I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Aug 2016
Interview
Friend submitted a resume. Then had a phone call. Then they flew me out for an interview. I got the whole day of interviews and made it to the hiring committee stage but didn't get an offer. The feedback was that I could have talked about product design more. After speaking to 10-12 people, who also went through the same process as me, I think that's the generic response they give everyone who doesn't make it through the Hiring Committee.
Google's interview process is among the most organized and the most unbiased, I'd say. If one person doesn't like you, you aren't doomed. Everyone responds to emails and phone calls quickly. However, Google is one of those companies that is looking for a reason to say no rather than a reason to say yes.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Favorite product, features you'd add, features you'd change. Design X for Y group. Also, determine the market size for Z. The technical questions are all design based now, so you don't need to know much about internet technologies or algorithms.
The process was straightforward and moved quickly. After applying online, a recruiter reached out within a few days for a brief phone screen. That was followed by two video interviews, one with the hiring manager and one with a panel of team members focused on project planning and stakeholder communication. The whole thing wrapped up in about two weeks, and the team was responsive and clear about next steps throughout.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I walked through a specific project where a key vendor delivery slipped. I explained how I flagged the risk early in our weekly status review, reset expectations with stakeholders, re-sequenced dependent tasks, and brought the timeline back within an acceptable range by negotiating a partial early delivery.
standard 1st round digital interview, they are asking about your experience, background, some behavioural questions and technical questions. and they also share a bit more about the role, culture and expectation
Very self-driven, first of multiple rounds, where I had to take the initiative to arrive at the problem, constraints, approach, solutions, tradeoffs and reasoning behind it in a matter of 30 minutes.