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SOFT SKILLS INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Terms in this set (85)

What is your favorite Google product, and how would you improve it?
My favorite is google search and google map. I would improve google map by adding the option that allows me the drag the route to my own preference instead choosing one of the predetermined routes. I also watch YouTube on a regular basis, and I would like for when I clicked on one of my of subscription, there would be a playlist of the new videos that I haven't watched from them. When I'm playing the playlist of all the videos that I had liked, there's an option to remove from the playlist as you're playing it. It would be nice if removing the song then would remove it permanently from the playlist.
What do you know about Google?
Google started of as a search engine in 1998 and has since then expanded beyond that. Google recently brought Assistant to Google Map, Messages, and voice typing on KaiOS. Google is building an AI. Google makes money from Ads.
It was found by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Current CEO is Sundar Pichai.
Walk me through your past work experience.
In my current job as a Vietnamese Translator, I have translated several documents from English to Vietnamese and vice versa, with the longest document being 13 pages. I helped my companies and Vietnamese clients understanding each other by translating both verbally and in writing.

Currently, I'm a web developer intern for a startup company where I employed my coding skills to build an e-learning app for English Second Language Learner
What would you want to do if you didn't have to work?
I would study and learn all the subjects and skills that I've been interested in and explored them in depth with the free time.
What would you want to do if you didn't have to work?
I would study and learn all the subjects and skills that I've been interested in and explored them in depth with the free time. Beside programming, I also find anthropology, design, fashion, and medicine very interesting.
What do you avoid?
I avoid stagnation and working on something that I believe to be ineffective and obsolete.
Estimate the number of tennis balls that can fit into a plane
What kind of plane? Am I allowed to look the plane model and would i be given the dimension of the tennis balls. If so, I would search for the volume of the plane and the volume of a tennis ball. Also, are we accounting for an empty plane or a plane with passengers in it?
If you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Another one bites the dust
You have a grocery delivery service (similar to Amazon Fresh) that delivers food within 24 hours. Estimate how many trucks you need to operate this service
Would I be given data about previous orders? If not, I would like to ask if the trucks are for delivering to the customers or for delivering products to the distributor location.
Why is diversity important?
To achieve diversity of thought utilizing the differences in others

When we brainstorm with colleagues within the same field, we come up with the same old ideas.

I think diversity is important because when people from various background and environment interact, we have more ideas in the pool of thought. And that allows innovation to happen easier. We learn a different way of thinking and doing things that we have not known before.

Furthermore, without diversity, there's a lack of perspective. Broader perspective is better for businesses that aims to appeal to a wider demographics.

True innovation comes from not only one field of study but from the intersection from multiple disciplines
How many haircuts do you think happen in America every year?
Does this include haircuts at salon only or the one people do by themselves as well? Then find the population of America. Estimate the the percentage who do not get hair cut like bald people, babies, people who are trying to grow their hair
List 6 things that made me nervous
boredom
stagnation
height
large social events
earthquakes
thunder
How did you become interested in programming?
When I was working with special needs children, I was fascinated with how despite not being able to talk and groom themselves, they had no problem using the a computer or tablet. I originally was interested in UX/UI design and I found out that one of the best way to break into that field is through coding. However, once I actually started to learn how to program, I found myself skipping other hobbies and sometimes eating doing it. And therefore, I decided to pursue it as a career
What have you been doing in your most recent position?
In my most recent position, I'm working with a team of developers, UX and graphic designers, as well as the company's CEO to develop an e-learning app that enables users to import an e book and learn vocabulary and grammar from it. I'm responsible for building the interface from the wireframe created by our UX designer.
Tell me about your experience at LFZ? What did you learn there?
I really enjoyed my experience at LFZ. It taught me not just how to code but how to collaborate with people from various background as well as those with different perspectives. Our class's age varied from 19-55 and we all had different occupations upon starting. I learned how to be an effective team player under an agile environment and I learned that I work well under pressure. I enjoyed seeing how other people arrived to their solutions because it helps me see new effective ways to do things. I enjoyed the friendship that I made there. We worked closely and spent so much time together and that allowed me to foster good relationship with several people from my class.
What do you know about Qualitest?
Qualitest SLS teams are in 4 locations: CA, NY, Israel, and Korea.

