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Google Interview Questions

Review this list of 914 Google interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    +12

    "Clarifying question: why would Google consider sunsetting Gmail? Is there an opportunity to make a case against sunsetting or has the executive decision already been made and we're truly looking for a flawless sunset? If decision has already been made - why? Is this a global decision or country-specific? If the answer from interviewer is that the decision is open to debate, pivot case toward identifying the problem that causes leadership to even consider sunset. Then analyze and propose ways to"

    Anonymous Sparrow - "Clarifying question: why would Google consider sunsetting Gmail? Is there an opportunity to make a case against sunsetting or has the executive decision already been made and we're truly looking for a flawless sunset? If decision has already been made - why? Is this a global decision or country-specific? If the answer from interviewer is that the decision is open to debate, pivot case toward identifying the problem that causes leadership to even consider sunset. Then analyze and propose ways to"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Strategy
  • +18

    "Cloud computing is like going out to a restaurant instead of cooking dinner at home. When you cook at home, you have to do everything yourself. You need to use your own plates, pots, and pans. You have to know how many people are coming over and buy the right amount of ingredients. If more people join for dinner than you expected, you'll run out of food! But if fewer people show up, then you'll have leftovers that go to waste. And on top of it all, you have to do all the cooking, set up, and cl"

    Jacob S. - "Cloud computing is like going out to a restaurant instead of cooking dinner at home. When you cook at home, you have to do everything yourself. You need to use your own plates, pots, and pans. You have to know how many people are coming over and buy the right amount of ingredients. If more people join for dinner than you expected, you'll run out of food! But if fewer people show up, then you'll have leftovers that go to waste. And on top of it all, you have to do all the cooking, set up, and cl"See full answer

    Technical
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Video answer for 'Design TikTok.'
    +18

    "I watched a couple of videos like this, one of them by Exponent staff (I think). It was disappointing that the architecture diagram and the walkthrough was a general layered architecture that you can apply to any backend system. I was wondering if there are videos that can be considered a reference material to watch, learn and improve on the tech (sys design) skills, and not so much about the soft skills."

    BriskD - "I watched a couple of videos like this, one of them by Exponent staff (I think). It was disappointing that the architecture diagram and the walkthrough was a general layered architecture that you can apply to any backend system. I was wondering if there are videos that can be considered a reference material to watch, learn and improve on the tech (sys design) skills, and not so much about the soft skills."See full answer

    Product Manager
    System Design
    +1 more
  • +21

    "I will first start with listing down the GOALS of Google Sheets as a product GOALS: Enable better collaboration amongst employees in an organisation Make edits parallel Share with co-workers so that the team can work seamlessly Increase user engagement, activity and make more users aware about the functionality and usefulness of Google Sheets Next, i will try and list the broader ACTIONS a user might take ACTIONS: Create a new Google Sheet Share with co-workers M"

    Prateek G. - "I will first start with listing down the GOALS of Google Sheets as a product GOALS: Enable better collaboration amongst employees in an organisation Make edits parallel Share with co-workers so that the team can work seamlessly Increase user engagement, activity and make more users aware about the functionality and usefulness of Google Sheets Next, i will try and list the broader ACTIONS a user might take ACTIONS: Create a new Google Sheet Share with co-workers M"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Product Manager
    Behavioral
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  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Video answer for 'What metrics would you focus on as the PM for YouTube?'
    +14

    "1. Step 1: clarify Let's establish the mission of Google and Youtube. Google's is to provide and make information more accessible. Youtube's might be to help people get their content, their word and themselves out into the world. I mean so many of Youtube's ads have been about how the diversity of individuals and their content, so that makes sense. Let's establish what is Youtube. Youtube has 3 primary stakeholders - creators, viewers and brands/corporations and within them"

    Karthik M. - "1. Step 1: clarify Let's establish the mission of Google and Youtube. Google's is to provide and make information more accessible. Youtube's might be to help people get their content, their word and themselves out into the world. I mean so many of Youtube's ads have been about how the diversity of individuals and their content, so that makes sense. Let's establish what is Youtube. Youtube has 3 primary stakeholders - creators, viewers and brands/corporations and within them"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
  • +40

    "Clarifying Questions: Assume US Audience or Worldwide? US Only Assume short form content or long form content ? Assume all Premium or Ads Support ? All Solution: US Population 300M Will remove 70 ages as not relevant audience or not have access to YouTube = 60m Leaving 240M. Adoption of YouTube with remaining Population = 60% (including overlap and exclusion with other services e.g. Netflix) Total Audience that watches YouTube daily = 144m (about half of US Populat"

    Sumeet R. - "Clarifying Questions: Assume US Audience or Worldwide? US Only Assume short form content or long form content ? Assume all Premium or Ads Support ? All Solution: US Population 300M Will remove 70 ages as not relevant audience or not have access to YouTube = 60m Leaving 240M. Adoption of YouTube with remaining Population = 60% (including overlap and exclusion with other services e.g. Netflix) Total Audience that watches YouTube daily = 144m (about half of US Populat"See full answer

