented programming, KPI’s and how to test your code.
Have a good practice over here. You should repeat. So for all these Concepts you need to have a good knowledge. If we were going for an interview at Google.
Provided below are some of the most asked coding questions in Google’s technical interview:
Q.) Given an array of integers and a value, determine if there are any two integers in the array whose sum is equal to the given value. Return true if the sum exists and return false if it does not.
</div>
<div>def find_sum_of_two(A, val):
found_values = set()
for a in A:
if val - a in found_values:
returnTrue
found_values.add(a)
returnFalse
v = [5,7,1,2,8,4,3]
test = [3,20,1,2,7]
for i inrange(len(test)):
output = find_sum_of_two(v, test[i])
print("find_sum_of_two(v, " + str(test[i]) + ") = " + str(output))</div>
</div>
<div>Q.) Given the root node of a binary tree, swap the ‘left’ and ‘right’ children for each node. The below example shows how the mirrored binary tree should look like.
</div>
<div>def mirror_tree(root):
if root == None:
return
# We will do a post-order traversal of the binary tree.
if root.left != None:
mirror_tree(root.left)
if root.right != None:
mirror_tree(root.right)
# Let's swap the left and right nodes at current level.
temp = root.left
root.left = root.right
root.right = temp
def level_order_traversal(root):
if root == None:
return
q = deque()
q.append(root)
while q:
temp = q.popleft()
print(str(temp.data), end = ",")
if temp.left != None:
q.append(temp.left)
if temp.right != None:
q.append(temp.right)
arr = [100,25,75,15,350,300,10,50,200,400,325,375]
root = create_BST(arr)
#root = create_random_BST(15)
print("nLevel Order Traversal:", end = "")
level_order_traversal(root)
mirror_tree(root)
print("nMirrored Level Order Traversal:", end = "")
level_order_traversal(root)</div>
<div>Q.) You are given a dictionary of words and a large input string. You have to find out whether the input string can be completely segmented into the words of a given dictionary. The following two examples elaborate on the problem further.
def can_segment_string(s, dictionary):
for i inrange(1,len(s) + 1):
first = s[0:i]
if first in dictionary:
second = s[i:]
ifnot second or second in dictionary or can_segment_string(second, dictionary):
returnTrue
returnFalse
s = "hellonow";
dictionary= set(["hello","hell","on","now"])
if can_segment_string(s, dictionary):
print("String Can be Segmented")
else:
print("String Can NOT be Segmented")
How to prepare for Googliness Round Questions?
Predict the future: You should be able to forecast most of the questions asked, for this you will be given the resources to prepare your answers.
Plan: Write down your answers. Practice strategically. Don’t wing the behavioural questions. Think back to your work as an intern or other past experiences. Write down specific examples or notable accomplishments.
Have a backup plan. Google recommends having 3 answers per question. This helps you prepare diverse, interesting answers.
Explain. Google asks you to explain your thought process and decision-making. Explicitly stating your assumptions and processes helps you stand out.
Be data-driven. Google wants answers that relate directly to tangible growth, change, or demonstration of skill.
Clarify. You can use open-ended questions to offer insight into your value as a candidate.
Improve. Google encourages you to always focus on improvement. You can start with a brute force answer, but then work through how you could improve your process.
Practice. Google encourages you to practice aloud to construct clearer answers. Ask a friend to conduct a mock interview or record yourself answering questions.
How to prepare for Google Behavioral Interview Questions?
Here are some of the most asked questions along with appropriate answers in Google behavioural interview:
Make sure to focus on your strengths, skills, qualities and experiences you have that will match the role you are applying for
Q.) Tell me about yourself?
Make sure to focus on your strengths, skills, qualities and experiences you have that will match the role you are applying for. Keep in mind that Google is a high-achieving organisation, so the positive and enthusiastic answer that proves you can add value to their already established team.
Exemplary answer 1:
I am a highly-motivated and goal-oriented person who strongly believes that significant progress in an organisation like GOOGLE can be achieved only if everyone in the team is working in the same direction.
Exemplary answer 2:
In my previous experiences I have learnt and understood the skills that perfectly fits with the job description. Adding on my reviews on my performance by my previous Managers showcase that I am an apt candidate who is willing to give the best to an established and high-achieving organisation like Google.
Q.) Why do you want to work at GOOGLE?
Note: response should be crip, genuine and unique.
Exemplary answer:
Working in GOOGLE will give me an advantage for many reasons. Some of them include; I see my long-term association with the company as GOOGLE’s history and its achievements over the years has inspired me to be a part of further achievements.
The kind of product that GOOGLE creates will always have me take a thing or two from each of its uniqueness to understand and implement for my future to grow to greater heights.
Q.) What do you think are the three qualities to work at Google?
Give three highlighted qualities that will make GOOGLE stand out after your thorough research
There is no right answer while you answer this question hence think wisely and show them that you are aware of GOOGLE’s values and qualities to make the recruiter think that you are willing to know more and invest yourself in the company.
Exemplary answer:
“After good research I understand that one has to be a good team player and work with immense passion towards the work they are recruited for.”
“Understanding and supporting the team to have respect and to treat everyone with the same attitude would help one uphold the GOOGLE values high to achieve the desired goals.”
“Positive attitude and partnership with the co-workers to welcome and consider everyone’s ideas to establish a happy environment is one of the main goals of GOOGLE which helped them reach to a height where they are today.”
Q.) Tell me about a time when you took a risk at work?
- Do not start with a negative scenario/situation.
- Consider how your strengths worked for your best at a crucial situation that needed an immediate action
- Include a colleague or a co-worker that you basically overpowered in achieving the same.
Exemplary answer:
While I was working on a project that had a tight deadline, and an issue was to be solved by one of my co-worker, I had to do it in his absence having known very less about that part of the project I put in extra time even over weekends to learn the requirement and understand to meet the project deadline.
I not only could close the project for the desired deadline but also prevented my co-worker from facing trouble and prevented a huge loss to the company.
Tricks to remember:
- Be ready with detailed examples.
- Let the answers be concise, structured & clear.
- Do your research to understand the values of google.
- Be quick & on point with the answers you give.
Bonus Google Interview Tips
Points to remember:
Gauge your Plans:
- Google is a deeply diverse company that deals with several different technologies.
- Understanding how things work on the inside can help produce the right answers during the interviews.
Focus on specifics:
- From how you have solved certain problems in a previous project to answering how you deal with working in a team.
- This gives the interviewers a closer view into who you are as a person.
Know beyond google:
- While it is a good idea to know what is happening inside Google.
- Having a good understanding of newer areas with potential.
Hoping this information covers all your doubts and questions about Google Interview, we are closing up the content here. Make sure to check out the video if you need to understand better. All the best for your interview! Happy Learning!