Google is a dream workplace for every software developer to work in, It is one of the best in every aspect, be it the projects their employees work on or work-life balance. So, to be a part of such an awesome workplace one must be adequately prepared for its Technical and behavioral rounds of the hiring process.
Google Interview Process:
1) Online assessments: This is the first stage a candidate goes through after submitting their resume.
2) Short virtual chats: The candidate will normally have one or two brief phone calls or video chats before moving on to longer interviews.
3) Project work: On occasion, Google advances candidates to the stage of the in-depth interview only after they have completed a brief project. This aids in their understanding of how you think and approach problems, and it could entail creating a case study or offering writing or code samples.
4) In-depth interviews: Google is what Googlers make it, therefore we get enthusiastic about interviews and take them seriously. Our procedures can be strict (typically 3-4 interviews in one day, either over video or in person).
5) Googliness Interviews: Google began conducting this new interview in 2020. The behavioral interview is mostly used to determine whether a candidate would fit in with the company’s culture.
To know in-depth about google hiring, please refer to Google Interview Preparation For Software Engineer – A Complete Guide.
Top 50 Most Asked Google Tricky Interview Questions
Most Asked Google Interview Behavioral Questions
When a candidate gets through the technical interviews they move ahead to another special round the Googliness Round in which some tricky questions are asked, The motive behind Googliness round as google says is:
“We want to get a feel for what makes you, well, you. We also want to make sure this is a place you’ll thrive, so we’ll be looking for signs around your comfort with ambiguity, your bias to action and your collaborative nature.”
One might take the risk of taking these rounds lightly and end up risking all the efforts and hard work, to be safe one must prepare for this round Some important questions that are asked in the Googliness interview round are answered below:
1) There are months with 30 days and others with 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
An intuitive answer that comes to our mind is February but the correct answer would be all months as all twelve months have 28 or more days.
2) You want to bring your dog to the office but one of your colleagues is allergic to dogs. What will you do?
This question checks how one would approach conflicting situations with colleagues. The correct way to tackle such a problem is to leave your dog at home.
3) What do you think the term “Googley” means?
A candidate must have a good knowledge of the company and its work culture before applying for the company. Google looks for crazy but innovative nerds in their candidates. So being Googley means being a crazy nerd who would always do the right thing, that’s a right fit at Google.
4) Could you explain why the Google homepage is mostly blank?
To avoid annoying pop-ups and advertisements, the Founders of Google have tried to make it simple for the users and this ultimately led to a plain and better interface with only the Google search bar.
5) You have a piece of paper that is 1mm thick. How many times would you need to fold the piece of paper in half for it to be high enough to reach the moon?
This question checks how one would react when facing an unexpected question and how money understands different situations involving exponential growth.
The farthest distance of the moon from Earth is approximately 405,000 kilometers. If the piece of paper is folded 39 times it will be raised to a height of 549,755 km which is more than the distance from the earth to the moon.
You have a piece of paper that is 1mm thick. How many times would you need to fold the piece of paper in half for it to be high enough to reach the moon?
6) How would you explain the internet to someone who has no clue what it is?
This question checks the knowledge of candidates about the Internet which is the main area where Google operates and also checks the communication skills of candidates to explain things in the simplest terms.
A good answer could be -the Internet lets computers connect and communicate and do a lot of other things with each other without any hardware connection between them just through the means of the internet.
7) What would you spend your time doing if working was not necessary?
This question is targeted at the passion of the candidate. If one doesn’t have to work for their livelihood, they would only do things that they love. So the candidate has to share their passion, it could be playing football, traveling the world, building video games, swimming, dancing, etc.
8) Which is your favorite product from Google, and how would you make it better?
A candidate must have a good understanding of Google’s products if they are appearing for an interview at Google, They need to know how most of the Google products like Google Maps, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google voice assistant work.
9) How many haircuts are made annually in the United States?
This question checks your thought processes rather than the accurate number of haircuts that are made in the US every year cause that would be almost impossible to find. You can guess by considering some assumptions like an average American gets a haircut every month, which is a total of twelve times every year. Now simply multiply this number(12) by America’s population to get an approximate figure of the number of haircuts that are made annually in the United States.
10) Do you prefer learning or earning?
This question checks whether you aim on improving your skills or making money. Google looks for candidates who show a commitment to continuous improvement of their skills.