Qualitest is the world's largest, independently managed QA & testing provider
Have expertise across industries, including financial services, insurance, media and entertainment, retail, technology, gaming, telecom, among others.
For the fifth year in a row, the company was named Visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Application Testing Services.
What do you know about this position and what it entails?
Improves Google Search and Google Assistant results for Vietnamese. Writes best practices documentations. detecting data quality gaps within the Google Knowledge Graph

Part of this position entails giving users direct answers instead of having them clicked on individual search result for answers. The SLS person will also help clearing up ambiguity in searches. The goal of SLS is to increate global coverage, in this case, for Google
Tell me what you know about localization and how it pertains to Vietnamese culture?
Localization is making searches more specific and relevant to the users from that locale. It involves an understanding of the location's culture and the language so that Google can determine what the users would want to see in their searches. For example, if one was to search for the word "football" in the USA, they would likely expect to see American football. But football would result in soccer if the user was in Vietnam.
Give me examples that show you're self-motivated and take initiative
To prepare for this interview, I bought a VPN service to see what it's like to search from the perspective of a person living in Vietnam
Tell me a joke
What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for college? Bison
What does Jay Z call his wife before he married her? Feyonce
How many cars travel across a bridge each day?
What country? What bridge? The size of that bridge? The population of the city where the bridge is located? The number of people who owns car in that city?
Why do you want this job?
I want to work at Google. Also, I want to make my family and myself proud for knowing that I work for the biggest tech company using my knowledge of our culture.
Tell us about yourself
Recent professional achievements: Client told me she would introduce other people to the company because she liked working with me
Educational achievements: UCI psychology
Applicable skills: Vietnamese translator
Professional goals
Reason for interest in the company

The 'present-past-future' formula is a way to share key background points while ending on a high note. Begin with a brief overview of where you are now (which could include your current job along with a reference to a personal hobby or passion), reference how you got to where you are (here you could mention education, or an important experience such as a past job, internship or volunteer experience) and then finish by touching on a goal for the future.

Bonus points if you're able to identify how the position you're applying for aligns with how you envision your future.
What makes you special for this job relative to other people who are applying for it
I am a native speaker who can read, write, and speak both English and Vietnamese fluently. Several Vietnamese people who raised here as a child are often recognized by people living in Vietnam as abroad Vietnamese. But when I came back to visit Vietnam, people never thought that I lived in the US because I had no problem talking and understanding them. I have a very strong focus. Back in in my class, I was jokingly known as the girl who does not sleep because I was very committed to do quality work and would stay up late to make the project was done well.

these firms often require employees to go through cycles of devoting very long hours while rolling out a
new product very quickly. Highlight your interest in software technology (e.g. coding, hacker culture, and
user experience), your interest in being part of a tight-knit team, and your ultimate commitment to the
organization when you need to work long hours. Highlight your
interest in social media, cultural trends, innovative technologies, your ability to think creatively
Tell me about a time when you overcome a challenge
1 week into the bootcamp, I was considering dropping out because I felt very behind. But I already paid money and put my job on hold for it, and so I determined to keep trying. I asked my teachers for practice drills to improve my skills. I read documentations on things I didn't understand and afterwards trying out the new techniques by applying them in coding challenges that I found online. I gradually get better and I started to enjoy coding and found it to actually be fun. For the last project, I was responsible for most of our app functionalities on the front end.
Tell me about a time when you failed
I applied to SJSU hoping to become a UX designer. I did not make it in. Even though I was initially bummed, I tried to come up with a plan B and decided to learn how to code as that path could eventually lead me to UX design as well. That was how I started to code by myself.
Share an example of a time you needed to influence a team in some way
There was a technology that I was really excited to learn about and was hoping to incorporate it into our app. However, my team had skepticism about it due to workload at the time. I told them about the benefits of learning it and having it on our portfolio as it was something that many companies employed. I also sent them short tutorials to show them that technology does not have a steep learning curve. As a result, my team agreed to add it to our app.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
The final project was a stressful time for all of us. Our team was considered by the instructors as the as one of the most collaborative group that they've worked with.
What are your greatest strengths?
My best strengths is my strong focus, love for learning and making progress and tendency to analyze things around me. I coded in my free time and occasionally skipped meals and often stayed up late because I was so enthralled with solving problems that I couldn't do before. I like to synthesize information and see patterns and what they have in common.
What is your weakness?
Sometimes I bite more than I can chew to the point of spreading myself thin and getting overwhelmed. But lately i've been improving that by having a schedule and calendar and assigning time to task.

When I'm in the zone, I don't take break. And that would affect my thinking ability. To combat this, i started employing the Pomodoro technique when I work for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minutes break.

