Outside of the preliminary recruiter pre-screening, the interview process is broken into four core elements, each conducted by different individual(s): technical, cognitive, culture/fit, and live presentation and demo.

For the technical interview, I'd suggest connecting with someone who can give you insight into typical technical questions to prepare for. This includes understanding the xAAS model and its differences – for example, the differences between IaaS and PaaS, and how one might go about building a "cloud" solution for Snapchat, Twitter, or YouTube.

If there is a specialty focus, such as networking or HPC, prepare accordingly. Refer to the job description for potential areas to focus your preparation.

For the cognitive piece, I didn't know what to prepare, but they were really looking for something that had a "data focus". Questions that might be asked include:

• Where would I set up a sandwich shop if I were to set one up?
• Which do you think has more advertising potential in [city], a flower shop or a funeral home?

In my opinion, you will need to answer the cognitive questions in a qualitative and quantitative manner, while discussing your thinking approach, since they are looking to test the way you tackle problems on the spot.

Before plunging right into the Q&A for the cognitive interview session, I would suggest asking the interviewer to provide a sample question and sample answer to get a sense of what they are looking for in terms of response.

I don't know the right or wrong way to answer these questions, but I truly believe that it can be "learnt". There is a lot of information out there on the web on preparing for a Google interview.

My sense is you would be best advised to get some intel from a Googler insider if possible, or another way to simply keep trying. The absolute best way to prepare for a Google interview is to do more Google interviews; if you fail, you can learn from your mistakes and improve!

Lastly, getting referred into Google makes it easier to get an interview versus blindly applying.

• Where would I set up a sandwich shop if I were to set one up?

• Which do you think has more advertising potential in [city], a flower shop or funeral home?