Google Foobar

Something very interesting happened today: I received an invitation from Google to try their secret coding interview.

I was in the middle of verifying some Python3 syntax when the google search bar and the search results broke open and I received an invitation to try Google's very own secret hiring process / coding interview. I immediately accepted and proceeded to crush through all the questions thinking I was under some heavy time stress. I was not; candidates are given more than enough time to try and solve these questions (varies from days to weeks to try and solve each question). At the end of question 3 of level 3, I gave some of my personal information away to a google recruiter who will supposedly reach out to me if they see things fit.

I decided not to proceed into levels 4 and 5 because I felt the edge of my knowledge by level 3 and I feel that there is much more work for me to do than twist my brain over tasks that have a very little practical reward. I had still not finished designing my blog by this point and there were many projects ahead that I have not gotten to.

Regardless of the results, it was a very good learning experience for me. I learned that python (2.7 surprisingly) is still a viable way to come up with good solutions to difficult problems and how much more stressful interviews are during than after. But what I also learned was despite my distance from DS&A all this time, I was still well within reachable distance in terms of passing these technical interviews.