Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Google Opportunity(3) -- Phone Interviews
3 comments Posted by mRefaat at Saturday, January 02, 2010Have you read :
I prayed Istikhara ... as i was so confused should i go on this interviews and dream about being there in Google, or should i stay her with my people ... and look for a job opportunity in Egypt.
then i said i'll go on this thing and if they rejected me i'll not be sad .. as i know that Allah will choose Better things for me.
Today is Tuesday 8/12, i'm very nervous ... i'm saying to my self "if my interviewer talked like the recruiter, i have no chance to pass this interview"
Now it's 8:45 pm at Cairo and 10:45 am PST, i'm setting in front of the laptop, waiting ..
i have just received new e-mail from the software Engineer, he shared with me the Google Document that i should use for coding during the interview.
I took his name and Goggled it , i knew his position and the team he is working on (Internationalization Team) "hardest word ever", this information may be useful.
Now It's 9:00 pm he did the same mistake as the recruiter .. he called the wrong number, But after 5 minutes.. he called me.
"As much as i was afraid of this one, it was the best interview i have ever had in my life till now", that was what i have said after the interview ...
He started by introducing him self as a software engineer working in Google, he asked me to open the document and to be ready to write on it when he ask me to do that.
"it seems that he is not american as his accent is perfect for me" , that was what i told my self
The first question was about my graduation Project..
it was the hardest question for me in that interview, my friends told me to review my graduation project before the interview but i forgot so i started by "..mm.. aa", he asked me to explain it to him, and about my role in it
I couldn't stand that.... so i asked him for a minute, he said "sure"
I spent this minute in taking a deep breath and release it many times..
then I told him "sorry i'm very nervous" and he was so kind and said "never mind we will go through that"
I started to explain my graduation project again to him, i don't think that he understood that well but he skipped this part and switched to another topic.
He asked me about the programming languages i prefer and the most thing i like to do related to computer science.
I told him that i like C++ and Java and my first language is C++, But i choose the programming language according to the type of the task i have to do.
I told him that the most thing i like is coding (i should say logical thinking and analysis :D), but i told him that i'm ACM contestant and i like to solve problems very much.
He asked me about OOP & Data Structures, then he asked me the Algorithmic Question !!
At Google interview he always ask an open ended OR hard question to spend the rest of the interview thinking on it, and i have been told to not answer with the optimal solution, i should say the worst then start to optimize it with him... until reaching the optimal solution (because he is interested to see my thinking process)
He asked me the question, and he told me to answer with the simplest, easiest and the shortest solution(minimum number of code lines) in my mind so i told him N Log N solution ... it was the simplest and the first thing came to my mind.
Then i told him "so let's think how to optimize it" and i started to think, actually i was going to tell him a better solution.. But he shocked me in the next minute :S
He told me that this answer is the optimal solution and that's how they are solving this problem at Google.
It's 9:27, He told me that he finished all questions he had prepared for me :-s and asked me if i have any question to him, I asked him about his job & and what does internationalization team do in Google!!
It's 9:32, I asked him why most of Google products are Beta.. he laughed (ftes mn el d7k) then he told me that he don't know and he never asked him self this question before.
It's 9:37, I told him "i have no more questions, do you have other questions for me?"
He asked me about Python ... we spend about 5 minutes talking about it then he asked me "what happen after writing www.google.com at the browser and hit enter until the page appear?" that was a tough question for me.
I expected that he want to know the detailed answer.. so i told him what i know about that But i stopped and couldn't tell him more..
He completed my answer, i never imagined that he wanted this answer so i told him that and i told him that i know this answer .. and he said yes i believe you do..
Finally he said that he enjoyed this conversation and he asked me for other questions (i don't remember what i have asked him but i remember that i have asked him one question)
then we ended the phone call.
After this interview i was very happy and i said "Thanks Allah, if they rejected me i'll not be sad because i did well and that was the important to me"
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Today is Thursday 10/12, Google software engineer who called me at the wrong day sent me a wave telling me that he will do my interview today at 11:00 am PST (9:00 pm here)
At 9:00 pm, He sent me a wave
Hi Mohammad,I'm about to call you. Lets try to use this Wave for code during the interview. Talk to you in a second...I'm about to call you. Lets try to use this Wave for code during the interview. Talk to you in a second...
Then he called me, he had american accent But I told him from the beginning to slowdown as he is a fast talker :D
This time, he didn't ask me any question about languages or concepts.
He asked me Algorithmic question, i answered with O(N squared) solution then i told him O(N log N) solution then O(N) solution.
He asked me to write the last solution so i wrote it, then he asked me what is the test cases i can put to test this code, i told him most of the corner cases.
