Google operates as one of the most popular, and powerful, search engines, offering targeted search results from more than 8 billion Web pages. The site, which ranks results based on a proprietary algorithm, attracts an audience of more than 80 million people in English-speaking markets; Google also offers search results in about 35 other languages. The company generates revenue through ads that are targeted by keywords. Google also sells ads across a network of more than 200,000 affiliated Web sites.

Read about the selection process at Google:

The selection process is grueling—multiple rounds of phone interviews where they ask you (depending on the fields of expertise you claim) everything from what’s 210, to how you would tweak bits in C to find out if a machine’s stack grows up or down in memory, all the way to having you “program on the phone”… then all of a sudden they rush you to Silicon Valley and you get a long full day of nonstop interviewing.

Google interview questions at Gamedev:

Q: “Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.”
(my answer): A database is a way of organizing information. It’s like a genie who knows where every toy in your room is. Instead of hunting for certain toys yourself and searching the whole room, you can ask the genie to find all your toy soldiers, or only X-Men action figures, or only race cars — anything you want.

Google’s CTO and employee #1 interviewed by Slashdot.

Google highly picky about your university diploma? Read this:

My undergrad degree is in electrical engineering and my masters is in computer engineering both from Clemson. At the time, Clemson was less than $500/semester which was all I could possibly afford. When I interviewed with Google I got the impression that they had zero intent on hiring me no matter what happened. I was asked several times why I didn’t go to a “better” school. For the job they contacted me about I wrote the top textbook on the subject, currently used at Stanford, Univ of Colorado, and GA Tech among others, so I thought I would have been treated more respectfully. They called me. I wasted over $3k in expenses out of pocket to interview with them. And no I didn’t get to meet Larry Page.

Different experiences of Google interviews depending on who you get to interview with? This candidate tells the story:

In my case, the first interview was great. It was with the guy who wrote the Borland C++ Compiler, and it lasted about an hour and a half on the phone. At the end, he seemed happy, I was happy, and he even said he hoped to be able to meet me when I got there. The second interview was with a guy on the billing team. It was strange – he kept trying to twist the answers (”Well, what happens if your database doesn’t support joins?”). It was also fairly short – the questions I asked him at the end was almost longer than the intereview. I got a call back about 4 days later saying they didn’t like the way I “think”. Which turns out was better than the reaction my coworker got in his 3rd interview when the guy, who was asking him to discuss proofs, asked if he was “dense”.

What’s the exact process of getting interviewed by Google? This guy tells:

I know three employees of Google. The interview process is strictly standardized. One introductory phone interview from an HR person, followed by another, more technical, phone interview. If you make it past those two, they either fly you out to Mountain View (all expenses paid) for a tough in-person final interview. After that, you still may or may not have the job. I have also spoken to a Google recruiter out here Boston. She told me the exact same thing.

This guy describes his Google interview experience:

Gents, Just got done interviewing with Google this summer. After the 4 telephone interviews I have had with them, I can say this… Everyone I have spoken to, was extremely knowledgeable, polite, and seemed like a enthusiastic human being… My degree is not from a top private school… Heck, I was working as a sr. linux admin at an ISP while getting through my schooling… if someone has done 60 hrs/wk work + full time university student, would know the commitment that takes. The technical interviews went fabulous, I seemed to be on course, and certainly answered most questions correctly… Throughout the interviews, I kept stressing the fact that I am very capable of learning new tasks in a short amount of time, and given my record, I have proven myself as a worthy individual… Well, the sob story ends with this… The first HR guy calls me back and says… blablabla, not the right person… Great. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, there was little hope in my mind to get hired at google. I have sent several emails back saying… “Thank you for your time… blabalbla… Would you mind sharing with me why you decided not to continue the interview process with me? What areas do I need to study up in? How should I better myself, in order to become eligible for employment at your company?” Pretty sure those are valid questions, but havent heard back … ever… I think those questions seemed pretty valid…

This guy managed to piss off an interviewer at Google by correctly identifying and solving the problem, since he knew too much of Java:

Recently I was interviewing for a SRE position at Google and everything was going allright, until an interviewer asked me how to implement a singleton in Java. Then I explained the standard pattern using a static initializer and told him the so-called “double check” pattern a lot of developers use doesn’t work in Java (this is well documented here [umd.edu]). Since the interviewer didn’t have a clue about that problem, he spent some 15 minutes fighting my point, and in the end of the interview he even said the correct way of implementing it is to use a double check, although I have explained him 10 times the Java memory model makes that construct break. I even told him to search for “java singleton problem” in Google to understand what I told him, but maybe this was a bad idea, he seemed to be already in a bad mood in the beggining of the interview, this made him even more poignant. Guess what? They sent me the “raw dismiss letter” after that interview…

This lady interviewed for a front-end position at Google:

I’ve had a similar experience to what many posted here. I had a phone interview with a fairly qualified technical manager who wanted me to debug Javascript over the phone from a website she had given me. Ok, no problem. Then she starts asking me about technologies and languages that 1) aren’t on my resume at all, and 2) have nothing to do with the job I’m applying for. After stating these facts many times, she came back with “oh we’re looking to hire you for a different job, not that one.” Uh….considering I had none of the qualifications of what she was actually talking to me about and all of the qualifications of the job which I had initially applied for, I cut the conversation short.

Another Google interview experience:

I interviewed for a fairly senior management/tech job. Passed the first three technical interviews with flying colours, but after the fourth, got a f-you-very-much letter. The last one was on management practices, and I was much up front about realizing when to cut losses on someone who’s not working out, and let them go (I’ve been responsible for 75 employees, at my last company’s peak). Although I still think that’s the right approach, I think that may have been a blunder, since they tend to use peer-reviews. (”D’oh, if this guy becomes my boss, he wouldn’t think twice about firing me if I don’t perform.” Also, he asked questions about my past practices, which I should have clarified were ones I appropiately used in a fairly small population area (lots of word of mouth referrals); obviously, for a monster like google, recruiting and hiring practices are different from smaller centers. So I think I should have clarified the differences in approach for each circumstance, despite being asked specifically about my past.