Prior to this round of interviews, I had three technical phone interviews back in January that allowed me to proceed directly to the onsite interview this time.

Onsite, I had four technical interviews where I wrote code on a whiteboard. I also had one interview discussing my PhD research and how I could apply it and my skills to Google. Additionally, I went out to lunch with another employee, which provided an opportunity to ask questions about the culture, projects, and environment at Google.

Overall, the experience was good. All interviewers were very nice, and if I was stuck, most knew how to give a hint by asking a question or providing an example that my solution may or may not handle.

Recommendations: Of course, brush up on all your coding and algorithms. Practice writing on a whiteboard if you can, and be sure to optimize your whiteboard space as you write.

Make sure you go in knowing how the work and experience you have done could apply to Google. For me, my interviewer and I never seemed to be on the same page, which could have been detrimental.

Downside: I asked my recruiter for any kind of feedback as to why I wasn't made an offer, and so that I could improve my skills, but she did not provide anything.

NDA. Typical linked list, array, and string manipulations involving sorting and searching were covered. One question focused on computer architecture. The interviewer asked to optimize for time and/or storage and to discuss the trade-offs.