Then he moved to the next question (Algorithmic too), it was a trivial Dynamic programming problem i tried to get an equation to solve the problem at first but he told me that he don't want a mathematical equation he want a code so i told him a brute force solution then i told him that we can use the old states again so we may use an array to save the old states values.. then he asked me to implement it .
I wrote a simple recursive function with memoization that solve this problem O(N squared)
He asked me about the problem in the recursive version, i told him that it may cause the stack overflow and we can write it iteratively and started to explain how, he wasn't interested to know. But it seemed that he liked my answers, so he said "that's all i have for you, do you have questions for me?"
I asked him the same question about Google Beta products he gave me a diplomatic answer, and then i asked him to explain the role of software engineer in test at Google in more details then he told me that the recruiter will contact me on the next week to tell me either i'm going to move to the next step or not.
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Few days later i found an e-mail on my inbox with the title "Google Next Step"
(tak tak tak ... this was my heart beats :D it was so loud)
I opened this email and read it:
Hi Mohammad,
Congratulations, your telephone interviews went well and we would like to
proceed with the process by inviting you to Google’s Headquarters in Mountain
View, CA for a College Day to interview for the Software Engineering position!
Google College Days are action-packed, fun, and intended to give you some
additional insight into how Googlers spend their time!
Google has several college days coming up on 1/08 and 1/15. Please let me know if one of these dates works for you. If not, we can bring you in another day that is convenient for you but it may not be a College Day.
Once I hear from you, I'll follow-up with more details about your visit.
I was so happy to have the opportunity to do onsite interview at Google.
"el7mdllah that i reached this step", I prayed to Allah
If you have watched the video, you will know how much am i lucky to go their even just to see Googleplex from inside !!
I can't travel on 1/08 or 1/15 because of visa processing time (it needs 3 months) so i can't apply for it before the World Finals as i need my passport so i told her that i can't go there on Jan, and it's expected to have the Visa on 15 March, she told me that there is no problems and she asked me to tell her before going to embassy to give me a letter from Google.
and she told me that
Please keep in mind, Google does not have the ability to get you US work authorization at this time due to the US government's quota system for issuing work visas to non-US nationals. The earliest you could being working in the US is October 2010.
"that's fine there is no problem that delaying the interview will cause and that's good", I said to my self
Next week I'll call the embassy to fix interview date so that i can start visa procedure after i return back from China inshaaAllah
Then we agreed on making the first phone call on 30/11 @ 1:30 pm PST .. and she told me that will be a non technical call (drdasha) and it'll last 15 minutes.WOW that's very exciting :D i'm gonna make interview with Google on the phone.Ohh, i'm very bad in English conversation (rbna yostor)
Now it's : 11:30 pm at Cairo and 1:30 pm PST, i'm waiting the phone call ..
11:35 pm .. still waiting .. checked my inbox, i found email from her telling me that she can't contact me because there is an extra digit on my phone number, i sent her my phone number again then she could call me.
I was very nervous it's my first time to have a phone interview ... and it's in English :-s
she introduced her self again (i didn't hear a word)
she was a very fast talker,american .. and american accent is very hard.
She asked me about the position i want to have in Google and my eligibility to work in US.
she told me many things But i didn't understand a word :D then she asked me why didn't I work till now!!
I told her about the ACM and that i'm not going to have work until returning from the World Finals @ 10/2/2009 inShaaAllah.. she said that it's okay
On that phone call ... i asked her to repeat many times ... i think if i was in front of her she would kick me (and i think she was saying in her mind .. what is that %%#$ :D )
i made her to ask me one question 5 times :D the fifth was " Are .......... You ....... Eligible ........ To ...... Work .......... in .......... US. " (word by word)
One of the situations i had in this interview that i told her "sorry i think it's hard to communicate with me" then she said "No, it's not difficult at all,it's fine ... mmmmm... it's little bit difficult but we will go through that :D" she was very funny Or that was me because of not understanding her easily.
At the end of this call she asked me to tell her my available time for the technical interviews, i told her that i'll check my schedule and send her email with my available times.
So we ended the call, i checked my schedule.. then i sent that "I'll be available on Tuesday 8/12 ,Wednesday 9/12 and Thursday 10/12 at any time between 10:00 AM PST and 1:00 PM PST "
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Today is 2/12, i found her reply.. she was telling me that my interviews will be on 8/12 & 10/12 at 11:00 AM PST
After an hour ... i found another email from software eng. working at Google he was telling me that he will interview me after 15 minutes and that he added me on Google wave and shared with me a document on Google docs. for the interview
... Kidding me -- absolutely this is a mistake, so i neglected this email and i went to buy somethings
after 15 minutes, i found my mobile ringing.. it's him. - what to do ? what to do ?
i decided not to reply :D he called me about 3 times then when i returned back to home (after 10 minutes of these calls) i was online on the Google Wave and i found 2 messages from him.
