I interviewed for a Software Engineer in Test role at Google in Jan 2010. The process involved two hour-long phone interviews on the same day. I was referred by someone I knew at the company, and after a brief 20-minute talk with an HR representative, my interviews were scheduled.

The first interview was with a member of the Test team for Chrome. We began by discussing my background and my reasons for applying. Then, we moved on to technical questions. The first was a testing question: "What approach would you take to test that Google Chrome actually works?" We spent about 15-20 minutes on this before I was asked a logic/programming question. The scenario was that I was a parking attendant in a lot with only one open spot. I needed to move cars into a new, desired arrangement. The task was to create a program that would print out instructions on how to move the cars most efficiently.

The problem wasn't overly difficult. The core idea was to find the empty spot, identify which car should be in that spot according to the desired arrangement, and then move that car there. This process would be repeated until the arrangement was complete.

The second phone interview focused heavily on Data Structures. There were very few questions about my background; we got straight into the coding portion. During this interview, I found the interviewer to be unclear about her expectations. It didn't seem intentional, and we simply didn't connect well.

Given the second interview, my expectations were low. A week later, I received a call from the HR person. She informed me that they were not interested in me at that time. I asked for more feedback, but she was unable to provide any. This is a significant point of frustration for me, as I am genuinely looking to improve myself, and feedback is crucial for that. In this instance, however, I am almost certain that my experience with data structures was my downfall.

My advice, if you are interviewing for a position at Google, is to ensure you thoroughly understand data structures, as they seem to be a key focus.

You are a parking lot attendant in a lot that has one open spot, and you want to move the cars from their original positions into a new arrangement. Create a program that will print out instructions on how to move the cars most efficiently.