I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Google in Feb 2019
Interview
I applied through an employee referral. This was for an intern position. I did two video interviews. The first one was purely technical, while the last one was with the team that wanted to hire me. The latter was more personal and they wanted to know more about my research and past experience.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
I signed an NDA, so can't give all the details. First interview: There were essentially typical probability questions about confidence intervals, sample size, and hypothesis testing. Some questions were longer so they gave you a problem with some data and you had to argue how you would estimate an effect or design a better way to estimate it. There were also basic coding questions about manipulating data and running MC simulations.
They asked me to go in detail on certain research projects and work experiences, and asked me why I chose that particular methodology, what difficulties I found, what would I have done if I had a different data, etc.
The standard interview process starts with resume screening, followed by initial phone screening, technical and behavioral rounds, a final leadership interview, and ends with reference checks and a job offer.
In the technical round, I faced a challenging A/B testing question regarding YouTube thumbnails that pushed my analytical skills. I was also asked to discuss metrics for evaluating user engagement, which had me thinking on my feet. The behavioral section was tough, but I found the principles I studied on PracHub to be incredibly relevant. The overall experience was intense and demanding, yet I received an offer in the end. Ultimately, I decided to decline, as I felt it wasn't the right fit for my career goals.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design an A/B test to evaluate the impact of a new YouTube homepage thumbnail design on user watch time. How would you choose the success metric, sample size, and handle novelty effects?
It was all good, the interviewer was very nice. Technical questions were a bit challenging but overall it was good. The hiring manager was looking for some hands on experience