"Hi Mohammad, looks like you can see the Wave :)I'll give you a call in a couple minutes, just going to grab a coffee.I'll give you a call in a couple minutes, just going to grab a coffee."
"Just tried calling... no answer.Do I have the right number?"
so i sent him and explained to him that my interview should be the next week, he apologized for that and told me that he will speak with the recruiter and i can assume that what she told me is correct.
To be cont.
Google Opportunity(1) -- before the interviews
2 comments Posted by mRefaat at Saturday, December 26, 2009Hello,
From time to time every one goes through some exciting events which he would never forget !!
I had this year lots of exciting events "thank you Allah"
One of them was Google opportunity :D
let's talk about it :
At the first Khaled Hafez who works in Google Zurich have passed my C.V to Google.
After few days (29/10/2009) i received mail telling me that they had my C.V and they want to move forward in my application But they are interested to know my grades so that they asked me to send my undergrad transcripts including the GPA :) and told me "We will contact you if we have a position available which is a strong match."
on this mail too she wanted me to tell her my top three locations between (Boston, Kirkland/Seattle, Mountain View,New York, and Pittsburgh )
On These days i was very busy i don't remember why (i think on ACM training ..) and i also said "i don't think that they gonna love my grades :D " so i didn't sent any thing.
But, after two weeks (13/11/2009) i found the same mail again in my inbox ... so i told my self "what am i gonna lose if i sent the transcript" so i went to FCI and got the transcript "i was going to fight for it in FCI .. you know the routine" then (17/11/2009 @ 10:48 am) i sent it to her and told her "About the top 3 locations, they are :Mountain view, New York and Seattle"
@ 9:04 PM on the same day i received a mail from Google Engineering Recruiter, it was a very long mail i'll cut here some parts of it:
Thank you for your interest in Google! My name is Lisa and am a College Recruiter at Google. Your resume has been reviewed by our team and we feel you are a potential fit for one of our Software Engineering roles in our Mountain View office.
I would like to schedule about a 15 minute phone call with you to discuss your career interests as well as Google's recruiting process. Please email me your availability for the next week and times in Pacific Standard Time that are convenient for you, along with the best telephone number for me to reach you.
As a Software Engineer, you will work on our core products and services as well as those who support critical functions of our engineering operations. Depending on your background and experience, you will be working in one of the following areas:
Product and Systems Development:
Whether it's finding new and innovative ways to advance search quality, building computing platform and networking technologies, automating the indexing of videos, or continuing to refine and scale complex auction systems (just to name a few), you will be developing solutions to some of the most challenging technical problems out there. You will research, conceive and develop software applications to extend and improve on Google's product offerings and collaborate on scalability issues involving access to massive amounts of data and information.
Software Engineering in Test:
As a software engineer in the test organization, you'll use your software design, analysis and programming skills to create innovative automated test systems. This isn't a job in which you'll simply debug and run test cases, in fact that only scratches the surface. The test team undertakes a broad range of challenges on a daily basis, designing and building intelligent systems that can explore various use cases and scenarios for distributed computing infrastructure. Just imagine trying to design and build an automated testing system for something that's never been done before. There are no text books that can help you learn this, which is why we have some of the best and brightest engineers working in this group.
Site Reliability:
Software engineers working in Site Reliability are involved in every facet
of Google's production site. You are in the thick of everything involved
with keeping Google running, from code-level troubleshooting of traffic
anomalies to maintenance of our most cutting edge services; from monitoring
and alerts to building new automation infrastructure. You are a genius at
jockeying networks and administering UNIX clusters. You will tackle
challenging, novel situations every day, and work with just about every
other engineering and operations team in the process.
This really was never expected But that's Amazing and i like the software Engineer in test Job so much
But the regional contest is on 24/11 :D i don't want to lose my concentration or think on any other thing so i asked her to postpone these procedures till the Regional contest ..
At the first i told her we may make the interview at 25/11 @ 4 am PST :D "i was so stupid ... 4 am :D (ya raaaaaaaageeeeeel) it will be 1 or 2 pm here But 4 am on USA"
i expected her reply and it was, she told me that she is not available at this time ... then we agreed on making the first phone call on 30/11 @ 1:30 pm PST .. and she told me that will be a non technical call (drdasha) and it'll last 15 minutes.
WOW that's very exciting :D i'm gonna make interview with Google on the phone.
Ohh, i'm very bad in English conversation (rbna yostor)
To be cont.
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