The type of questions Google is said to ask at interviews is legendary. Brain teasers seem to be a favorite at the company and there are plenty of blog posts, articles and even books out there that provide examples and explanations.
But they're all wrong, says one Googler, the only thing you need to know to apply at Google is your job, i.e. you have to be good at what you do, at least that's true for a software engineer position.
"Don't worry about figuring how to escape from a blender, or dividing treasure among infinitely-rational pirates, or why manhole covers are round," Colin McMillen, the cofounder of reCAPTCHA, who now works at Google, wrote.
"Instead, study the things that might actually be useful in your job: algorithms, data structures, medium-to-large-scale systems design, testing, debugging, parallel programming, operating systems, and most importantly how to code," he
explained.
He responded to a new book that's come out, "Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?" which presents several types of questions that get asked at Google.
But McMillen says that, at least as far as software engineers are concerned, those types of questions are never asked. They may be for other positions, in sales or product management and so on, but not for programmers.
He also warns that whatever question or problem allegedly used by Google in interviews you find online, it's likely not going to help you.
"Another pro tip: if you find a supposed Google Engineering Interview Question in the pages of a major newspaper or book, it's probably not one you'll actually be asked, because we pay attention to that sort of thing," he explained.
For one, he says, the questions may have never been asked by Google. Two, even if they were, if it's made it online, Google is probably going to stop using it.
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