This doesn’t mean that pay is not important. An ideal answer would be: I’d choose a position that provides me with a good opportunity to improve my skills and earn well.
As part of an HTTP protocol, a cookie is transmitted through the header field.
When the first time a browser connects with a particular server no cookies are present. Then the server creates a unique identifier and later returns a Set-Cookie: header in response which contains an identifier. Typically, the cookie is saved by the browser and sent together with requests to the same server in a Cookie HTTP header. A cookie’s expiration date or the window of time after which it shouldn’t be transmitted might be speed.
12) If you are given a spacecraft and $1 billion, how would you solve mankind’s biggest problem?
Google targets on solving some of the biggest problems of the world. Google has a research facility in California where its X’s moonshot projects are carried out. These projects are targeted at solving some of the most extreme problems in the world. The Candidate is expected to answer this question to showcase their knowledge about one of the most secret projects of Google.
13) Would it be a good idea for Google to start charging Gmail users $1 per month?
This question is to check your knowledge of the google ecosystem that will take a hit, as customers will start to quit the platform due to the fee. As the disadvantages weigh more than the advantages, It wouldn’t be recommended to monetize a service like Gmail as the cost of establishing and maintaining the payment transactions would keep the idea from being a profitable initiative.
14) Who do you believe are Google’s main competitors? How does Google stand apart?
The Interviewer can tell if you have a firm grasp of which other businesses rules the market where Google is also present by asking you this question. This can be especially true for occupations that focus on products, such as product manager and software development positions, where the ability to outperform other businesses is a given.
An Ideal answer to this question would be – Depending on the industry, Google’s key rivals may include Microsoft, Facebook, Netflix, Waze, and several other companies. Google’s capacity to connect its services and produce a seamless cross-platform experience is one of the key differentiators. Google offers a huge variety of services, too. It encourages a level of comfort with the products and platforms that you would not necessarily experience with some of the competitors.
15) What is your favorite Google product? What would you do to improve it?
The candidate’s familiarity with Google’s services is tested by this question. Any Google product can be chosen as long as the candidate can enthusiastically discuss it and offer a pertinent recommendation.
An Ideal answer will look like this – The Google product I use the most is YouTube. For individuals who wish to offer their ideas, skills, and advice, the platform itself is tremendously empowering and engaging. I’ve personally used it a lot to research issues, learn new things, or just pass some time having fun.
If I could change anything about YouTube, I would make it possible to modify the recommended videos. This issue might be solved by giving users the option to ask YouTube to display them less similar content to a certain video.
16) How do you make sure that you and your colleagues remain accountable?
Every employer views accountability as essential. Google wants to know if you are capable of handling your responsibilities and holding yourself to an acceptable standard. Additionally, if collaborative projects are the norm, the hiring manager might favor candidates who can keep team members accountable.
17) You are presented with six glasses arranged in a row, The first three glasses are empty, while the next three glasses are full of juice. You are required to arrange these glasses such that empty glasses alternate with full glasses. You are only allowed to move one glass. How do you do it?
Your creative ability will be tested by this question. The content of the fifth glass should be poured into the second glass. This will result in the desired arrangement of glasses.
You are required to arrange these glasses such that empty glasses alternate with full glasses. You are only allowed to move one glass. How do you do it?
18) Between a flower shop and a funeral home, which has greater advertising potential?
This question checks your understanding of Google’s business model since advertising is one of its primary revenue sources. Thus you must explain why you believe one has more advertising potential than the other in your response to this question.
For Example: At a funeral, nobody would be searching for commercials. They’d simply go there to mourn their loss. People visit flower shops for a variety of purposes, including décor, funeral arrangements, or just buying a flower for a loved one.
19) If you got this job, what prank would you pull on your manager?
This is a trick question meant to check both your personality and your familiarity with the workplace culture.
Given that the majority of Google employees are enjoyable to be around but pulling a joke on your manager isn’t something an employee should do instead an employee should make every effort to assist their Manager. In the end,d you never know about the daily activities that your employer engages whatever they are it must be stressful for them to handle so try to keep them happy and at peace.
20) Why are manhole covers round?
Due to the round shape of manhole covers, they don’t require rotation. There aren’t any corners to be careful with. It is also safer because a circular manhole cover won’t fall into a hole if it is turned the wrong way.
