Software Engineer Interview Experience - Mountain View, California
January 1, 2015
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
Two phone interviews followed by an on-site interview.
The phone interviews involved coding in a shared document, and the on-site interview consisted of four different interviews with four different people, including whiteboard coding.
Questions
Lots of what you'd be expected to learn in university (this was for a new grad position):
- Working with data structures
- Scaling
- Space/time complexity
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 748 interview experiences for the Google Software Engineer role in Mountain View, California.
Success Rate
20%
Pass Rate
Google's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Mountain View, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive64%
Neutral23%
Negative14%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Google's Software Engineer interview process in Mountain View, California.
Google Work Experiences
5.0
Cutting Edge Tech with Massive Scale Impact
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
July 5, 2023
Pros: Get to work with very brilliant people, working hard to bring to people new products powered by the very latest technology. This is a great place to learn from some of the best in the field.
Cons: The open work culture is diminishing over time. Benefits are being pulled back due to cost cutting. The company is becoming more top-down over time.
5.0
Google is great!
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
March 23, 2021
Pros: Everything is great and people are nice.
Cons: There are no cons at Google.
3.0
Nice company, but bad career path
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
December 4, 2015
Pros: Good work-life balance. You can easily stay at T5 while working 40 hours a week.
Technical depth. Google has many projects that are very technically deep.
Cons: Bad career path.
Most people stop at T5. To reach T6, you have to fight for leadership and ownership.
Communication overhead due to the sheer size of the company.
Personal growth. While you are exposed to interesting and technical deep projects, you are likely to get lost on how the entire infrastructure works. Bad if you want to build skills for running or joining startups.
- 5.0Cutting Edge Tech with Massive Scale ImpactSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesJuly 5, 2023Pros: Get to work with very brilliant people, working hard to bring to people new products powered by the very latest technology. This is a great place to learn from some of the best in the field.Cons: The open work culture is diminishing over time. Benefits are being pulled back due to cost cutting. The company is becoming more top-down over time.
- 5.0Google is great!Software Engineer • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesMarch 23, 2021Pros: Everything is great and people are nice.Cons: There are no cons at Google.
- 3.0Nice company, but bad career pathSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesDecember 4, 2015Pros: Good work-life balance. You can easily stay at T5 while working 40 hours a week. Technical depth. Google has many projects that are very technically deep.Cons: Bad career path. Most people stop at T5. To reach T6, you have to fight for leadership and ownership. Communication overhead due to the sheer size of the company. Personal growth. While you are exposed to interesting and technical deep projects, you are likely to get lost on how the entire infrastructure works. Bad if you want to build skills for running or joining startups.
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