Puzzles

Interviewing with Google – Part 1

Last year I had a life changing experience, I got a total unexpected email, a couple actually, from Google inquiring for an interview. It was a position with Google’s engineering team in Mountain Ville, California, a dream come true for any programmer, engineer, sysadmin or whatever you call yourself. I was ecstatic, it didn’t feel real, it seemed like a dream, just a dream.

I had a first screening with a HR person and I felt it went great, the recruiter was an ex-programmer from Boston, he owned his own software company before joining Google. From what I had researched online he seemed to have some real skills, I went through some of his opensource code, I started to feel some butterflies. A couple of days later I got a call from him and the conversation went great, I told him what I was all about and I could tell he appreciated my passion and my appreciation for our profession. I kept wondering why he would left his own software company to be a recruiter for Google, but then again, it was Google! Apparently the conversation went so well I got upgraded to a Senior Recruiter, I didn’t really know what that meant; unfortunately after our first call I didn’t feel that great. But I couldn’t help myself but have California Dreams with my partner in crime.

The first interview was scheduled for a couple of weeks later and that’s when my journey begun. I did some research and it was clear I had to master three things: Data Structures, Algorithms and Big-O notation; most of us obviously use all three things at some level on a daily basis, but only at a some level. I knew I had to master it! I was determined to make it happen, whatever it cost, however much effort it would take. My first decision was to cut off all my extra curriculum activities, I used to work out on a daily basis, a combination of daily sessions of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Crossfit, crossed that off my schedule. I didn’t stop my weekly private chess class, I figured that had to help somehow, it was chess. With my schedule cleared I had to start thinking about how to move forward; I went to Amazon and bought a few books to prepare myself. After putting aside all my extra curriculum activities, forgetting I had a social life, reading for two days straight and doing exercises on sites like topcoder.com, I realized I needed help; I had to progress faster. I just couldn’t accept I didn’t know everything in two whole days of studying, I was never very patient. I was never the “scholar” type either, I made my career, a successful one so far, by being smart, fast, being able to make things happen and understanding the business; but I was never one who could teach about the mastery of different types of binary trees for example, I never felt the need to. Deep inside I felt it was a little silly actually, I obviously had a lot to learn.

At the same time, I was reading about all these bad experiences, horror stories and it made me nervous, very nervous. I was affraid to fail miserably for the first time in my life, but thankfully I had some great people around me. My partner who suffered the most throughout the process and who I am so thankful for; I had also had with me my friend, mentor and old-time confident Zack Preble. He’s one of those guys you just appreciate to have crossed your path. I didn’t want to disappoint him and I definetely didn’t want to disappoint my family. I remember when I called my dad to tell him the news, he was so proud, and nothing in the world makes me happier than making my family proud. I frequently wonder why I think about my father and Zack in close thoughts; I have come to the conclusion that from my prespective if anyone is going to be as good a father as mine was, it is going to be Zack, he has two very blessed kids.

The following Monday, I went to the website o Florida Atlantic University which was close to my old residence in Boca Raton and went through the list of Computer Science professors, there had to be someone who could help me. Then I spotted a name that popped up from the screen right the way, Oge Marques, there had to be a brazilian name I thought. I did some research and he was brazilian, something felt warm in my heart right the way, I felt closure I guess, something clicked right. The very next morning I gave him a call and told him my story, he was a little reluctant at first because of his busy schedule but I could feel he wanted to help me. Oge didn’t make any promises and I really respected him for that. We agreed to meet in his office after work and it was clear, from the very first moment, we were the total opposites, he was the scholar and I was the one in the “real world”. But we shared one thing, we were extremely passionate to learn! For the first time I met someone who was passionate about it as I was and it was infactuating to be around him. He went over and taught me about as much as he could in that short period of time, binary operations, graphs, trees, etc.

I kept studying like an animal; I would work all day, study with Oge at night, then read and do some more exercises until I couldn’t keep my eyes opened anymore. Sometimes I wouldn’t sleep at all, I was never a big fan of sleeping, my dad always said while you sleep life passes by. I read numerous books, new books and classics. I got to read some great ones like Donald Knuth (which I didn’t understand that much), re-read Introduction to Algorithms which we all read in college, Sedgewick, the super fun Programming Pearls and some other great ones.The Art of Programming from Knuth felt like Art of War from Szu Tzu; the first time I read Art of War I probabily understood about five percent of.

