

Ask HN: Google Phone Interview - blah123

I have a phone interview with Google about one month from now. They ask me to refresh my basic data structure and algorithm. Does anybody have any Google interview experience? Do you guys have any recommended reading sources for this? Thanks
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antics
That is too vague to get really good answers back. What position are you in
for?

That said, the best practice you can hope for is to INTERVIEW AT A LOT OF
OTHER PLACES FIRST. Just trust me on this. Interviews require practice, and
the best way to do it is to interview at other places that are good. If you
don't trust me, listen to this guy, who says the same thing (and got the job
at Google) [[http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2010/11/google-interviewing-
sto...](http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2010/11/google-interviewing-story.html)].

That all said, you will probably want to review your basics of analysis (e.g.,
big O), as well as things like binary search. You will probably get asked to
implement code of some sort, so be really well acquainted with your favorite
language. Pick up a copy of Programming Pearls, by Jon Bentley, and work
through a problem or two every day. By "work through", I mean try and do it
yourself, and THEN look at the answers. The idea is to be thinking well come
time for the interview.

Other things everyone knows are, you want to be really well acquainted with
what Google is doing in your area. One of the ways they vet candidates is to
see who actually knows what Google is an does in practice, rather than asking
why they want to work there. A lot of their questions will probably come from
problems they actually have.

Brush up on your books from college. Give the algorithms and data structures
101 stuff a quick look over and make sure you understand it.

That's not a comprehensive list or anything, but if you want more material or
advice, and you don't want to divulge more information here for whatever
reason, feel free to hit me up.

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nostrademons
What position? It varies a lot based on which job you're applying to.

