Preparing For Google Technical Internship Interviews
Preparing For Google Technical Internship Interviews
Preparing For Google Technical Internship Interviews
Internships
Interview
Preparation
1 Recruitment Process
2 Interview Tips
3 Technical Preparation
A Google doc will be used as a After your interviews are done, Your application is reviewed by We’ll take a look at the additional
virtual whiteboard for coding and we’ll bring everything together our potential project hosts and information gathered and if your
algorithmic problems. from your application and engineers to determine if there is application is approved, we will
interviews and review it. Your a skill match to a project. This can make you an offer, confirm it in
recruiter will then follow up result in an additional phone writing and talk to you about visas
regarding next steps interview with a potential host to and starting your internship at
discuss their project. Google!
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Internship Project Interviews
❏ As we assess you, your skills and strengths throughout the interview process, we
consider potential project matches here at Google. We take into consideration your
interests as well as the current needs of the various Google projects before making
a project match.
❏ During the Project Search stage, you’ll be asked to fill in a questionnaire that details
your skills and interests. As your completed questionnaire is used during the
review, please be thoughtful and thorough in your responses.
❏ Once a potential project has been identified, you’ll have a call with the engineer
hosting the project to ensure that it is a fit for your skills.
❏ Occasionally we will not have an internship project with a strong alignment to your
interests and skills. Unfortunately, if this happens, the interview process will
conclude and your recruiter will let you know. We'll make a note to follow up with
you about future opportunities.
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Interview Tips
Explain
Explain your thought process and decision making throughout the interview. In all of
Google's interviews, our engineers are evaluating not only your technical abilities but
also how you approach problems and how you try to solve them. Many of the questions
asked in Google interviews are open-ended because our engineers are looking to see
how you break down and approach the problem. There is no “one true answer” to them.
We want to understand how you think. This would include explicitly stating and
checking any assumptions you make in your problem solving to ensure they are
reasonable. Think out loud.
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Interview Tips
Clarify
Ask clarifying questions if you do not understand the problem or need more information.
Many of the questions asked in Google interviews are deliberately underspecified
because our engineers are looking to see how you engage the problem. In particular,
they are looking to see which areas you see as the most important piece of the
technological puzzle you've been presented. Clarifying questions are encouraged!
Also, take interviewer tips seriously because they’re trying to give you helpful hints.
They may ask some additional questions or share comments when you're solving a
problem. Take a minute to think through these prompts -- they can help you land on a
more optimal solution!
Ask Questions
At the end of the interview, most interviewers will ask you if you have any questions
about the company, work environment, their experience, etc. It’s always good to have
some pre-prepared for each interview.
Interviewing at Google
Read more here.
Min/Max Heaps
Heaps are incredibly useful. Understand their application and O() characteristics. We
probably won’t ask you to implement one during an interview, but you should know when
it makes sense to use one.
Recursion
Many coding problems involve thinking recursively and potentially coding a recursive
solution. Prepare for recursion, which can sometimes be tricky if not approached
properly. Practice some problems that can be solved iteratively, but a more elegant
solution is recursion.
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Technical Preparation
Operating Systems
You should understand processes, threads, concurrency issues, locks, mutexes,
semaphores, monitors and how they all work. Understand deadlock, livelock and how to
avoid them. Know what resources a process needs and a thread needs. Understand how
context switching works, how it's initiated by the operating system and underlying
hardware. Know a little about scheduling. The world is rapidly moving towards
multi-core, so know the fundamentals of "modern" concurrency constructs.
For Underclassmen
Guide for Technical Development
How to Get Hired - What CS students need to know