Interview Experience: Google Summer Intern 2020, North America
Writing as — Someone who got rejected in the fourth & last round at Google.
“Failing is a part of learning.”
Most of the interview experiences are about what people did right and how they successfully got the offer. I think you can learn from the failed interview experience as well.
Google is in the mind of every student looking for internships or jobs. Some call it a dream! Some call it a challenge!
Background
2018 — This was the time when I in first year. Still learning things. I was building my profile. I used to regularly apply on Google’s careers page. I got rejected or never heard back.
“When I look back, I can point out two mistakes I made very frequently.” —
I made common mistakes not just while applying at Google but all the other companies. I was not applying for the roles in India and I was not aware of the programs meant for freshmen and sophomores.
Application & Referral
2019 — I developed my profile and gained some internship experience. I learnt that referrals help so I reached out to various engineers working at Google.
“I am thankful to everyone who referred me to Google.”
November 5, 2019 — I applied with all the referrals for the Software Engineering Intern, BS, Summer 2020 role in the North American region.
November 6, 2019 — Active Channels Specialist from Google reached out after reviewing my application. They wanted to know more about me. Before that, they confirmed if I was available for the internship starting in June 2020. I said yes.
Round 1
Sometime later I received a link to give a coding test of 90 minutes by November 12 and fill a 15 minutes survey to tell them more about my skills, experience, and work preferences.
Sometime before November 12, 2019 — I completed the online assessment. It had two easy questions. I think the code writing skills and time to submit were also the parameters in the judgement.
November 25, 2019 — I got a reply from my recruiter LVV. I was selected to proceed with the next rounds. They asked me to send my availability, preferred language and phone number.
“Oh My God! I cleared round 1 at Google.”
I was too excited that I forgot to share the language and phone number. Just sent my availability. But later realised this and emailed them again.
November 26, 2019 — LVV mailed and shared the resources to help me prepare and a questionnaire to fill. This questionnaire collected information regarding the languages I have worked on before, my proficiency in them, my interests, product or projects I wish to work on in Google.
During filling the questionnaire, if the interests didn’t align to an area we had demonstrated experience in, we could use the open-ended questions to highlight what we knew.
Round 2
Out of my preferred dates, December 19 was chosen. I had two interviews back to back. One from 11:30 pm–12:15 am. Other from 12:30 am-1:15 am.
“Yes, it was AM. Coding after midnight was the biggest challenge.”
Due to the time difference between India and the US, the interview timings were odd. To make the conditions normal, I practised walking up late at night and code.
First Interview, December 19, 2021 — I prepared a good introduction of myself. But we skipped that and directly moved to the questions. We used Google Docs to write the code.
I had practised earlier to write the well-indented code on the docs. The first question was easy and based on recursion AFAIR. I was able to solve it quickly. Don’t exactly remember the second question, but it was a medium level question.
“Overall the interview went well.”
Round 3
Second Interview, December 19, 2021 — Again we jumped to the questions directly. I can’t recall it exactly, but the first question was based on the n-ary tree. It involved choosing the right data structures and building the tree structure.
I took the hint about the structure and was able to complete the code without any issue. Then came the second question. It was a follow-up to the previous question.
I didn’t understand it then. I don’t understand it now. It was probability based. I know very little about probability and that little knowledge was not enough for the question.
“This interview didn’t go that well. ”
Round 4
December 28, 2019 — Another recruiter TB mailed and scheduled another interview. This was the third interview. Usually, the third interview happens when one out of two old interviewers gave negative feedback.
Third Interview, January 9, 2020 — I don’t know what happened that day. Unlike other interviews, we had an introduction session, resume and project discussion.
I didn’t expect that and didn’t prepare any of that. I said what all I could come up on the spot. I missed a lot of things I could have said that were good and were not present on my resume.
“This was the worst interview of my life.”
After a not so good session, we moved to the only question for the day. It was array-based. Simple. But, I couldn’t do it. I let my bad start affect my coding. I couldn’t think the logic. I wrote some code. I knew it was the end.
“It was one of my biggest failures and one of my biggest learnings.”
The things I learned that day helped me in my other interviews — Always prepare for everything.
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