I thought I'd posted about Google's tough interviews, before but maybe not since I can't locate a link. Anyways, here's a pretty interesting recap of one person's experience.

 

Google came to Syracuse’s campus to recruit new graduates when I was a senior.  I attended the information session and learned which jobs I could qualify for.  I created a fancy cover letter and resume, crossed my fingers and e-mailed them my documents.  One week later I had an email in my inbox from Google.

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If you’ve never interviewed with the Internet giant, you may have never heard the types of questions they ask their interviewees.  The searches I had done warned me that Google might inquire how much I’d pay someone to wash all of the windows in Seattle or what I’d do if I was shrunk to the size of a nickel and placed in a blender with churning blades.

 

“I want you to estimate,” Oliver began, “how much money you think Google makes daily from Gmail ads.”  Oh. My. GOSH.  Was he serious?  The answer depended on so many different factors, none of which I had any clue how to guesstimate. 

 

“Um, you mean a hard number? Maybe…$70,000?”  Oliver’s hearty laugh told me my response was foolish.  “Wait, can you just totally ignore that response?  Scratch it out of your notes and pretend I never said that?”

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“Estimate the number of students who are college seniors, attend four-year schools, and graduate with a job in the United States every year.”  This time I remained poised. 

“There are about 300 million people in the nation” I began.  “Let’s say 10 million of those are college students at four year schools.  Only ¼ of those 10 million are seniors, so that would be roughly 2-3 million.  If half of those students graduate with jobs, you’re looking at about 1.5 million kids.” 

“Would you say that number seems high, low, or just about right?”

“I would say it sounds low, but maybe that’s because I’m going through the job-search process and I’m wishing the number was higher.” 

I didn’t even get a sympathetic laugh.  “That’s all.  Good luck with your job search.”  The phone clicked-- I was stunned.  The abrupt sign-off was a clear indication that I wouldn’t be considered for round 2.  Interviewing can be demoralizing, and that’s just how I felt as I sat with my cell in my hand, vowing to switch to Yahoo for life.

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15 Google Interview Questions That Will Make You Feel Stupid

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/my-nightmare-interviews-with-google-2009-11

I have friends who got jobs there, but they were absurd genius programmers. One of them is currently in full blown Into the Wild mode right now.

I interviewed for the New York Doubleclick branch of Google once. Less insane questions, but still ridiculously exclusive.