Every software engineer has the dream of working at Google and why wouldn’t anyone want to be there with free food, brilliant packages, and features that will set your life. The “Google Phone Interview” is a process of technical interviewing that is conducted by the tech giant “Google”. It is the test where you have to show coding and algorithms tricks to develop software at its best.
The Google interview process starts with at least one phone screen and with a series of onsite interviews. Both these processes are typical but side by side they both are unique too.
Related to the phone screen, be prepared because you are interviewed by at least one of the Google employees who will provide you with some coding and algorithm questions. In this process, you both share a Google document and you can use that document to write code for the questions asked by the interviewer.
To use google documents for writing code or any algorithms you should first update your preferences because coding in google documents sucks.
Google Phone Interview Process
Google phone interviews will focus on one’s ability to write code without an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The questions asked in this interview can be solved by brute-force solutions. Google phone interviews normally take 30-45 minutes. If in the first attempt you did well the recruiter will reach back to you and tell you the next steps if they are interested in hiring you.
Don’t get disappointed if a recruiter asks you to do a second phone interview because that is fine. Sometimes they don’t feel like they were able to correctly assess you the first time and give you a second chance.
Tips to prepare Google Phone Interview by which candidates could do a bit better
Hangouts
If you are preparing for a google phone interview, don’t forget to install Google Hangouts on your phone as this is the most common way Google uses to conduct the interviews.
Note: They can also call on your mobile number directly.
Practice Algorithms Problems
Most of the Google Interview Questions are related to Algorithms problems. Candidates should know how to solve real problems because Google doesn’t need people who just have knowledge of for-loops and know how to call APIs.
Data Structure Problems
If you are preparing for a Google Interview then solving data structure problems could boost your confidence, so it is necessary to extend your knowledge in this area.
Coding Questions
At this step, one should be familiar with the basic concepts of some real coding questions. This could take several months depending on your knowledge of data structures and algorithms. Practicing more of these types of questions can only make you better.
– Candidates need to understand time and space complexity. Google works at a massive and on a huge scale. The difference between an O (N^2) and O(NlogN) can be millions of dollars. So it is important to clear your concept with Big-O notation stuff.
– Give more attention to topics like Stacks, Queues, Heaps, Trees, and Hash maps.
Mock Interviews
It is very important to practice as much as possible so that you can’t fail at any cost and the best way to achieve that is by going through mock interviews, solve assignments.
– Ask questions for your surety that you and the interviewer are on the same page. It is perfectly fine to ask and clarify questions to the interviewer.
Soft Skills
Don’t forget about your soft skills. It is very important how you communicate with the interviewer, how well you let them understand questions like “why you want to join google”. Always choose straight, simple, and complete your sentences in a short time.
Final Pro Tips
But for an interview, one wouldn’t want to stress out too much. It is more difficult that how you remain in front of them rather than what might go wrong. Any interview should not be super stressed out.
So, before giving the interview get a good sleep of at least 7-8 hours. I have always been told that you should practice a little coding before going for an interview to prepare your mind for the game or maybe some code wars.