Or choose a weakness that doesn't relate to the job or my skills/strengths
How do you stay creative?
I stay creative by exposing myself to many disciplines and cultures. Learning information from various fields, connecting, and finding relationship between them
How did you become interested in programming?
When I was working with special needs children, I was fascinated with how despite not being able to talk and groom themselves, they had no problem using the a computer or tablet. I originally was interested in UX/UI design and I found out that one of the best way to break into that field is through coding. However, once I actually started to learn how to program, I found myself skipping other hobbies and sometimes eating doing it. And therefore, I decided to pursue it as a career
Do you have any questions for us?
How does the engineering team balance resources between feature requests and engineering maintenance?

How do you measure success? What are your most important product metrics?

What are your highest priorities right now?

How do you see this position evolving in the next three years?

From your observation, what are some traits and habits of effective bilingual engineers?
Tell me about a conflict you had with a coworker / Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult team member.
In my last position, I noticed one of my colleagues whom I worked directly with seemed to be more upset than usual and she would avoid my eye contacts or looked at me with annoyance. Since I need to communicate with her about work, I wanted to know what's going on, if it's something I did. So i did just that, as we worked, I casually asked her if I did something to make her upset. She seemed surprised and told me she has some personal issue and was upset about it. She told me not to worry and that it's nothing personal with me. After that, I notice she was making an effort to be more friendly and collaborative with me again. I learned from that experience that a lot of time it's good to just bring things up to clear the tension. If people didn't mean to, they will be more aware of it. And if it's something that actually bothered them, they'll talk about it.
Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with your boss
My supervisor wanted me to take the kid out tao walk and practice safety everyday. However he was a 16 year old, much bigger and stronger than me. So I told my boss, "Boss, I'm concerned that I can't go for a walk with him everyday only mom is home on that day and I'm not strong enough to hold him back if something happens. What if I walk with him on MWF when his brother is home and can come along with us. Would that be okay?". My boss thought that was reasonable and agreed. As a result, I can address his walking goal while still keeping both me and him safe.

Hey boss, if we did it like this. What if we did it this way? What do you think of it this way?

In my experience, this is a better way to do XYZ . What do you think? Would this be okay? I want to run it by you first and get your permission to do that.
Tell me about a time you made a mistake
I worked on a feature for 3 hours without committing or pushing. There was an issue with the branch and I ran into a merge conflict. All of my work for the past 3 hours were not there anymore. I asked a coworker for help as he was knowledgeable in Git. He helped me recover all of my information. I asked him how he was able to do that. Since then, whenever I ran to the problem, I just did what he showed me.
How do you tackle challenges? Name a difficult challenge you faced while working on a project, how you overcame it, and what you learned.
I tackled challenges by persevering, breaking it down to smaller parts, and giving the challenge some distance before coming back to it. I was building a memory match game in OOP and I didn't understand why some of the cards did not play sound upon clicking. I was pushing hard through the issue to try to figure it out but I couldn't find out what was the issue. So I decided to take a break from it.

When I came back, I was able to think more clearly and made an educated guess and put debuggers where I suspected there to be a problem. Turned out the the length of the audio effect was longer than the time it takes for a user to click on a new card. If the old card has not finished playing its audio, the new clicked card would have no audio at all. I accelerated the play speed of the audio effect to remedy the issue. I learned to break things down and inspect it part by part to figure out seemingly complicated problem.
Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
During our second hackathon in the development program, two of our teammates were having a disagreement and would not talk to each other. I was close to one of them so during break, I asked about her what was wrong and she told me how she didn't like the other person's working style. I thought she needed to vent so I listened to her and acknowledged her view while not particularly agreeing with it. After she finished talking, I offered my view on what happened and tried to mediate the relationship between the two.

• Are you easy to get along with?
• Do you collaborate well?
• Can you communicate effectively with different personalities?
• Can I handle seeing you in the office every day without strangling you?

