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Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Jose, California

November 1, 2010
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The recruiter called me first and set up the interview. He also sent me some information about the position and some topics I may need to prepare, such as basic algorithms and data structures. He said that the interviewer would send me an email to set up the Google Doc for coding then.

The interviewer first asked several questions about my research, then we went directly to coding. The question was about the 'move up' of a robot. He didn't describe the problem very clearly, so I had to ask him to clarify it. I think he might have thought it was already very clear; however, I did not have any background information or the problem scenario.

Anyway, when I stood there, he didn't talk to me or try to help me probe the problem, so we had a long silence. Then I realized that it was a problem, so I started to improve the code. It turns out the problem was not that difficult, but you really should understand it well.

Questions

Write the code for the "moving of the robot".

There is a "generator" that each time generates 1 or 0. When it generates 1, the robot will move up. When it generates 0, the robot will move down.

Write the function to make the robot move up forever.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 61 interview experiences for the Google Software Engineer role in San Jose, California.

Success Rate

7%
Pass Rate

Google's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in San Jose, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive52%
Neutral36%
Negative11%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Google's Software Engineer interview process in San Jose, California.

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