    Estimation
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    +9

    "I was owning a very ambitious company-wide project of standardizing and modernizing the UI and UX of the platform. It was in development for a few years and eventually turned out to be a failure for the product. I term this as my biggest failure as a product manager. So I worked for a company which had a suite of products. Each product had a different UX and UI. This resulted in nonuniformity across the suite and caused usability issues for our suite users. The idea was to have a standard exper"

    Zafeer R. - "I was owning a very ambitious company-wide project of standardizing and modernizing the UI and UX of the platform. It was in development for a few years and eventually turned out to be a failure for the product. I term this as my biggest failure as a product manager. So I worked for a company which had a suite of products. Each product had a different UX and UI. This resulted in nonuniformity across the suite and caused usability issues for our suite users. The idea was to have a standard exper"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Video answer for 'How would you build TinyURL?'
    +9

    "@Jacob, your videos are really good and helpful. I want to know about the tool, you use for explaining the design in the videos."

    anush - "@Jacob, your videos are really good and helpful. I want to know about the tool, you use for explaining the design in the videos."See full answer

    Product Manager
    System Design
    +2 more
  • +18

    "Clarifying questions: What is user frustration/ Define user frustration? Was this qualitative feedback, or some reviews on playstore or support that we saw recently or some drop in metrics or increase in churn, or overall churn that we are addressing? Let's assume frustration leads to users quitting the app and hence an increase in churn. This churn also indicates that users leaving the app after trying out a particular feature and not doing the core action of seeing the route from point A to p"

    Ankita K. - "Clarifying questions: What is user frustration/ Define user frustration? Was this qualitative feedback, or some reviews on playstore or support that we saw recently or some drop in metrics or increase in churn, or overall churn that we are addressing? Let's assume frustration leads to users quitting the app and hence an increase in churn. This churn also indicates that users leaving the app after trying out a particular feature and not doing the core action of seeing the route from point A to p"See full answer

    Analytical
  • +18

    "Clarify what the business goals of Spotify is Depending on the stage, some companies care more about revenue growth, some about user growth and in rarer cases, about profit margins. In the case of Spotify, the company is still in growth stage so I will make some assumptions that user growth is the most important, followed by monetization. Plus, margin is relatively fixed due to the contracts with recording labels Recently, Spotify has invested heavily in podcast with goa"

    Patrick B. - "Clarify what the business goals of Spotify is Depending on the stage, some companies care more about revenue growth, some about user growth and in rarer cases, about profit margins. In the case of Spotify, the company is still in growth stage so I will make some assumptions that user growth is the most important, followed by monetization. Plus, margin is relatively fixed due to the contracts with recording labels Recently, Spotify has invested heavily in podcast with goa"See full answer

    Analytical
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Video answer for 'What's the biggest threat to YouTube?'
    +21

    "YT threats →. Let's define threat - activities that reduce actual or growth rate for user base / watch time / $ User - what impacts user base, users’ watch time (why would users not use YT anymore?) Competition - all apps that compete for users' time spent on digital entertainment (VOD, social media apps like tiktok, vMVPDs) Safety, trust, privacy, digital well being No relevant content Distribution - platform bans, distribution deals falling through (eg smart TVs)"

    Urvashi G. - "YT threats →. Let's define threat - activities that reduce actual or growth rate for user base / watch time / $ User - what impacts user base, users’ watch time (why would users not use YT anymore?) Competition - all apps that compete for users' time spent on digital entertainment (VOD, social media apps like tiktok, vMVPDs) Safety, trust, privacy, digital well being No relevant content Distribution - platform bans, distribution deals falling through (eg smart TVs)"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Strategy
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Video answer for 'Tell me about a time when you improved a complex process.'
    +10

    "This is the answer I have prepared. Please let me know your comments and how I can improve the answer. I have worked on many process improvement initiatives and projects. I want to share an initiative that I led and delivered while at my previous employer. It had a great impact on over 60 programs and projects across teams in six different countries. Analysts and program managers used to generate a monthly program performance report that deals with all aspects, including schedule, risks, costs"

    Balaji G. - "This is the answer I have prepared. Please let me know your comments and how I can improve the answer. I have worked on many process improvement initiatives and projects. I want to share an initiative that I led and delivered while at my previous employer. It had a great impact on over 60 programs and projects across teams in six different countries. Analysts and program managers used to generate a monthly program performance report that deals with all aspects, including schedule, risks, costs"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
    +2 more
  • +11

    "Clarification Are we focusing on building the product on a specific Meta platform (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), or is this a standalone effort? Is the product digital or physical? Are we targeting internal (employees) or external (customers) users? Are there any specific constraints like funding, resourcing, or geography? 1. Narrowing Down the Problem Awareness and Education: Create tools to increase understanding of climate change and its effects. -"

    Ram - "Clarification Are we focusing on building the product on a specific Meta platform (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), or is this a standalone effort? Is the product digital or physical? Are we targeting internal (employees) or external (customers) users? Are there any specific constraints like funding, resourcing, or geography? 1. Narrowing Down the Problem Awareness and Education: Create tools to increase understanding of climate change and its effects. -"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
    +2 more
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    Video answer for 'Design a great gas station.'
    +7

    "A gas station is a place to refuel our cars to a set amount, pay for it, and get out. What do we mean by great - do we want to revamp the experience of a gas station? Yes. Who are we? Let's say we are one of the big oil dealerships in the US. OK, so we are looking at building this in the US? Yes. Is this for a specific type of gas station - for trucks, normal cars, or other special vehicles? Assume it's for normal cars. We are a big oil dealership and we want to revamp our gas stations."

