Hangouts On Air: Google Recruiters Share Technical Interview Tips

[ChromeAutomaton]

Great interview tips! Is it true google asks really random questions, like what animal are you?

What weird questions have you had?

Seems really fun though :D

[ranek520]

@ChromeAutomaton

I interviewed with them for an internship. They didn't ask any weird questions to me. I believe they moved to a more standardized approach to interviewing a few years ago and have less weird questions now.

[ChromeAutomaton]

@ranek520 Great thanks for that. I was just asking as a guy was releasing a book that has google interview questions from the last 8 years and it had ones like "what animal are you?" And "if you were a nickel in a blender what would you do?"

And the whole idea is to see how your method of action is and how you respond to it.

Wonder why they stopped? Sounds great fun.

[ranek520]

@ChromeAutomaton

Because, while they did provide some insight into the creative thinking of the applicant, they were absurd and only vaguely reflective of the kind of creativity needed for computer science. They may be fun to answer, but interviews are stressful enough with just technical questions. I would not have handled a question like that well during my interview.

[jasonofthel33t]

yay they answered my question first!

[aliancemd]

I never thought that algorithms are important. I won a few competitions, a few international even without learning any algorithm. In my second year exam my professor asked me to use an algorithm but I said that I don't know what it is about, he just gave me the problem to solve and I solved it, after he checked it he told me that I used the algorithm actually.

[9b8]

@aliancemd Right on. Algorithms are really the essence of problem solving in the electronic world. However, I personally think it is worth pointing out that the term 'algorithm' is actually broader than traditionally thought. That is, while it certainly includes things like linked lists, queues, dequeues, vectors, hash tables, binary search, B-trees and so on, it too can include more high order things including software patterns such as factories, observers, visitors, MVC, DI, IoC ...

[9b8]

@aliancemd (cont.) as well as high-level architecture patterns such as publish/subscribe, polling, data transform, message/data routing, repeaters, splitters, etc. Regardless of language or technology, it is my belief it is knowledge of these things that make a really rounded engineer tick. All too often, upcoming software devs get bogged down in the syntax of things rather than sound principles and practices. The syntax is a sort of "no shit, Sherlock" thing in the grand scheme.

[aliancemd]

@9b8 I can implement most of the Algorithms and Design patterns but I never think of the names. If someone asks me about an algorithm name I just don't know which of the ones I know it is actually... Ok, Design patterns names I know but Algorithms... I am obsesed with performance, I know which algorithm to use when it is needed and which optimizations can be done but I never know the name of the algorithm.

[9b8]

@aliancemd I will say, if it becomes your "domain" or sorts, it would be worth knowing the names and theory. But for me, I am more of a generalist. I specialize where and when I need to, not otherwise. I've actually had to be this way in my experience. At any given day/week, I may be tackling a data quality problem and require data warehousing or ETL knowledge, an app/system integration problem or a low level perf problem as you mention. This stance has served me very well.

[jasonofthel33t]

the audio quality is really bad...

[Proxify]

guys this is great info certainly will help me for my next interview with you guys :)