Some jobs come with specific teamwork challenges:
• Can you deal with difficult personalities?
• Do you know how to push back diplomatically when necessary?
• Can you mediate disagreements?
• Can you motivate people to perform?
Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
The backend was returning the wrong data. We only had one backend person and he was busy working on an important task. I didn't want to interrupt him and decided to look at the codes myself and debugged it. I was able to figure out the queries were incorrect. I wrote down the issue and brought it up to him alter when he was finished with the other task.
Tell me about a time when you were innovative at work or solved a problem by being creative
I'm most innovative when presented with creative constraints. I was teaching social skills to one of my students. She was easily bored and so to address that issue, I turned it into a game. She loved video games, YouTube, and anime. I wrote the questions into small pieces of paper and mixed them up in a cup. She would draw out a random piece of paper with the question on it and answer it. I put references of her favorite characters and shows in there to make it more interesting.
Can you explain briefly to me how Google Search works?
Crawling > indexing > matching algorithms
What is crawling and its purpose?
The process search engines use to discover publicly available webpages. Web crawlers are automated software used to look at webpages and follow links on those pages, much like you would if you were browsing content on the web. They go from link to link and bring data about those webpages back to Google's servers.
What is indexing and its purpose?
Process of creating index for all the fetched web pages and keeping them into a giant database (over 100mil GB) from where it can later be retrieved. Its purpose is to organize information.

It's like the index in the back of a book — with an entry for every word seen on every web page we index. When we index a web page, we add it to the entries for all of the words it contains.
How does PageRank work? What is it purpose
Algorithms that evaluate how useful matched webpages are. These algorithms analyze hundreds of different factors to try to surface the best information the web can offer, from the freshness of the content, to the number of times your search terms appear and whether the page has a good user experience. In order to assess trustworthiness and authority on its subject matter, we look for sites that many users seem to value for similar queries. If other prominent websites on the subject link to the page, that's a good sign the information is high quality.

- each page given an equal weight
- pages with lots of links pointing at them, must be
important so they get the highest weight/ranking

a mathematical formula that judges the "value of a page" by looking at the quantity and quality of other pages that link to it. Its purpose is to determine the relative importance of a given webpage in a network.

The idea was inspired by the way scientists gauge the "importance" of scientific papers. That is, by looking at the number of other scientific papers referencing them. Sergey and Larry took this concept and applied it to the web by tracking references (links) between web pages.

Google also writes algorithms to identify spam and remove sites that abuses the PageRank system by using techniques like repeating keywords over and over or buying links that pass PageRank
What are useful responses. List some examples
Delivering the most relevant answers in formats that are helpful to the typeof information users look for

- Answers from the knowledge graph : show how things are connected

- Direction and traffic : when people searched on Google for an address, they don't want a link to websites mentioning this street. They most likely wanted to know where it was and how to get there.

- Direct answers : Partnering with data providers that have up to date and reliable information. This is also how we can bring you the weather forecast and sports scores directly on the Search page.

- Featured snippets : Featured snippets help provide quick answers to questions by drawing attention to programmatically generated snippets from websites that our algorithms deem relevant to the specific question being asked

- Rich lists : The best answer to users' question is not always a single entity, but a list or group of connected people, places or things. So when a person searches for [endangered species] or [famous female astronomers], Google will show a list of these things across the top of the page.
List some of the ways Google uses Search algorithms to return useful results
Analyzing queries : analyze what the words in the search query means using steps such as interpreting spelling mistakes, applying latest research on natural language understanding, and using the synonym system.

Matching your search - matching queries by looking keywords in the index, analyzing whether the pages include relevant content, checking to see if the page is written in the same language as the queries in order to prioritize pages in preferred language

Ranking useful pages - Algorithms that evaluate how useful matched webpages are. These algorithms analyze hundreds of different factors to try to surface the best information the web can offer, from the freshness of the content, to the number of times your search terms appear and whether the page has a good user experience

Considering context - takes the individual user into account using information such as their location and country, past and recent search history and Search settings
What is the Knowledge Graph?
This model goes beyond keyword matching. A "graph"—that understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings. It's tuned based on what people search for, and what Google finds out on the web. The information is presented to users in an infobox next to the search results

