I was a fresh graduate. Had a phone interview with the director. He introduced the research work of their team, went through my resume, and let me explain some of my research work. Then he asked some algorithms in image processing and computer vision and some questions about C++ programming. It took about 45 minutes.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Google (New York, NY)
Interview
Phone interview with one questions. We had some time left, so we discussed about related researches. I passed this round and will do onsite in the future. I think the phone interview was very standard, and I like the overall experience to talk to the interviewer.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Mar 2010
Interview
I got in touch with the group based on an Google internal referral. I was looking for an internship position but this group was hiring and looking for full time research engineers. I had an initial phone interview that was high-level followed by a detailed phone interview. I don't think I did well and expectedly didn't get a call back. :)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There were questions relating to statistical inferencing that in my opinion were tricky to solve while on the phone. I was under prepared. I expected these types of questions relating to puzzles/problem solving in an in-person interview with a white board et al.
Research Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Google with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 20% positive. To compare, the company-average is 61.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Research Engineer roles take an average of 17 days to get hired, when considering 6 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Google overall takes an average of 38 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Google as a Research Engineer according to 6 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 60%
Presentation: 20%
Skills test: 20%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
