While discussing yet another Google interview blog post with a friend, I formalized a suspicion I've had about Google's interview process. You see, it's puzzled me a bit that Google insists on a fairly reasonable knowledge of algorithms, because, in my own experience, that is a fairly small part of actual software development. I think "writes maintainable code" and "writes automated tests" and "understands basic software architecture principles" are all far more important criteria for someone who will actually be developing. Since (again in my own experience) people who focus on algorithmic considerations are often rather inexperienced at producing actual functioning software, it struck me as weird that Google would go for this kind of person.

So what is going on?

I think Google is using this as an over-selective filter for intelligence. Sure, they can't get all the smart people this way, but they're virtually guaranteed to get smart people if they insist that they grok algorithms fairly well.

Anyway, I've never interviewed with Google, and I don't plan on it in the future, but for those of you who do want to work there, I'd suggest brushing up on your big-O stuff. It's the one constant that I've seen emerge from Google Interview Stories.

--titus

Legacy Comments

Posted by Erich Schwarz on 2007-01-29 at 18:33.

It's against the law for employers to do straight IQ tests any more,
and has been for some decades.    But demanding algorithms is a highly
effective way to flout the law: even if a rejected job applicant were
inclined to try suing, Google's got the money to hire the lawyers to
make big-O stuff sound like the absolute core of their business.