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Google Interview Questions

Review this list of 918 Google interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • "Clarifying questions: is this a brand new product, or are we improving an existing one? (i.e. are we going to have to migrate an existing codebase or are we starting from scratch?). are we resource-strapped (e.g. # engineers, time)? are there any specific priorities for the product, or should i leave it open-ended? Assume: brand new product, well-resourced, no specific priorities. It seems that there are two sides to this question: 1) technical evaluation of different languages, and 2)"

    Laura S. - "Clarifying questions: is this a brand new product, or are we improving an existing one? (i.e. are we going to have to migrate an existing codebase or are we starting from scratch?). are we resource-strapped (e.g. # engineers, time)? are there any specific priorities for the product, or should i leave it open-ended? Assume: brand new product, well-resourced, no specific priorities. It seems that there are two sides to this question: 1) technical evaluation of different languages, and 2)"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Technical
  • Product Manager
    Behavioral
  • +4

    "Let's start by understanding Google's goals with Search. Google Search is by far the #1 search engine, capturing 70% of the search market. There are probably two reasons why Google would bid to maintain its place as the default search engine on Firefox: the first, Firefox is a popular web browser, with many users, and Google wants to retain the large user base who search on Firefox. Second, Firefox users tend to be more privacy oriented than users of other browsers, therefore Google wants to c"

    Rika S. - "Let's start by understanding Google's goals with Search. Google Search is by far the #1 search engine, capturing 70% of the search market. There are probably two reasons why Google would bid to maintain its place as the default search engine on Firefox: the first, Firefox is a popular web browser, with many users, and Google wants to retain the large user base who search on Firefox. Second, Firefox users tend to be more privacy oriented than users of other browsers, therefore Google wants to c"See full answer

    Analytical
    Product Strategy
  • " I will attempt to answer this. Barnes and Nobles Nook, although Amazon had an advantage in terms of being early to market (2007) with the Kindle, B&N Nook could have been marketed Nook more creatively, given that B&N has access to massive inventories of books in digital format. It fell short of: Focusing on the differentiation in marketing Being aggressive in marketing tactics by promoting the Nook at events, webinars, out-of-store marketing Attracting the user base by highlighting the m"

    Anuradha T. - " I will attempt to answer this. Barnes and Nobles Nook, although Amazon had an advantage in terms of being early to market (2007) with the Kindle, B&N Nook could have been marketed Nook more creatively, given that B&N has access to massive inventories of books in digital format. It fell short of: Focusing on the differentiation in marketing Being aggressive in marketing tactics by promoting the Nook at events, webinars, out-of-store marketing Attracting the user base by highlighting the m"See full answer

  • "I'd like to clarify the question here for better understanding. Are we targeting any location? Assuming WW Do we have any demographics of the users? Assuming overall users Did we see any drop recently in TV watching users metrics for which we want to improve the watch time on TVs? No, in general we want to improve this area. Are we looking to improve the overall Netflix watch time on TV, not to acquire new users? Correct. As Netflix is offering content of so many genres of con"

    Vijendar K. - "I'd like to clarify the question here for better understanding. Are we targeting any location? Assuming WW Do we have any demographics of the users? Assuming overall users Did we see any drop recently in TV watching users metrics for which we want to improve the watch time on TVs? No, in general we want to improve this area. Are we looking to improve the overall Netflix watch time on TV, not to acquire new users? Correct. As Netflix is offering content of so many genres of con"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
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  • +8

    "Why is this important? Human capital is the core competitive advantage for technology companies, especially Google. Making the best hire for a given position vs not at scale can mean hours of lost productivity with significant monetary implications. The corollary to a false negative is also a false positive. Assuming that the goal is to hire the best candidate for a given job, the fact that the right person was not hired means the less than the right person for the job was. Impact : Delta"

    Sukriti C. - "Why is this important? Human capital is the core competitive advantage for technology companies, especially Google. Making the best hire for a given position vs not at scale can mean hours of lost productivity with significant monetary implications. The corollary to a false negative is also a false positive. Assuming that the goal is to hire the best candidate for a given job, the fact that the right person was not hired means the less than the right person for the job was. Impact : Delta"See full answer

