I applied online on Google's site and was contacted by a recruiter. The recruiter reviewed my overall experience. They set up a phone interview to dive deeper into my experience.

I flew out to Iowa and was interviewed by roughly six people. I also spent some time eating lunch with fellow Operations Engineers.

Tell me how you would build a DHCP server.

From the moment you turn a Linux box on to the command prompt, tell me as much as you can about how it boots.

Have you ever compiled a kernel before?

Imagine you just SSH'd to a server and know nothing about it. What commands would you use to learn more about the Linux box, and tell me what each command does?

You have 3 engineers and you need to install 3000 [servers/machines - assumed context] spread out over 3 different locations. Your boss has given you one week. Is this a reasonable time to complete this task? Assume all boxes are already ready to be worked on and no coordination is required; you can just walk up to the server and pull it. Walk me through how you answer this question.

How would you get status on a project being worked on?

Explain the TCP 3-way handshake.

Tell me what achievement in life means the most to you.

What is the difference between a packet, segment, and a frame?