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Software Engineer Interview Experience - Mountain View, California

May 1, 2008
Negative ExperienceGot Offer

Process

Several successive one-to-one interviews.

First was a general discussion, ending with questions about a particular point of a framework. Apparently, the interviewer really did not care about my previous experience or skills.

Second was more about infrastructure, basically how to build web search engines (inverted indexes, how to match several terms, etc.).

Third was algorithms-oriented. It asked: What is the best way to implement sort? (Java code, and variations on the best choice for pivot), ending in math: arithmetic series, etc.

Last was somewhat about a web client data model.

Overall, tricky interviews, but I had a very strange and bad feeling about the interview process due to the complete lack of discussion on real-world previous experience.

Questions

What happens when you enter a search query on Google?

Ideas about sorting results?

How to choose a pivot in Quicksort.

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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.

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