    Execution
    Product Design
  • Google logoAsked at Google 

    "Functional Requirement Monitor health, metrics Alert in case of failure/anomaly Visualize the live health Analyse machines on periodic basis Non Functional Should not exert load on machines low latency Highly scalable Logs/Metrics Gathering push - machine gather and send to system and low priority background thread along with batching pull - heart beat check (for offline machines) Processing Real time streaming using Kafka/kinesis + Flink TimeSeries database for stor"

    Sourabh G. - "Functional Requirement Monitor health, metrics Alert in case of failure/anomaly Visualize the live health Analyse machines on periodic basis Non Functional Should not exert load on machines low latency Highly scalable Logs/Metrics Gathering push - machine gather and send to system and low priority background thread along with batching pull - heart beat check (for offline machines) Processing Real time streaming using Kafka/kinesis + Flink TimeSeries database for stor"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    System Design
    +2 more
  • Google logoAsked at Google 

    "Assumptions: User type: school children living in the USA. Form factor: mobile app on iOS and Android Problem statement School children all across the country visit museums 2-4 times in a year. The museums have info on the contents and layout but that is static. Key value proposition of product is to guide users through the museum Internal company assessment Let's assume the interview is at Google. Google's mission is to organise the world's information so this problem aligns with"

    Rahul J. - "Assumptions: User type: school children living in the USA. Form factor: mobile app on iOS and Android Problem statement School children all across the country visit museums 2-4 times in a year. The museums have info on the contents and layout but that is static. Key value proposition of product is to guide users through the museum Internal company assessment Let's assume the interview is at Google. Google's mission is to organise the world's information so this problem aligns with"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • +1

    "Clarifying Questions Have we confirmed this was a server side issue and not client side or network related? Interviewer confirms this was a server side issue Do we have additional information on whether this was region specific, user specific? Interviewer says you can make some assumptions Introduction I am going to focus on a few potential factors and describe how they could lead to system downtime: Data Center Power Outage Software Deployment Software Bug P"

    Catherine Z. - "Clarifying Questions Have we confirmed this was a server side issue and not client side or network related? Interviewer confirms this was a server side issue Do we have additional information on whether this was region specific, user specific? Interviewer says you can make some assumptions Introduction I am going to focus on a few potential factors and describe how they could lead to system downtime: Data Center Power Outage Software Deployment Software Bug P"See full answer

    Technical
  • Google logoAsked at Google 

    "As a direct competitor to my favorite product, our mission is to enhance productivity for creative professionals. Targeting small design agencies, our solution offers a streamlined project management platform tailored to their specific needs. Launch feasibility relies on user feedback, ensuring impact and monetization through subscription-based pricing. Success metrics include user engagement and retention rates."

    Devendra B. - "As a direct competitor to my favorite product, our mission is to enhance productivity for creative professionals. Targeting small design agencies, our solution offers a streamlined project management platform tailored to their specific needs. Launch feasibility relies on user feedback, ensuring impact and monetization through subscription-based pricing. Success metrics include user engagement and retention rates."See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • Technical Program Manager
    System Design
    +1 more
  • "I would start with few clarifying questions for the investigation and diagnosis of the problem. Timing and volume: For how long is the peak surge being noticed? Past few days / weeks / months? Clarify about 'certain times'. Is it weekday Morning (Peak), Morning (off peak), Afternoon, Afternoon (peak), Evening (peak), Evening (off peak) or weekend? Do we info on vehicle type that have the most volume? Cars, trucks, commercial vehicles, etc., Location and convenience of the gas st"

    Krishnan S. - "I would start with few clarifying questions for the investigation and diagnosis of the problem. Timing and volume: For how long is the peak surge being noticed? Past few days / weeks / months? Clarify about 'certain times'. Is it weekday Morning (Peak), Morning (off peak), Afternoon, Afternoon (peak), Evening (peak), Evening (off peak) or weekend? Do we info on vehicle type that have the most volume? Cars, trucks, commercial vehicles, etc., Location and convenience of the gas st"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
    +1 more
  • "Being a team player is very important to a small to medium team where each individual play a role to set the culture of collaboration for the team. I will definitely be coaching my report to improve on becoming a team player and trying to influence to understand why it is utterly important for her/his individual growth and success. A ship can not be built by only two hands and any disconnect within the team can prove to be costly."