21) Assume an advertiser makes $0.10 every time an ad is clicked. Only 20% of visitors click on this ad. How many people does the advertiser need to visit the site for him to make $20?
When you are uncomfortably seated in front of a panel even a simple question like this may appear to be quite complex. The response to this query is a thousand people.
22) Do you have an IQ of more than 130?
The worst possible response to this question would be “Yes” which is intended to test intellectual humility. Remembering your IQ score conveys a false sense of vulnerability and conceit.
23) There are 1000 wine bottles. One of the bottles contains poisoned wine. A rat dies after one hour of drinking the poisoned wine. How many minimum rats are needed to figure out which bottle contains poison in an hour?
The plan is to label each bottle with the corresponding binary number and number it from 1 to 1000. In the binary numbers written on the bottles, each rat is given a location. Take this as an example. Rat 1 indicates the first bit in every bottle, rat 2 represents the second bit, and so on. Bottle number 42 (Binary 0000101010) is poisoned if rats 2, 4, and 6 die.
To locate the poisoned bottle, we need ten rats. The binary number system was used to produce the outcome. Using Log21000, we arrive at 10.
24) How many ways are there for finding a needle in a haystack?
Your capacity for creativity and original thought will be tested by this question. There are countless possibilities for this question’s responses.
You could decide to use a metal detector, you could decide to burn the haystack at a temperature that preserves the needle while turning the hay into ashes, or you might decide to patiently go over each straw of hay, however, this could take you several months to find the needle.
25) How would you describe AdWords to a 7-year-old?
The purpose of this question is to check your knowledge of how AdWords functions and your capacity for clearly articulating a complex feature.
An Ideal answer to this question will look like this:
Think that you have many chocolates that you want to sell and the entire universe is your friend. You crave to eat Nachos and you realize that you can trade chocolates for Nachos. You can ask them for Nachos and give them one of your chocolates because everyone is your friend. We ought to give others what we have and in exchange, they give us what we want.
Now that you are aware of how vast the universe is, how do you communicate with them without their phone number? Facebook and Instagram are also out of available options.
Here comes into the picture of everyone’s friend Google. As a result, everyone tells Google what items they have that consumers can purchase from them. Anyone may use Google to search for anything they want, and Google will provide a list of all their friends who can provide it, along with information on how to obtain it, what the friends want, where they live, etc.
You may therefore provide Google with all the information it needs about your chocolates, and Google will display that information anytime someone searches for chocolates. Simply type “Nachos” into Google to find the Nachos you desire, and it will display all of your friends that can gift you Nachos.
Every time someone searches for something and selects one of the buddy alternatives, the friend pays Google a tiny fee for linking them. This is because Google is being kind and connecting all these pals.
26) If you had to explain the importance of HTML to Sergey Brin and then to your grandmother, how would you do it?
Your communication skills will be evaluated by this question. It checks your capacity to convey a complicated idea in both technical and understandable language.
You would utilize technical terminology while explaining Sergey Brin because Sergey Brin is a computer scientist but when explaining to your grandma, you would need to use everyday English because it’s likely that she won’t grasp the technical jargon.
27) If you had $10 million in your account, how would you spend it?
The purpose of this question is to reveal to the interviewer what your top priorities are. One can tell you what your values are? by looking at where your money goes. The answer to this will be reflecting your values so the answer must be targeted to the field of advancement in the field of technology and the welfare of people to make our lives easier and solve problems.
28) Are you incompetent and Lazy?
Only competent candidates will be hired, but that does not mean you should accept a position for which you are ineligible. This question should not be answered, thus “intelligent and active” is the appropriate response.
Simply put, the purpose of this question is to throw you off guard and see how you respond when under pressure. Every day, a clock’s hands cross over each other 22 times.
30) In your opinion, do people have to use their legal names when setting up a Gmail account?
One doesn’t have to use their real name or their Google username to complete their profile. One can enter your nickname as long as it truly sounds like a first name and it is to go.
31) Have you ever done something professionally, risked a lot, and failed? What was it? What made you take the risk, and what did you take away from it?
Google seems to love innovation, and with innovation comes risks. So, when Google finds a creative person, it is appreciative and respectful of the courage to do something no one else would. There should be something to help that next effort succeed in future endeavors. It could be a startup that you ever worked on growing, a small business, or any different occupation
32) What drew you to Google in the first place?
