I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Google in Feb 2018
Interview
A recruiter reached out a few days after I applied online, and a phone screen with a PM was scheduled. I am an experienced candidate (5 years of work experience, no MBA) but the person who interviewed me for the phone screen was an APM (associate PM) who recently graduated from business school. From the start, he had this "I'm better than you" attitude, and did not take my industry experience seriously. I think it would be better if Google matched candidates with interviewers of similar background. You'd avoid this situation where this MBA guy was trying to "flex" on me the whole time and make me feel inferior.
He asked me two questions. First was a product design question, which I nailed. He even said at the end that this was good. The second question was a brain teaser. I didn't get it right away, but caught myself going down the wrong track and then gave the correct answer. Then he decided to extend the problem space to infinite size and asked me to come up with a generic solution to the brain teaser. This is where I was stuck and wasn't able to come up with the optimal solution. Although at the end, he said I did well in solving the original brain teaser, but didn't comment on the extended version.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a new feature for Twitter that improves the new user experience.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA)
Interview
Very standard to start with - recruiter call, then a phone screen with PM covering product design and a quick market estimation discussion. the virtual onsite is 5 rounds: product design, product strategy, analytical, technical, and googleyness and leadership. product design is easily the biggest hurdle. they want you to take a massive problem space, narrow in on a specific user, and map out pain points before even touching solutions. strategy was all about business trade offs and scale. the analytical round focused heavily on execution (with a lot of metrics) technical round does not require coding, but you have to explain system architecture and trade offs under the hood. googleyness is their behavioral round where they mostly check how you handle conflict and team coordination.once you pass, you go into team matching which can take a few more weeks. my best advice is to stop memorizing rigid frameworks. i had a mock on prepfully with a google pm and it really exposed how hard they push back on your initial assumptions (get a mutual friend or a professional coach who you don't know much, turns out to be a surprisingly good reality check). process is a marathon ngl, you’re bound to get tired but very rewarding too
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you improve Google Maps for advertisers?
The process was straightforward and moved quickly. After applying online, a recruiter reached out within a few days for a brief phone screen. That was followed by two video interviews, one with the hiring manager and one with a panel of team members focused on project planning and stakeholder communication. The whole thing wrapped up in about two weeks, and the team was responsive and clear about next steps throughout.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I walked through a specific project where a key vendor delivery slipped. I explained how I flagged the risk early in our weekly status review, reset expectations with stakeholders, re-sequenced dependent tasks, and brought the timeline back within an acceptable range by negotiating a partial early delivery.
standard 1st round digital interview, they are asking about your experience, background, some behavioural questions and technical questions. and they also share a bit more about the role, culture and expectation