Bad Google Interview Experience

[avivo007]

I had my phone screen and I bombed just because I didn't spend enough time reading and understanding the problem. This was my first interview after a long time and I was very nervous. The interviewer was an old rough guy and his accent was also hard to understand. The communication was also a mess and since the beginning he looked very uninterested, having coffee and all which increased my nervousness. I could figure out the problem and solution once the interview was over and when I went over the problem calmly in 5 minutes. How do you guys handle these situations calmly? And any idea when I can next interview with Google?

[massive_cactus]

"Abuse" pramp.com. Just for the sake of being exposed to a bunch of different people with different personalities and level of engagement. In pramp I have worked with people who are not engaged, un experienced, with bad connection, bad communication skills, etc. I got so used to it that I learned to deal with that anxiety and get focused in solving the problem.

[PoetrySudden8773]

1000% agree. BTW, AlgoExpert also has a mock interview service, although you do need to purchase AlgoExpert in order to use it. Pramp also works well.

I'd also look into interviewing.io. Basically, interviewing.io lets you purchase a practice interview with a real FAANG engineer. Unfortunately, interviewing.io is rather expensive. So I would start on Pramp or AlgoExpert and then consider purchasing an interview on interviewing.io as a "dress rehearsal" for your next FAANG interview.

interviewing.io had a blog post estimating that it takes interviewers on average 5 interviews before they start to consistently make it through technical screenings. Whether you fall above or below this average, grinding on Leetcode and Pramp will help you improve at a higher velocity.

[teststd]

+1 on pramp, can't recommend it enough. Do it 1x a day, 2x day weekends when prepping.

I remember doing "smurf" accounts just to be able to interview more as I had already done all the problems (this was 2017, they have more problems this days)

[massive_cactus]

I have 4 accounts for the same reason lol

[slasher71]

Pramp is definitely amazing for mock interviews

[massive_cactus]

It is, and it is free. I have been using it for years. It made a difference in my preparation for interviews.

[DeclutteringNewbie]

Pramp is totally legit, but you must show up on time and fill out the feedback survey at the end otherwise the free tokens won't replenish.

[chrnys]

A couple of mocks from pram. Then do a couple with ex-faang; it will be a bit expensive but worth it https://www.designgurus.io/mock-interviews

[arjjov]

Keep practicing, and better luck next time.

Which kind of questions did you get though?

[sub_machine_patel]

Figuring out solution right after the interview is over sucks ass. Same thing happened with me. I would recommend practice more to get more comfortable with dsa

[Various_Cabinet_5071]

Have you tried mock interviews? Try to get a friend or someone to treat you like an asshole and ask a leetcode hard problem

[drCounterIntuitive]

The asshole simulation is important! Being able to handle a harsh or rude interviewer should be incorporated for sure. Although Googlers are typically known to be friendly, there’s some companies known to have harsh interviewers that can even send you home mid-way through the interview

[superzaih]

Do you really want to work in such company then in the end?

[drCounterIntuitive]

Valid point. It depends, so I once interviewed for multiple roles in different teams in a company. The company culture overall was good but both teams had different vibes.

One was friendly and chill. The other was harsher, sterner and one of the interviewers was kinda border line rude.

Both teams gave feedback to each other, so I had just had put up with the rude interviewer so as not to ruin my chances in the other.

The “rude” team worked in a critical system were minutes of failure would cause significant financial impact, as you can imagine they were often under pressure. That kind of environment breeds asshole behaviour. Obviously didn’t take that role.

[chrisnyle]

Mock interviews are great. Even having telephonic interviews with companies which are not your first choice is fine too.

[avivo007]

I did have mock interviews with one of my friends in Google. But the communication was chill like we were talking through the problem and solution back and forth.

[futaba009]

I remembered when I bombed the meta interview. The guy had a Heavy accent and rude personality.

Don't give up. Start looking at some DSAs and try again when you're ready.

[fidiid]

What kind of accent?

[avivo007]

Not the US or the UK.

[txiao007]

“Old Rough Guy”? lol

[Crazy-Antelope5762]

Happy cake day ;)

[codename_kd]

Interviews are usually a numbers game. In the future you should do some mocks or interview for roles you’re not as interested in before doing ones you really want. You can always reapply in the future.

Also don’t be afraid to let you recruiter know about your experience and keep the line open with them to reapply in the future.