The applicant must explain how their qualifications match those of Google, the employer, and the particular position they are applying for in this question. This is your time to demonstrate that you are qualified for the position and are familiar with the business instead of although it is a very crucial aspect to some, the existence of offering reasons like free meals and the chance to bring your pet to the Googleplex is not what you want to do here.
Google constantly rolls out new hardware and software. This organization might benefit from your experience as an app developer. Inform them that you want to meet with the team to explore how you can be of assistance.
Google LLC, formerly known as Google Inc. (1998-2017), is an American business that creates, produces, and distributes software across a range of technological fields. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Google handles more than 70% of all global online search inquiries, making it crucial to the experience of the majority of internet users.
Google initially only concentrated on its search feature, but it now provides a wide range of services, including email, software for creating documents, and more. However, it was able to offer its hardware after purchasing Motorola Mobility in 2012.
Alongside Apple, IBM, and Microsoft, Google ranks as one of the four largest corporations because of the breadth of its product line, scale, and impact on the high-tech industry. However, the success of the company is primarily due to its search engine.
In 2016, Google only received money from adverts based on people’s search queries.
34) Can you give me an example of a time when you and your manager were at odds? How did you two finally agreed?
This question checks your open-mindedness for listening and accepting ideas as well as presenting yours in front of them and coming to a conclusion that benefits the company. In this question, reason for odds between you and your manager could be regarding some idea related to any ongoing project or there might be some misunderstanding the led odds between you and your manager, the interviewer expects you to give an answer where you calmly tried to eradicate the differences.
For example, You had had a disagreement with your employer about a choice that would have been very expensive for the business. It was about how we would manage our employee’s travel expenses, and I offered a strategy that helped the business save roughly $1000. I prepared a document containing my strategy and sent it to him through email, requesting an in-person discussion. We adopted the plan because he embraced it, and everything turned out fantastic.
35) Share a detail about yourself that you haven’t put on your resume.
These kinds of interview questions are frequently used by interviewers to gauge your personality and judge how quickly you can think on your feet. Prepare a distinctive trait about yourself that isn’t mentioned in your resume or any other materials you’ve submitted. Be careful not to oversell yourself or come across as unprofessional, but also take care to avoid being flustered and having trouble speaking.
For instance, If you claim that you can drink two pints of beers in 30 seconds the interviewer might want to know why that skill is relevant to their business. So give impressive information about you that is also relevant to the business like some achievement that you might be proud of but couldn’t mention in your resume.
36) On average, what do the most successful people in this position share in common?
The majority of successful people in this position not only have a willingness to work hard and learn, but they also have a great deal of passion for their job and their field of expertise.
37) What steps could YouTube take to improve its business model?
Currently, YouTube is a free service for users, and its main source of revenue is advertising. For those who want to escape commercials, YouTube may provide premium accounts. Offering viewers pay-per-view videos and only-available-with-a-subscription content is an additional choice.
38) What do you think of Google charging for their productivity apps? Do you agree or disagree?
I disapprove of Google charging for its productivity tools. Since not everyone is ready to pay for software, charging for these apps will make it difficult for them to attract a significant user base. Many users don’t want to pay for these apps because they use them daily as part of their jobs. They can experience a drop in users as a result of these fees, or they might even lose potential clients as a result of the high costs.
39) What does multithreaded programming mean?
Multithreading is a feature that enables the parallel execution of two or more program components for optimal CPU efficiency. Each component of such software is known as a thread. Therefore, threads are light processes inside a process.
40) Pick an app from your phone’s home screen. What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it?
I want to express my opinion about the anydoc app that I have on my phone’s home screen. I appreciate that it has a lot of functions but is still straightforward to use. However, there are a few things I don’t like about it, such as the monthly fee that you must pay even if you don’t use all of the functions. Additionally, the complexity and memory usage of the software cause my phone to take longer to boot up.
41) Given an autosuggest issue in a developing country, what steps would you take to correct it?
Following are a few actions to do to fix an autosuggest problem for searches in a developing nation:
- Determine the keywords that are often searched in your nation and verify their viability as autosuggest suggestions by viewing live results, trying out potential acronyms, etc.
- Look for comparable nations or areas where you may test it out before introducing it on a broader scale.
42) Mention what is the weight of the empire state building?
