A university recruiter contacted me and helped me through the process of two technical phone interviews and four technical onsite interviews. Google fully accommodated me (I'm from the East Coast). Every Googler I met was helpful, nice, and knowledgeable.

The interview problems were very challenging. Be sure to practice, practice, and further prepare yourself to be able to design and implement algorithms for unique spins on classic CS problems.

After the onsite interviews, the four interviewers submitted their notes on me to a hiring committee. If you make it through them, your application is sent to a final committee to determine whether or not to make an offer.

I was not made an offer but am preparing for the next round of interviews when I apply again next year. Google really seems like an amazing place to work.

What is the biggest challenge or conflict you have faced, and how did you overcome it?

(This is a very common interview question, so be prepared.)

Topics to master include:

• Traversing and manipulating trees and graphs
• Number theory
• Data structures
• Mastery of your preferred programming language
• Recursion
• Dynamic programming
• Classic algorithms