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Technical Interview Prep

The document provides tips for a successful Google interview, including reviewing topics like algorithms, data structures, coding, and system design. It recommends spending time on Google's website to prepare, and lists specific publications and books to review, such as "Introduction to Algorithms" and "Programming Pearls". Key areas to study include big-O notation, trees, hashtables, sorting, graphs, and operating systems.

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Huasheng Zhou
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158 views3 pages

Technical Interview Prep

The document provides tips for a successful Google interview, including reviewing topics like algorithms, data structures, coding, and system design. It recommends spending time on Google's website to prepare, and lists specific publications and books to review, such as "Introduction to Algorithms" and "Programming Pearls". Key areas to study include big-O notation, trees, hashtables, sorting, graphs, and operating systems.

Uploaded by

Huasheng Zhou
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A few tips for a successful Google interview:

The interview will include topics such as coding, data structures, algorithms, computer science theory, and
systems design. We recommend you spend some time exploring our website to get into the right mind
frame. Google Publications and Labs is a good starting point.

Google Labs Links:


http://research.google.com/
http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html

System Design Publications:


Google File System (​http://research.google.com/archive/gfs.html​)
Google Bigtable (​http://research.google.com/archive/bigtable.html​)
Google MapReduce (​http://research.google.com/archive/mapreduce.html​)

Books to assist you in preparing for your interview:


“Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job"
Authors: John Mongan, Noah Suojanen, and Eric Giguère (Wiley Computer Publishing)

"Programming Pearls"
Author: Jon Bentley

"Introduction to Algorithms"
Authors: Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest & Stein

Please review the following topics:


Big​O notations also known as "the run time characteristic of an algorithm". You may want to refresh hash
tables, heaps, binary trees, linked lists, depth​first search, recursion. For more information on Algorithms
you can visit:
http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=Static&d1=tutorials&d2=alg_index

Coding: You should know at least one programming language really well, and it should preferably be C++
or​ ​Java. C# is OK too, since it's pretty similar to Java. You will be expected to write some code in at least
some of your interviews. You will be expected to know a fair amount of detail about your favorite
programming language.

Sorting: Know how to sort. Don't do bubble​sort. You should know the details of at least one n*log(n) sorting
algorithm, preferably two (say, quick sort and merge sort). Merge sort can be highly useful in situations
where quick sort is impractical, so take a look at it.

Hashtables: Arguably the single most important data structure known to mankind. You absolutely should
know how they work. Be able to implement one using only arrays in your favorite language, in about the
space of one interview.
Trees: Know about trees; basic tree construction, traversal and manipulation algorithms. Familiarize yourself
with binary trees, n​ary trees, and trie​trees. Be familiar with at least one type of balanced binary tree,
whether it's a red/black tree, a splay tree or an AVL tree, and know how it's implemented. Understand tree
traversal

Algorithms: BFS and DFS, and know the difference between inorder, postorder and preorder​.

Graphs: Graphs are really important at Google. There are 3 basic ways to represent a graph in memory
(objects and pointers, matrix, and adjacency list); familiarize yourself with each representation and its pros
& cons. You should know the basic graph traversal algorithms: breadth​first search and depth​first search.
Know their computational complexity, their tradeoffs, and how to implement them in real code. If you get a
chance, try to study up on fancier algorithms, such as Dijkstra and A*.

Other Data Structures: You should study up on as many other data structures and algorithms as possible.
You should especially know about the most famous classes of NP​complete problems, such as traveling
salesman and the knapsack problem, and be able to recognize them when an interviewer asks you them in
disguise. Find out whatNP​complete means.

Mathematics: Some interviewers ask basic discrete math questions. This is more prevalent at Google than
at other companies because counting problems, probability problems, and other Discrete Math 101
situations surrounds us. Spend some time before the interview refreshing your memory on (or teaching
yourself) the essentials of combinatorics and probability. You should be familiar with n​choose​k problems
and their ilk – the more the better.

Operating Systems: Know about processes, threads and concurrency issues. Know about locks and
mutexes and semaphores and monitors and how they work. Knowabout deadlock and livelock and how to
avoid them. Know what resources a processes needs, and a thread needs, and how context switching
works, and how it's initiated by the operating system and underlying hardware. Know a little about
scheduling. The world is rapidly moving towards multi​core, so know the fundamentals of "modern"
concurrency constructs. For information on System

Design:​ ​http://research.google.com/pubs/DistributedSystemsandParallelComputing.html

Helpful Links: ​https://www.youtube.com/lifeatgoogle

Coding: ​https://github.com/google/styleguide

A few last tips:


• Talk through your thought process about the questions you are asked. In all of Google's interviews, our
engineers are evaluating not only your technical abilities but also how you approach problems and how you
try to solve them.
• Ask clarifying questions if you do not understand the problem or need more information. Many of the
questions asked in Google interviews are deliberately underspecified because our engineers are looking to
see how you engage the problem. In particular, they are looking to see which areas leap to your mind as the
most important piece of the technological puzzle you've been presented.
• Think about ways to improve the solution you'll present. In many cases, the first answer that springs to
mind isn't the most elegant solution and may need some refining. It's definitely worthwhile to talk about your
initial thoughts to a question, but jumping immediately into presenting a brute force solution will be received
less well than taking time to compose a more efficient solution.

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