    Sathi C. - "Being a team player is very important to a small to medium team where each individual play a role to set the culture of collaboration for the team. I will definitely be coaching my report to improve on becoming a team player and trying to influence to understand why it is utterly important for her/his individual growth and success. A ship can not be built by only two hands and any disconnect within the team can prove to be costly."See full answer

    Behavioral
  • +1

    "Youtube's mission is to give everyone a voice and show them to the world, in video format. In order to do so, Youtube is optimizing the experience for creators and consumers, and needs to add a layer of smart discovery for bringing the content to the world. Recommendation engine can be for creators- recommending what type of videos (length, genre, video size, etc) they should create for maximum viewership, or for consumers, recommending relevant videos. We'll focus on the recommendation engi"

    Ridhima K. - "Youtube's mission is to give everyone a voice and show them to the world, in video format. In order to do so, Youtube is optimizing the experience for creators and consumers, and needs to add a layer of smart discovery for bringing the content to the world. Recommendation engine can be for creators- recommending what type of videos (length, genre, video size, etc) they should create for maximum viewership, or for consumers, recommending relevant videos. We'll focus on the recommendation engi"See full answer

    Technical
  • Product Manager
    Product Design
  • +2

    "Acquisition New sign-ups for Google Drive Service Google Drive app installs Activation Number of users with at least one file since sign-up Paid Google Drive Users Engagement DAU, MAU Sessions, Frequency Time spend Files accessed per session Task completion - sharing file, setting up automatic back up etc. Retention % Repeat Users % Users Churning out Google App Uninstalls Referral Inviting"

    Anil K. - "Acquisition New sign-ups for Google Drive Service Google Drive app installs Activation Number of users with at least one file since sign-up Paid Google Drive Users Engagement DAU, MAU Sessions, Frequency Time spend Files accessed per session Task completion - sharing file, setting up automatic back up etc. Retention % Repeat Users % Users Churning out Google App Uninstalls Referral Inviting"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
    +1 more
  • +1

    "Product "XYZ" explain what it is and which audience it is serving. Goals Ease the anxiety Offer the most comprehensive perspective of Cloud Engagement Democratize Upsell Insights Business Review Deck Slide #1: NPS - Now, Trend & Insights + Call To Action: FYI & solicit feedback Slide #2: User Engagement Update - DAU, WAU, MAU, Actions Completed + Call To Action: FYI & solicit feedback Slide #3: Partnership Update - Share new cross org collabor"

    Coach - "Product "XYZ" explain what it is and which audience it is serving. Goals Ease the anxiety Offer the most comprehensive perspective of Cloud Engagement Democratize Upsell Insights Business Review Deck Slide #1: NPS - Now, Trend & Insights + Call To Action: FYI & solicit feedback Slide #2: User Engagement Update - DAU, WAU, MAU, Actions Completed + Call To Action: FYI & solicit feedback Slide #3: Partnership Update - Share new cross org collabor"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
    +2 more
  • "Amazon is releasing a product recommendation carousel. Q1. How would we approach this launch with executive leadership? Q2. How would you obtain the data to find out if you should launch and what sample size should your testing batch be for an A/B test scenario? Clarifying Questions What is the current goal for the product recommendation - Increase sales How does the current product recommendation view look like on the home page - A mosaic list view Are there any existing custome"

    Christopher K. - "Amazon is releasing a product recommendation carousel. Q1. How would we approach this launch with executive leadership? Q2. How would you obtain the data to find out if you should launch and what sample size should your testing batch be for an A/B test scenario? Clarifying Questions What is the current goal for the product recommendation - Increase sales How does the current product recommendation view look like on the home page - A mosaic list view Are there any existing custome"See full answer

    Analytical
    Execution
    +1 more
  • Product Design
    System Design
  • "Situation I'm the CEO of a healthtech startup with a blood test that can detect 20 deadly diseases early. We have limited resources across engineering, regulatory, and go-to-market, so we can't launch everything at once. The challenge is figuring out where to focus first to maximize patient impact while building a sustainable business. Task My job is to decide which diseases to prioritize, identify the right customer segment, and create a clear path to market that sets us up for long-ter"

    Prem D. - "Situation I'm the CEO of a healthtech startup with a blood test that can detect 20 deadly diseases early. We have limited resources across engineering, regulatory, and go-to-market, so we can't launch everything at once. The challenge is figuring out where to focus first to maximize patient impact while building a sustainable business. Task My job is to decide which diseases to prioritize, identify the right customer segment, and create a clear path to market that sets us up for long-ter"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
    +1 more
Showing 361-380 of 918