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Software Engineer Test Interview Experience - Mountain View, California

November 1, 2009
Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I made an application online for an internship position and was contacted. I was told I am being considered for a full-time position. Then, two back-to-back phone interviews were scheduled.

Phone Interview 1: A few questions on background and interest, followed by technical questions.

Phone Interview 2: About the same, with more stress on testing scenarios.

Onsite interview: Four mostly algorithm questions. The rounds were near continuous with a lunch break (which should be considered an interview as well).

Response: A phone response after two weeks stated that I was not selected.

Questions

Phone Interview 1:

  • Simulate a Queue with stacks?
  • Find repeated occurrences of a character in a string?

Phone Interview 2:

  • Given a 2D matrix of numbers, find the position of a number. Constraints: matrix numbers are always in increasing order left to right and top to bottom.
  • When should version control be used? And a tricky discrete math problem?

Onsite Interview 1:

  • Write a program to check whether a number is prime. Additional constraints: consider negative primes, etc.
  • Some kind of list merge problem. A list of lists, e.g.: [A, B, C] // unsorted A = [1, 2, 3] B = [2, 3] C = [1, 2] Start with lists in reverse alphabetical order. e.g.: C merge with B, removing duplicates, then merge this with A, doing the same. Optimize solution.
  • Intersection of two integer lists?

Onsite Interview 2:

  • Check whether a number is a power of 2.
  • Skyline silhouette puzzle.
  • Discussion on uses of hash tables and trees?
  • Few general questions on work and academic background.

Onsite Interview 3:

  • Write a program to find whether a list of integers has a pair whose sum is equal to a given number. More constraints added: negative numbers, duplicates, needed to optimize and even prove worst-case performance.
  • Networking question of Sliding Window over UDP.

Onsite Interview 4:

  • Breadth-first Search related graph question.
  • Additional graph question related to finding a subgraph with some API specified; needed to extend the prior solution.
  • Question on C/C++ static modifier, its relation to Java.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Google Software Engineer Test role in Mountain View, California.

Success Rate

0%
Pass Rate

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

Experience Rating

Positive100%
Neutral0%
Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Google's Software Engineer Test interview process in Mountain View, California.

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