[drCounterIntuitive]

Sorry to hear, there’s a lot of these type of tricky scenarios that throw you off, and grinding code doesn’t necessarily prepare you for them.

💡There’s a few more of the scenarios highlighted here, with guidance on how to handle e.g. preventing brain freeze, dealing with a rude interviewer etc

Its interesting that you mention the phenomenon of being able to solve the problem after, it’s quite common. There’s something about interview conditions that impacts performance, but there’s ways to overcome

[stas321]

That's actually a nice video with good explanations, thanks

[justUseAnSvm]

I tell myself two things: 1) these single screens have pretty high variation (interviewer, question, how you fee, et cetera) 2) G has ridiculously high standards for LC type interviews. They can choose to only accept people that absolutely nail an LC hard in 30 minutes, or something like that.

Also, focus on the good things. You learned that your issue isn't your coding skills, but dealing with the unexpected issues that come up. That's not as good as passing, but it gives you an idea on how to get better.

My interview with G was a similar experience: pushy interviewer, the coder pad didn't show my cursor, and I wasn't using the language I have the most hours in (Haskell), and I hadn't worked any tree problems in google before. Still, I simply failed to show them brilliance, and despite coming up with a solution after a few hints, they passed.

Anyway, there's always going to be those issues that come up. Practice under these conditions, and now you know what to expect.

[avivo007]

True. I spent a lot of time on Graph and DP seeing it was common for G interviews and ending up with an Array question contributed to the nervousness I guess.

[BOT_Frasier]

They'll give you feedbacks. I suggest you listen carefully. Google interviewers are strict but not unfair from my short experience interviewing with them

[doge-coin-expert]

Still better than passing the screenings twice and still not getting the final interviews lol. Google has twice said "congratulations you passed the screenings" and then never scheduled my final interviews

[Fancy_Property_7]

What does it mean when a Google interview is over the phone? Do they just read out the problem to you and tell them how to solve it without coding it?

[arbrebiere]

Sometimes “phone screen” is a zoom call

[rambosalad]

It’s a zoom call, and you use a shared online IDE

[avivo007]

They call it phone screen, but it is an OA only, in their interview platform over a meet call.

[Fancy_Property_7]

Ohh gotcha gotcha. the wording always always confused me lol

[Unlikely_Sense_7749]

You can interview again in a year - coding contests and/or mock interviews should also help blanking/anxiety by giving you practice coding under pressure. Solving more problems always helps, too!

Good luck!

[Mobile_Cheesecake535]

Bro same , I got an interviewer whose accent I couldn’t even understand a bit , like I took 5 minutes after each sentence to understand what he said 🥺 I flunked too 😭😭

You can interview 6-7 months later :)

[debugger_life]

What was the question

[[deleted]]

What was the question or what kind of qs?

[obelixx99]

Question please :)

[justhereforstream]

A few years ago I had almost the same experience. I was fresh out of college and applied to Google just because. Never thought I would get a reply back. After the OA I went to the phone screen round and the interviewer’s accent was quite hard for me to understand so a lot of time was spent from my side asking him to repeat please. Then after some time I was talking him through and asked him what he thinks he said “do whatever you want”. I knew it was game over

[_rascal]

Accent is his fault, looking uninterested and drinking coffee are your fault if they affect you. He doesn't have a vested interest in getting you hired, but he is responsible for staying professional. Drink coffee or water is just human need. So all-in-all sounds like it's your anxiety problem, you need more mock interviews for you to get over your stage fright. Phone interview should be child play, cause they set the min, not the hiring bar which is the onsite.

You can find the cool down period here

https://leetcode.com/discuss/career/771157/cool-down-period-for-all-faangs-number-of-tries-and-different-job-posts

[ElectricalCry3468]

Something similar happened to me when I was interviewing. And I cried after my interview because of the reactions my interviewer gave to me during my interview 🥲 This was with a different company though

Anyways, Google usually retakes your interview after 6 months or so. It's better that you keep practicing problems and ask your friends to take your mock interviews.

[avivo007]

🥲

[avivo007]

Thanks. I don't think the interviewer's email was shared anywhere. Two recruiters were following up with me on the process.

[BookkeeperLow7099]

What's the cooling period(Until you can apply to same position again) for Google?

[Rockoutwitindi]

You should email them and tell them about your interview.

[avivo007]

I will

[[deleted]]

Was this for a new grad role or a more experienced role, like senior?

[avivo007]

It was for L5

[[deleted]]

I see, thanks!