How to pass a Google interview: busting the brain teaser myth
You won't ace the mythologized Google interview by knowing what to do if you're turned into a nickel and thrown in a blender
The key to getting Google's complimentary laundry service, free meals and nap pods can't be found in a book or online, but they can help. Photograph: Walter Bieri/AP
Do you know why manhole covers are round? How much toilet paper is needed to cover Texas? Whether people can swim faster in water or syrup?
Several books, websites and forums claim that the ability to answer these questions is the key to getting a gig at one of the most revered tech companies in the world. They purport to give hopefuls the cheat's code to a life of free meals, laundry service and Lego walls within Google's employ. All you have to do, they suggest, is learn the tricks.
But current and former Googlers agree that the ability to answer brain teasers isn't the secret key to getting a job at the search giant – because there isn't one.
A software engineer who worked at the company for four and a half years and at one point interviewed two to three Google applicants per week, said the company actually frowns on brain teasers.
"I've actually been amused when I see these 'what questions they ask at Google' type things, because, one, they're usually just these very old brain teasers, and two, once they're published somewhere, Google's not going to ask them any more, " the software engineer said.
Google employees agree that getting into the company is a rigorous process – applicants go through multiple rounds of interviews that can last several hours – but the trick question myth has been a part of tech company lore for decades.
"My understanding is that this is the sort of the thing that has been going around for at least 10 or 15 or 20 years; that at x tech company these are the things they ask. Before it was Google, it was said that Microsoft and IBM would ask these questions."
Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of The Google Resume and founder and CEO of CareerCup.com, was a software engineer at Google between 2005 and 2008, where she, too, interviewed potential candidates. McDowell said Microsoft asked brain teasers 15 years ago but have since ended the practice.
"Any information that is out that the companies are asking brain teasers is very, very out of date – or people are misinterpreting what the questions are about, " McDowell told the Guardian.
She says that people who assess difficult estimation questions (how many pizzas are delivered every year in New York?) as trick questions don't understand what they are being asked.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time it's about problem solving. Just ask questions and see if you can logically deduce the answer, " McDowell said.
These questions are typical for positions like software engineering that rely heavily on mathematics.
"All the tech companies are really asking very similar questions. There's nothing that scary about Google's, " McDowell said.
如何通過谷歌面試：打破腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎神話
如果你變成了一枚硬幣，被扔到攪拌機中，你該怎樣做？即使你知道這種問題該如何回答，你也未必能通過谷歌那被諭為神話的面試。
如何才能享受到谷歌公司提供的免費洗衣服務(wù)、免費餐飲和午休間？書中或者網(wǎng)站上沒有現(xiàn)成的答案，不過也可助你一臂之力。
圖片來源：美聯(lián)社（AP）/沃爾特·巴畢利（Walter Bieri）
你知道為什么井蓋是圓的嗎？你知道用多少衛(wèi)生紙才能覆蓋田納西州嗎？你知道人在水中游得快還是在果汁中游得快嗎？
某些書、網(wǎng)站和論壇宣稱回答這些問題的能力是進(jìn)入谷歌這一世界上最熱門的技術(shù)公司的關(guān)鍵。它們意在為有志者提供進(jìn)入谷歌公司的訣竅，讓他們享受免費餐飲、洗衣和能隨意玩拼裝玩具的生活。它們認(rèn)為，你只需要學(xué)習(xí)怎么回答這些蹊蹺的問題就夠了。
但是不論是谷歌的現(xiàn)任員工、還是退休職員，都一致認(rèn)為回答腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎并不是在這家搜索引擎巨頭獲得一席之地的訣竅——因為根本就沒有什么訣竅。
一個在谷歌工作了四年半的軟件工程師也曾經(jīng)每周面試兩三個求職者，他說，谷歌公司實際上并不喜歡出腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎。
這位軟件工程師說：“實際上，當(dāng)我看到‘谷歌會提問什么問題’那類東西時會覺得很搞笑，因為，第一，那些腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎通常都是陳詞濫調(diào)，第二，一旦它們在某個地方刊登出來，谷歌就再也不會問這些問題了。”
谷歌的員工都承認(rèn)，進(jìn)入這家公司是一個非常艱難的過程——面試者通常要經(jīng)歷很多輪的面試，可能會持續(xù)幾個小時——不過提問腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎一直是技術(shù)公司面試的常規(guī)項目，已經(jīng)有幾十年的歷史了。
“我的理解是，這種形式已經(jīng)持續(xù)了至少10年、15年或20年的時間了；技術(shù)公司都會問這類問題。在谷歌采取這種策略之前，微軟和IBM就提問這種問題。”
《谷歌簡歷》（The Google Resume） 的作者、CareerCup.com的CEO蓋勒?拉克曼?麥克道爾在2005到2008年期間是谷歌的軟件工程師，她也曾在那兒做過面試官。麥克道爾微軟曾在15年前提問求職者腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎，但是后來就不再采取這種措施了。
麥克道爾告訴衛(wèi)報：“任何關(guān)于公司提問腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎的外部消息都非常非常陳舊過時了，亦或是人們誤解了那些提問的用意?！?/p>
她說，那些把高難度的估測問題（如紐約每年有多少外賣披薩？）當(dāng)成是腦筋急轉(zhuǎn)彎的人并不理解問題的含義。
麥克道爾說：“百分之九十九的情況都是在人們考察解決問題的能力。只是通過提問看看你是否能有邏輯地推斷出答案。”
這些問題對于軟件工程一類的職位來說是常規(guī)問題，這些職位對人們的數(shù)學(xué)要求很高。
她說，“事實上，所有的技術(shù)公司都問非常類似的問題。谷歌的面試沒有那么恐怖?！?/p>
