The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Google (New York, NY) in Aug 2010
Interview
Getting the Interview was relatively simple. I knew a couple of well-connected people there. Went in for an interview with 4 product managers (1 lunch casual interview) and 1 technical lead. All the Product Manager interviews went well. I stumbled on the Technical interview which was no surprise. I don't have a Computer Science background and have never productized anything on the web. My focus is on mobile products. So I knew that it was a long shot. And it wasn't a surprise when the recruiter called a week later and informed me that I wouldn't get an offer because of my lack of software experience and knowledge about the Web in general. For the record, I informed them that I had these blatant holes in their general requirements prior to the interview and they insisted that I go through the typical process. The folks I knew there that referred me wanted me to join Google because of specific experience I had from a previous employer.
Little grief over this - I'm not sure it would have been a good fit for me. I asked every interviewer whether Google was a Software company or a Product company. The unanimous response was Software. I'm a Product guy.
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.