The weekend before the interview I went to Anguilla which is a very small island in the Caribe. It was summer, the weather was gorgeous and the place was even more beatiful; it is truly paradise. I spent the days reading by the beach while having tropical drinks, I was going mad at that point. The day finally came and I received a call from this random stiff who had graduated from some big-name university, I am pretty sure it was Stanford. He didn’t really care much about what I had to say, he just wanted me to answer the programming exercises on Google Docs. He would paste a question on Google Docs and I had to answer on Google Docs, he would watch as I typed. First I had to explain what I was going to do and why, explain why that was the most optimal solution. Once we got to an agreement on the first part, I started writing code, not using my favorite IDE, I had to use Google Docs. I answered all the exercises correctly, they were all about sorting, searching, binary searching, etc and I had to know the Big-O of everything I did.

The interviewer asked me to write an algorithm that would check if the result of a Sudoku‘s game was correct, he also asked me to describe what data structure I would use. I told him I would create a huge series of if statements, it wouldn’t be pretty, but it would be optimal, O(1). I also told him it didn’t matter the code wouldn’t be as easy to maintain because the rules of the game rarely change, if ever. I started writing the code to support the answer and he said he didn’t need to see, that was the perfect answer; and just like that the call was over. He told me before hanging up someone was going to get in touch with me for another phone interview. My body was filled with joy and happiness, I was going to make my family proud. By the way this last answer was all Oge, it was actually very cool the way he taught it to me, he starred at nowhere for a couple of minutes, just said somehow he thought it was important.

What I didn’t understand was that the story wouldn’t end the way I expected and I would still have loved it anyway. The second part of this story to follow another day….

Originally posted at http://geeks.aretotally.in/interviewing-with-google-part-1.

About the Author

I am the American Dream realized. Ever since I was a little kid, I have always been passionate about technology. Brazil in the 80s, however, was not the most optimal place to develop such an interest. With the ability to provide only a modest upbringing, my parents could not afford to enroll me in the best schools. However, I was blessed; the education my amazing parents provided me far surpassed anything even the best schools could teach. That wisdom, paired with my passion, dedication and drive, armed me with the ability to conquer my wildest dreams—to “make it” in America.

When I was 13 years old, one of the first ISPs in Brazil began operating in the office next to my mom’s workplace. I stopped by their office every day in an effort to learn as much as I could about the company and their enterprise. At first I performed menial tasks such as getting coffee and water, carrying computer parts and cleaning. Against their wishes, I kept coming back. Eventually my persistance paid off; I was given the chance to write my first CGI script. My innate talent shined through, and I started to get noticed.

One day, I was approached by the owner of the company. He told me that he had a challenge for me; he needed a temporary replacement. His main and only technical guy was out of the country, and he was given a project to develop a website for a major Brazilian company. I didn’t know what it entailed but he told me all that I needed to know was inside a single book; it was a book about something called “HTML.” I read and re-read that book multiple times in a span of a couple of days. I, then, took a shot at the project. Fortunately, it was a success. After that initial project, I started building static websites for companies across the metropolis that I called home, São Paulo. Within months, I was financially independent. My parents no longer needed to spend their hard-earned money on me; and, in turn, I was able to do something that gave me great pride and happiness—to provide for them. At the age of 15, I began working for a Brazilian company called Zeek; I was their first employee. Zeek was established by a Brigham Young University graduate who had just moved back to São Paulo. He was not really looking for help nor was he interested in hiring anyone but I told him I would pay him $100 per month and get him as much coffee as he wanted; all I asked for in return was that he teach me about his business. Luckily for me, he agreed to the deal. A few months later, I was building dynamic websites, talking to databases; I was living my dream. Shortly after, Zeek took off, becoming the second largest search engine in Brazil, and I was their main developer. At 16, I started managing people for the first time. Technology is, indeed, a fast-paced field; it was not long before Zeek was acquired by StarMedia.com, the first Latin American Web company to have an IPO (NASDAQ). StarMedia moved me to their headquarters in New York, bringing me one step closer to achieving my ultimate dream. At 17 years old, Manhattan was hard to endure but my parents gave me the strength to keep fighting, conquer my goals and fulfill my American Dream. To this day, making my parents proud is still the main driving force behind everything I do. Because of the solid education they have instilled in me, I can overcome anything.

The passion to learn still burns inside of me.

Love,
Felipe Oliveira

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