I was contacted by a recruiter in May for full-time opportunities. I had interviewed before for an internship in January, but I did not receive an offer. The recruiter told me that she found my resume in their database. Since I wasn't prepared to interview at that time, I asked my recruiter if I could have my phone interview in July. The recruiter agreed and asked me to remind her in June.

I reminded the recruiter in June, and I was scheduled for a phone interview in July. The recruiter gave me many topics to prepare. They mostly covered the basics of Computer Science I studied in my undergraduate and graduate school.

The phone interview took place using a shared Google Doc. I was asked two pretty simple questions, which I coded and tested within 30 minutes. However, there was a huge communication gap between me and my interviewer. The interviewer was not a native English speaker and was unable to understand my explanations. I was quite disappointed, as I thought I had messed it up, even though it was no fault of mine. (Note: This was the only negative experience throughout my process and was completely overshadowed by the positive experiences later).

The recruiter called me the following day and told me that they wanted me to have a second phone interview, as the first interview was inconclusive.

I scheduled the second interview a week later. This interview was also on a shared Google Doc, and my interviewer told me that the interview would be in two parts: one about CS fundamentals and the second would be some coding. For the first part, we did not use the Google Doc, and I was asked many questions about Data Structures, Algorithms, and Complexity Analysis. The questions would seem very easy if you are well-prepared. The coding question was also quite simple.

Two days later, I was told that I had cleared the round and they wanted to schedule my on-site interview at Mountain View.

I scheduled my interview a month later, and the recruiter gave me a lot of material and links to refer for my preparation. The recruiter was extremely helpful, and she even wished me luck a day before my on-site.

The on-site consisted of four technical interviews and a lunch with an engineer. The lunch was not evaluative. All four interviews were white-board coding, and they tested my coding, algorithm, and basic computer science skills. The interviewers were extremely nice. At the end of the day, I was feeling very happy with the level of discussions I was able to have with the interviewers.

My recruiter called me about an hour after my last interview to inform me that she had already received a couple of interview reviews and they looked pretty positive. Three days later, my recruiter told me that she received all the interview reviews, and the comments were very positive, and that she would be sending my package to the hiring committee. I heard back from my recruiter about a week later that the hiring committee had approved my application and it would now go for compensation and executive review. A week from then, my recruiter scheduled a Hangout call with me where she explained my offer. :)

Even though the entire process was spread over months, it was a really pleasant experience. My recruiter was exceptional, and she replied very promptly to all my emails and kept updating me regularly at every step of the process. Now I am looking forward to joining Google the coming year once I graduate.