The interview process at Google is clearly defined by the recruiter you are working with. I applied via the website, following the instructions they have listed, and received an email from a recruiter within 24 hours.

The recruiter will give you technical resources to review for the interview questions.

My first attempt, I went through all rounds but did not get an offer extended. I spent most of my effort preparing by searching the web for questions people were asked in the past and reviewing basic concepts.

Apparently, I did well enough for them to call me a year later and ask me to interview again. This time, I prepared by reading the recommended Algorithm Design Manual and doing as many practice questions as possible on a whiteboard.

I used the practice questions from:

• Cracking the Coding Interview
• Programming Interviews Exposed

My advice would be to postpone the in-person interviews to give yourself plenty of time to prepare. Your gut reaction is to do it ASAP, but trust me, you need the extra time to go over all the material.

I gave myself two weeks to prepare, and it worked.

The questions focus on finding the right data structures to make solving the problems easy and elegant.