How to pass a Google interview: busting the brain teaser myth
You won't ace the mythologized Google interview by knowing what to do if you're turned into a nickel and thrown in a blender
The key to getting Google's complimentary laundry service, free meals and nap pods can't be found in a book or online, but they can help. Photograph: Walter Bieri/AP
Do you know why manhole covers are round? How much toilet paper is needed to cover Texas? Whether people can swim faster in water or syrup?
Several books, websites and forums claim that the ability to answer these questions is the key to getting a gig at one of the most revered tech companies in the world. They purport to give hopefuls the cheat's code to a life of free meals, laundry service and Lego walls within Google's employ. All you have to do, they suggest, is learn the tricks.
But current and former Googlers agree that the ability to answer brain teasers isn't the secret key to getting a job at the search giant – because there isn't one.
A software engineer who worked at the company for four and a half years and at one point interviewed two to three Google applicants per week, said the company actually frowns on brain teasers.
"I've actually been amused when I see these 'what questions they ask at Google' type things, because, one, they're usually just these very old brain teasers, and two, once they're published somewhere, Google's not going to ask them any more, " the software engineer said.
Google employees agree that getting into the company is a rigorous process – applicants go through multiple rounds of interviews that can last several hours – but the trick question myth has been a part of tech company lore for decades.
"My understanding is that this is the sort of the thing that has been going around for at least 10 or 15 or 20 years; that at x tech company these are the things they ask. Before it was Google, it was said that Microsoft and IBM would ask these questions."
Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of The Google Resume and founder and CEO of CareerCup.com, was a software engineer at Google between 2005 and 2008, where she, too, interviewed potential candidates. McDowell said Microsoft asked brain teasers 15 years ago but have since ended the practice.
"Any information that is out that the companies are asking brain teasers is very, very out of date – or people are misinterpreting what the questions are about, " McDowell told the Guardian.
She says that people who assess difficult estimation questions (how many pizzas are delivered every year in New York?) as trick questions don't understand what they are being asked.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time it's about problem solving. Just ask questions and see if you can logically deduce the answer, " McDowell said.
These questions are typical for positions like software engineering that rely heavily on mathematics.
"All the tech companies are really asking very similar questions. There's nothing that scary about Google's, " McDowell said.
如何通过谷歌面试：打破脑筋急转弯神话
如果你变成了一枚硬币，被扔到搅拌机中，你该怎样做？即使你知道这种问题该如何回答，你也未必能通过谷歌那被谕为神话的面试。
如何才能享受到谷歌公司提供的免费洗衣服务、免费餐饮和午休间？书中或者网站上没有现成的答案，不过也可助你一臂之力。
图片来源：美联社（AP）/沃尔特·巴毕利（Walter Bieri）
你知道为什么井盖是圆的吗？你知道用多少卫生纸才能覆盖田纳西州吗？你知道人在水中游得快还是在果汁中游得快吗？
某些书、网站和论坛宣称回答这些问题的能力是进入谷歌这一世界上最热门的技术公司的关键。它们意在为有志者提供进入谷歌公司的诀窍，让他们享受免费餐饮、洗衣和能随意玩拼装玩具的生活。它们认为，你只需要学习怎么回答这些蹊跷的问题就够了。
但是不论是谷歌的现任员工、还是退休职员，都一致认为回答脑筋急转弯并不是在这家搜索引擎巨头获得一席之地的诀窍——因为根本就没有什么诀窍。
一个在谷歌工作了四年半的软件工程师也曾经每周面试两三个求职者，他说，谷歌公司实际上并不喜欢出脑筋急转弯。
这位软件工程师说：“实际上，当我看到‘谷歌会提问什么问题’那类东西时会觉得很搞笑，因为，第一，那些脑筋急转弯通常都是陈词滥调，第二，一旦它们在某个地方刊登出来，谷歌就再也不会问这些问题了。”
谷歌的员工都承认，进入这家公司是一个非常艰难的过程——面试者通常要经历很多轮的面试，可能会持续几个小时——不过提问脑筋急转弯一直是技术公司面试的常规项目，已经有几十年的历史了。
“我的理解是，这种形式已经持续了至少10年、15年或20年的时间了；技术公司都会问这类问题。在谷歌采取这种策略之前，微软和IBM就提问这种问题。”
《谷歌简历》（The Google Resume） 的作者、CareerCup.com的CEO盖勒?拉克曼?麦克道尔在2005到2008年期间是谷歌的软件工程师，她也曾在那儿做过面试官。麦克道尔微 软曾在15年前提问求职者脑筋急转弯，但是后来就不再采取这种措施了。
麦克道尔告诉卫报：“任何关于公司提问脑筋急转弯的外部消息都非常非常陈旧过时了，亦或是人们误解了那些提问的用意。”
她说，那些把高难度的估测问题（如纽约每年有多少外卖披萨？）当成是脑筋急转弯的人并不理解问题的含义。
麦克道尔说：“百分之九十九的情况都是在人们考察解决问题的能力。只是通过提问看看你是否能有逻辑地推断出答案。”
这些问题对于软件工程一类的职位来说是常规问题，这些职位对人们的数学要求很高。
她说，“事实上，所有的技术公司都问非常类似的问题。谷歌的面试没有那么恐怖。”