    Gokul S. - "A gas station is a place to refuel our cars to a set amount, pay for it, and get out. What do we mean by great - do we want to revamp the experience of a gas station? Yes. Who are we? Let's say we are one of the big oil dealerships in the US. OK, so we are looking at building this in the US? Yes. Is this for a specific type of gas station - for trucks, normal cars, or other special vehicles? Assume it's for normal cars. We are a big oil dealership and we want to revamp our gas stations."See full answer

    Product Design
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    +12

    "Clarifying Questions Are we building feature for YouTube Music/YouTube Video? -> YT Video has higher scope of user engagement so YT Video. YT Video has 2 forms of video content, are we focusing on long form, short form or am I free to chose ? -> YT Shorts and short videos have taken off lately so focus on it. Do we have a specific business goal with regards to building this feature ? -> We want to improve engagement. Do we want to build this feature for a specific kind of audience or"

    Mehul K. - "Clarifying Questions Are we building feature for YouTube Music/YouTube Video? -> YT Video has higher scope of user engagement so YT Video. YT Video has 2 forms of video content, are we focusing on long form, short form or am I free to chose ? -> YT Shorts and short videos have taken off lately so focus on it. Do we have a specific business goal with regards to building this feature ? -> We want to improve engagement. Do we want to build this feature for a specific kind of audience or"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • Google logoAsked at Google 
    +14

    "I will divide my answer in 2 parts: Process I use for managing risks in any Project I will explain a real life situation where a Risk occurred and how I managed it Process for Risk Management can be broken down into 3 parts: Risk Identification: Risk identification is a team effort and is an ongoing process that happens throughout the Project. Technical Risks are usually identified during design/build/testing stage. I maintain a Risk register document to capture all the risks identified"

    Saket S. - "I will divide my answer in 2 parts: Process I use for managing risks in any Project I will explain a real life situation where a Risk occurred and how I managed it Process for Risk Management can be broken down into 3 parts: Risk Identification: Risk identification is a team effort and is an ongoing process that happens throughout the Project. Technical Risks are usually identified during design/build/testing stage. I maintain a Risk register document to capture all the risks identified"See full answer

    Technical Program Manager
    Behavioral
    +3 more
  • +4

    "Weak point: suggested something that YouTube Music already does- offering the service free to Premium members. Rebounded by saying the lack of user awareness is a pain point and how it can be mitigated- by frequent check-ins by way of notifications and emails Strong point: discussed overall strategies of global expansion, marketing and innovation with pros and cons for each approach. Settled on discussing an innovation piece combining ranked recommendation of YouTube music as well as personaliz"

    Jazmia H. - "Weak point: suggested something that YouTube Music already does- offering the service free to Premium members. Rebounded by saying the lack of user awareness is a pain point and how it can be mitigated- by frequent check-ins by way of notifications and emails Strong point: discussed overall strategies of global expansion, marketing and innovation with pros and cons for each approach. Settled on discussing an innovation piece combining ranked recommendation of YouTube music as well as personaliz"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • +11

    "Clarification questions: What does an increase in usage mean? Microsoft wants to grow its market share in the browser segment Why do you want to increase the usage? Increase in IE usage would increase Bing advertising revenue Are you targeting any specific platforms to increase usage in? You tell me Are there any geo's of specific interest? worldwide Would it be fair to assume that the increase in usage is represented with an increase in the metrics - "Increase in no. of requ"

    P K. - "Clarification questions: What does an increase in usage mean? Microsoft wants to grow its market share in the browser segment Why do you want to increase the usage? Increase in IE usage would increase Bing advertising revenue Are you targeting any specific platforms to increase usage in? You tell me Are there any geo's of specific interest? worldwide Would it be fair to assume that the increase in usage is represented with an increase in the metrics - "Increase in no. of requ"See full answer

    Product Strategy
  • +3

    "In my role as a Product Owner, I was developing a platform for a logistics company. As a PO and that too of a digital agency, my work was mostly before-end-to-after-end, it would start from pitching, strategy, product management, launch, funding deck prep. In mid of the product management cycle, the client starts adding pressure to deliver way before the deadline, as they had found the PE firm that conceptually was ready to start funding discussion, since this was not scoped before the start,"

    Umang S. - "In my role as a Product Owner, I was developing a platform for a logistics company. As a PO and that too of a digital agency, my work was mostly before-end-to-after-end, it would start from pitching, strategy, product management, launch, funding deck prep. In mid of the product management cycle, the client starts adding pressure to deliver way before the deadline, as they had found the PE firm that conceptually was ready to start funding discussion, since this was not scoped before the start,"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
    +1 more
Showing 61-80 of 914