Software Engineer Interview Experience - Mountain View, California
Process
The interview was distributed among many people, and they had many different expectations. It was hard to determine exactly what they were looking for from me.
Was it my creativity? Was it my coding style? Did they even need me?
During a back-and-forth discussion, I was led on for more algorithmic details. Afterward, I was given the advice that I should have provided more comments in my code.
Questions
I was given a technical interview question. Without the details, the question was a variant on how to represent a sparse matrix, and then I was asked to analyze my algorithm.
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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
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
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Google's Software Engineer interview process in Mountain View, California.
Google Work Experiences
- 4.0Good Pay, Tough BalanceSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesJune 4, 2025Pros: Compensation, challenging work, great resources.Cons: No work-life balance; managers are detached from technical skills.
- 5.0Awesome company and great perksSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesMay 16, 2015Pros: The company is building interesting products with cutting-edge technology. This can really help you ramp up and work with cool and fun stuff.Cons: Things change fast, and you need to be able to adapt quickly.
- 5.0Learned A Lot, Great PaySoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesJune 23, 2025Pros: Learned a lot. Good work-life balance. Great compensation.Cons: A very large environment can lead to you getting pigeonholed.
Google Interview Questions