The interviewer asks this query to probe the candidate’s mental processes. The purpose of such questions is to assess the candidate’s ability to make educated guesses. Although it is a little challenging if you are skilled with numbers and height-width calculations, you will undoubtedly find an answer. The answer to this issue, after taking into account all the factors, such as a single story with height, weight, etc., is roughly 750,000tonss or 1.5 billion pounds of weight.
43) Explain how five minus two equal 4?
This is another tricky question asked in a google interview If you take f and e from five what remains is the Roman numeral iv.
Five minus two(F and e) gives iv(Four)
44) Explain the significance of “dead beef”?
The right response that a candidate can give is “DEADBEEF” a hexadecimal value that was utilized in debugging during the mainframe/assembly era, making it simple to identify when identifying and locating particular memory in pages of hex dumps. The majority of computer engineers have heard this term. Typically, people will reply, “Beef is always dead,” to this question.
45) A red house is made of red bricks; a blue house is made up of blue bricks what does the greenhouse is made up of?
A structure with a glass roof and walls is known as a greenhouse. Tropical flowers and tomatoes are among the plants that are grown in greenhouses. Even in the winter, a greenhouse keeps a comfortable temperature inside.
46) What do you think are the three qualities to work at Google? To make the interviewer believe that you are eager to learn more and invest yourself in the firm, you need to show them that you are aware of GOOGLE’s ideals and attributes when answering this question in a Google interview.
Three qualities that will make a candidate a good fit for working at GOOGLE are:
- One must work hard and have a great deal of passion for their work
- Understanding and encouraging the group to treat everyone with dignity and respect
- Establishing a happy workplace requires a positive outlook and cooperation with coworkers to accept and take into account everyone’s views.
47) How would you convince a client to transition to our cloud solutions?
To answer this question in a google interview your technical expertise, problem-solving ability, communication abilities, and persuasiveness will all be evaluated by this question.
Start with a comparable experience to help the client relationship with the problem from that experience, and then thoroughly describe the issue at hand. Display an awareness of the needs of the client, including why they would require this solution and how it will help them. Discuss the product’s advantages over rivals as well.
Explain the channels of contact you’ll employ, as well as the tools you’ll utilize to interact with the client and deliver your message, including any follow-up inquiries.
48) Explain a database in one sentence to your eight-year-old nephew.
A database is comparable to a person who remembers a lot of information on a wide range of topics and provides that information to others as needed.
49) If an advertiser doesn’t see the benefit of Adwords due to poor conversions, how would you convince them to stay on board?
This question checks your convincing skills, problem-solving ability, and communication skills the answer to this question should be like:
I’d try to figure out why conversion rates are low initially. In situations like this, the issue is typical with the client’s website.
I can either sell them a new website or make improvements to their current one, so my strategy is rather simple. On the other side, I can create a landing page using a platform like Unbounce to check whether we generate any leads or close any sales. However, this method is best used for lead generation rather than e-commerce.
You may test to see whether your conversion tracking is effective and ensure that you are tracking every conversion you can, including phone conversions, sales, and contact form conversions. Occasionally, even though conversions are occurring because they are not being recorded, a client may not experience any benefits. You must demonstrate the effectiveness of your Adwords advertisements to them. Adwords only presents a problem when it comes to converting views, in other words. Give them statistics such as the duration of their visit, the number of pages they saw, and the bounce rate. However, go into it knowing what the issue is and how to resolve it. Even if it’s simply a test, let the client know that you identified a potential issue and offered a potential solution.
50) Could you briefly explain AdWords to someone unfamiliar with the product and online advertising?
In this question, you will be judged on your ability to explain a challenging business challenge and find a solution. It doesn’t matter how much you know, what matters is how well you can explain it to someone else. Companies utilize Google Ads, a platform for online advertising, to advertise their goods and services on Google Search, YouTube, and other websites. Companies can also choose the type of traffic they want their advertising to bring in with Google Ads. Advertisers can tailor their budgets, and target audiences, and start or stop their advertising whenever they want with a Google Ads account.
Conclusion:
Our discussion so far has led us to the conclusion that the Googliness round is important in the hiring process for Google and to prepare for it we have discussed the top 50 Questions that have already been asked by Google. To know more about the hiring process Google refer – Google hiring process and for dedicated practice to ace your Google Interview follow GeeksforGeeks Interview Series.
Related Articles:
Like Article
Suggest improvement
Share your thoughts in the comments
Please Login to comment...