21 Interview questions from Google

Do you have answers?

1. Solve this cryptic equation, realizing of
course that values for M and E could be
interchanged. No leading zeros are allowed.

WWWDOT - GOOGLE = DOTCOM


2. Write a haiku describing possible methods
for predicting search traffic seasonality.

3.  What is the next line?
1
1 1
2 1
1 2 1 1
1 1 1 2 2 1

4. You are in a maze of twisty little passages,
all alike. There is a dusty laptop here with a
weak wireless connection. There are dull,
lifeless gnomes strolling about. What dost
thou do?
A) Wander aimlessly, bumping into
obstacles until you are eaten by a grue.
B) Use the laptop as a digging device to
tunnel to the next level.
C) Play MPoRPG until the battery dies
along with your hopes.
D) Use the computer to map the nodes
of the maze and discover an exit path.
E) Email your resume to Google, tell the
lead gnome you quit and find yourself
in whole different world.

5. What's broken with Unix?How would you fix it?

6. On your first day at Google, you discover
that your cubicle mate wrote the textbook
you used as a primary resource in your first
year of graduate school. Do you:
A) Fawn obsequiously and ask if you
can have an autograph.
B) Sit perfectly still and use only soft
keystrokes to avoid disturbing her
concentration.
C) Leave her daily offerings of granola
and English toffee from the food bins.
D) Quote your favorite formula from the
textbook and explain how it's now
your mantra.
E) Show her how example 17b could
have been solved with 34 fewer lines
of code.

7. Which of the following expresses Google□
over-arching philosophy?
A) "I'm feeling lucky"
B) "Don't be evil"
C) "Oh, I already fixed that"
D) "You should never be more than
50 feet from food"
E) All of the above

8. How many different ways can you color an
icosahedron with one of three colors on
each face?

What colors would you choose?

9. This space left intentionally blank. Please fill it
with something that improves upon emptiness.

10.On an infinite, two-dimensional, rectangular
lattice of 1-ohm resistors, what is the
resistance between two nodes that are a
knight's move away?

11.It's 2 PM on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the
Bay Area. You're minutes from the Pacific
Ocean, redwood forest hiking trails and world
class cultural attractions. What do you do?

12.In your opinion, what is the most beautiful
math equation ever derived?

13. Which of the following is NOT an actual
interest group formed by Google employees?
A. Women's basketball
B. Buffy fans
C. Cricketeers
D. Nobel winners
E. Wine club

14.What will be the next great improvement in
search technology?

15.What is the optimal size of a project team,
above which additional members do not
contribute productivity equivalent to the
percentage increase in the staff size?
A) 1
B) 3
C) 5
D) 11
E) 24

16.Given a triangle ABC, how would you use only
a compass and straight edge to find a point P
such that triangles ABP, ACP and BCP have
equal perimeters? (Assume that ABC is
constructed so that a solution does exist.)

17.Consider a function which, for a given whole
number n, returns the number of ones required
when writing out all numbers between 0 and n.
For example, f(13)=6. Notice that f(1)=1. What
is the next largest n such that f(n)=n?

18.What's the coolest hack you've ever written?

19.'Tis known in refined company, that choosing
K things out of N can be done in ways as
many as choosing N minus K from N: I pick K,
you the remaining.

Find though a cooler bijection, where you show
a knack uncanny, of making your choices contain
all K of mine. Oh, for pedantry: let K be no more
than half N.

20.What number comes next in the sequence:
10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66,?
A)96
B) 1000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000
C) Either of the above
D) None of the above

21.In 29 words or fewer, describe what you
would strive to accomplish if you worked
at Google Labs.

Have fun.