It allows for more intelligent search by finding the right thing, providing summary, and going broader and deeper (giving recommended searches)
What are the three things that are most
important to you in a job?
Growth potential, friendly work environment, openness to feedback
What's the most interesting thing about you
that's not on your resume?
I would like to get a mediator certificate. People often confide in me. I've been drawing anime style since I was 6. I like to skateboard
What's the biggest misconception your
coworkers have about you and why do they
think that?
That I'm quiet. I don't speak out much in group settings
Give an example of when you had to work
with someone who was difficult to get along
with. How did you handle interactions with
that person?
...
Tell me about a time when you were
communicating with someone and they did
not understand you. What did you do?
A picture is worth a thousand words. I was trying to explain to my teammate my code. They didn't understand so I showed them on the console line by line what each piece of code did and how they tied together.
Tell me about one of your favorite experiences
working with a team and your contribution.
I liked almost everything about the last project when I was in the development program. I liked that our team communicates and encourages each other. I liked that we didn't have any drama and just overall got along well with each other.
What actions and support, in your experience, make a team function successfully?
Encouraging and acknowledging people's good work and giving them credits. Owing up to your mistake. Be ready to forgive and take one for the team. Taking initiative to do the hard work.
Give an example of a successful project that you were part of. What was your role? What made the project successful in your view?
List Rally. I was a front-end developer. The project was successful because we communicated well and helped out each other as needed. Everybody was doing their task
What are you looking to learn in this role?
...
Attention to detail examples...
...
What is Google's mission?
"to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
You wanted to do development and engineering before. Why do you want to do this role now?
Show that you're serious about making
the change to this new function. Highlight courses and side projects that show
your commitment to this new skill set. Assure the hiring manager that the
organization will be making a good decision by investing in you.

Show the recruiting team that you're
serious about changing industries by letting them know that you're learning the
relevant softwares, reading about the industry, and that this move is an
important part of your career plan.
• Give me a specific example of an area of communication where it caused friction or a problem?
...
How would you describe your communication style? Give me an example that embodies this style?
...
What kind of decision are most difficult for you? Give me an example?
...
What is your process for making difficult decision?
...
Give me an example of a conflict you have had with a boss
I've actually never had a conflict with my boss because I would try to communicate potential issue first before it potentially turns into a conflict. But if I do, I would make sure to understand their point of view first. A lot of times, conflicts happen due to misunderstanding. Therefore I believe if I know where the other person is coming from, it would help me understand resolve the situation better
Give me an example of when you lost your patience in the workplace.
...
Describe the kind of people in which you work best.
...
What causes pressure or stress for you? Give me a specific example.
...
Describe a situation where you work was criticized. How did you handle it?
...
Can you give me an example of when you sought the advice or counsel of others?
...
Have you ever had to tell a lie in the workplace? If so why?
...
Summarize Google does in 1-2 sentences
...
List 4 of Google key products and services
Google Search
Mobile Operating System Android
Google Maps
YouTube
Chrome
What is the driver of success for Google in the tech industry?
...
What is google's revenue?
136 billion in 2018, with most of the revenue comes from advertising
I notice you don't have much experience in tech. Why should we hire you given google is a tech company?
Remind the hiring manager that you're fresh out of school and that you have received fantastic training. For example, you might say "I've been so fortunate to receive an excellent education at..." Also, show that you're someone who wants to learn inside a great organization by saying something like, "most people would characterize me as someone who is a quick learner, and I'm especially interested in joining an organization where I can quickly onboard and make a positive
impact with the team around me."
I notice you live in SoCal. Why are you willing to move to MountainView?
Reassure the hiring team that you're
serious about moving to their specific place. The message that you'll move "anywhere" usually isn't nearly as powerful as saying that you're doing everything to move somewhere in particular—where the target organization is . You can prove this by talking about the time you've spent researching housing and other moving concerns
I have concern about your ability to work in a large team
Show them you're interested in joining an organization with more resources, structure, and reach. Large companies need people
who are capable of working within a structured system and who are comfortable being managed by metrics. So if you're approaching a large organization, you'll want to highlight your ability to work well on teams and to respond to the organization's strategic initiatives
What do you see yourself doing in the next 5 years?
...
What is the difference between internalization (i18n) vs localization (l10n)?
Internationalization (i18n) is the process of developing products in such a way that they can be localized for languages and cultures easily.

Localization (l10n), is the process of adapting applications and text to enable their usability in a particular cultural or linguistic market.
What do you want out of this job search?
...
What did you do in your previous job?
...
Tell us about yourself — your recent work, what type of work you want to be doing, and, most importantly, what you desire in your next role.
I'm currently a front end developer at Maven for a mobile application. Using wireframes provided by designers, I build the app's interface using Javascript, React, HTML, and CSS. I work together with other developers, UX designers, and graphic designers.
Why do you want to work here?
Marijuana is a booming industry and weedmaps is about the largest site for discovering and researching cannabis vendors. I would like to be part of the team that contributes to its growth. Additionally I like that your team is using the latest technologies such as Next.js and GraphQL
What is the key to working in a team composed of on site and remote developers?
Communication and trust. Communicate because you need to know what's going on. Trust because you need to have faith that other people are gonna do their share without supervision
Have you ever done code review and what did you find helpful about it?
...
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