Overview

In spring 2024, I received an offer from Google to join the Android Automotive OS team in Munich, Germany. I will be sharing my interview experience at Google step-by-step in a series of posts. In this post, I would like to share some information about my path and the general interview process at Google.

How long did it take? 9️⃣ months

It was my first time interviewing at Google. Overall, it took 9 months from the moment I applied to position on careers.google.com until I received an official offer letter. Why so long? Because almost 6 months of that time was spent in the team matching process, during which we were looking for open headcount. To note, Google also supports relocation and the VISA process, which adds extra time for preparing documents and obtaining your visa. In my case, this took 3 months.

During the entire interview process, I was in Uzbekistan, my home country, I applied and passed all interviews from there. This could be a great encouragement for many tech professionals from Uzbekistan who believe that receiving an offer while based there is impossible. However, as you can see, it is indeed possible.

My Career Path

2019: I started studying Computer Science at Inha University in Tashkent with no prior knowledge in IT.

Was university useful for me? My answer is YES, absolutely.

2021: I joined EPAM Systems as a Junior Software Engineer.
Late 2021: I failed my Facebook interview. Afterward, I actively started solving LeetCode problems (https://leetcode.com/Rustam-Z/).
Late 2022 - Early 2023: I passed my Bloomberg interview. Despite passing all stages, the role was filled with enough candidates.
March 2023: I joined Exadel as a Senior Software Engineer in Test.
May 2023: I graduated from Inha University in Tashkent.
July 2023: I applied to Google. By September, I had passed all interviews.
April 2024: I received an offer from Google.
July 2024: I will be joining Google in Munich.

It took me 2 years of preparation to crack the Google interview. During this time, I studied at university, and worked (at EPAM, Exadel, side-project startup) as a software engineer, and as a test automation engineer at the same time. My motivation to join FAANG is to make a bigger impact with the projects I am working on, to grow as an engineer — to gain experience and knowledge — and to share with others. So, starting from my junior year at university, every 1-2 months, I applied to different positions at Google, Meta, Amazon, Tesla, Bloomberg, and other companies.

My Google Hiring Process

Regarding the hiring process at Google, it consists of several steps, and I will talk about each one separately in next posts:

Applying and resume screening: I applied without any referral via careers.google.com, and got a response after 3 days.
Recruiter call
First technical interview (a.k.a phone screening)
Onsite interviews: I had 4 interviews — 2 coding interviews, 1 interview about testing, 1 behavioral interview.
Team matching: I had 2 team matching interviews. This process took 6 months.
Hiring committee: I waited 1 month until they approve the role.
Offer and salary negotiation: Finished within a month after getting positive feedback from hiring committee.