Common Google Interview Question - Full Answer Explained

[@jeffhsipepi]

Hi everyone, this question is being asked across the board for CLIENT FACING ROLES. I hope this video helps, good luck!!

[@anhquytamnguyen]

Hi Jeff, I just want to say thank you for all these extremely valuable resource. Your super high quality contents are hands down the best resources for candidates being interviewed by Google (speaking from personal experience :) Wish you all the best in growing this channel and thanks for helping many of us aspiring to get a role at Google.

[@jeffhsipepi]

Bruce, thank you so much for this thoughtful comment!

[@Gold_Stone]

Love the content Jeff! You got my Subscribe 😉

[@jeffhsipepi]

Brian, I love subs, thanks!

[@HanxueZhang-up2pu]

Hi Jeff, thank you so much for your videos. I'm in the middle of Google Interviews and have learnt a lot from your resources. One thing I noticed that that my interviewer didn't like me to check in with questions after I provide framework or a assumptions. He wants complete answers for solutions. I struggled to move on to solutions part quickly and logically

[@jeffhsipepi]

@HanxueZhang-up2pu, yes, after you have clarified, continuing to ask questions will really wear an interviewer down. You can state before your solution your preferred path and see if they want to go in that direction, but at that point in your answer, I would try to avoid additional questions. Only use questions before and after your solution as transition statements where you are leading and guiding your interviewer down a preferred path. I hope this helps!

[@babakrau4320]

Hey Jeff, just wanted to thank you for the great content you put out here and your support and answers in the comment sections. I signed my contract with Google last week and your videos helped me a lot for my interview preparation. If there is anything I can do for you or anything you want to know about my preparation process please feel free to get in contact with me.

[@jeffhsipepi]

Babak, CONGRATS!!! So happy to have been a part of your journey.

[@aashishgupta2902]

Hi Babak - did you interview for a non-tech role? I Would love to get in touch and get some help :)

[@jeffhsipepi]

@@aashishgupta2902, join our slack group and connect with others to get help with your questions.

[@deepikabhatia4514]

I have upcoming interview with Google for Data Analytics Specialist Customer Engineer can someone help me

[@jeffhsipepi]

@@deepikabhatia4514 - join our free desktop app for lots of free resources to help with your prep - www.practiceinterviews.com/signup

[@Fzmedeiros]

Extremely didatic and give a broader view about how to fulfill interviewers with good data! tks a lot Jeff

[@jeffhsipepi]

Fabricio, thanks, glad this video helped!

[@lylam4763]

Great contents! Thank you for sharing!

[@jeffhsipepi]

ly Lam, I am so glad you enjoyed this video! 😬

[@friendlyfiresyeah]

Such a helpful video, Jeff! Learnt tons from your vids.

[@jeffhsipepi]

D Y, thank you for the positive feedback

[@eastsideozzy]

wow, they way you respond to these questions blows my mind, I have NEVER gone into an interview with that level of detail and preparation, I was so nervous about just the technical portion that I overlooked the ability to recognize the business need and case just by asking clarifying questions.

[@jeffhsipepi]

eastsideozzy, I am so glad you found this video helpful!

[@8hey8hey]

Awesome! Thanks for the video!

[@jeffhsipepi]

Tdc, you are welcome! There is a high likelihood of being asked this question in a client facing role!

[@nehashukla6554]

Thanks Jeff for this awesome video. Your content is super 👍

[@jeffhsipepi]

Neha, thank you!!

[@maximus7288]

Thanks Jeff, this is a good video. Has somebody answer to you this question from a Process Improvement perspective (maybe with a DMAIC or Lean techniques approach?). I've done several projects to improve CSAT scores by finding root causes and identifying a brainstormed solution from SME's feedback.

[@jeffhsipepi]

Maximus, yes, you could definitely use these approaches, these concepts would likely be used as framework concepts that you can expand on in your solution.

[@jenniferliangchan1007]

For the clarifying questions, should we ask all questions at the same time or one by one? Are there benefits from one approach over the other?

[@jeffhsipepi]

Jennifer, it all depends on your interviewer. If they are responding to your questions, ask one at a time, if they are not responsive at all, it can be powerful to group questions. Adapting to their style is what is most important!

[@nunyatth6044]

Hi Jeff! Your videos has been super helpful for my interview prepping! Wondering if you have any specifics relating to Strategic Cloud Engineer role at Google? I haven't been able to find much online. Thank you so much in advance!

[@jeffhsipepi]

nunyatth6044 - try watching this video, hopefully this helps - kzbin.info/www/bejne/faWohn9prcd0kJo

[@clairecai3260]

Hi Jeff, I've been watching your video while preparing for google interviews, these are really helpful content!! Thank you sooo much! I just want to see a basic feedback of your: the phone interview went less than 20mins and recruiter was even late for twice, and now its almost a week without feedback/email, is it kind of meaning failed to move forward? Still many thanks!!!

[@jeffhsipepi]

@clairecai3260, 20 minutes or less is a very common amount of time for a Recruiter phone interview. I would say follow up early next week as many people take this week off, and keep us posted, good luck!!

[@clairecai3260]

@@jeffhsipepi Thank you so much for your reply!!!! Hope to share good news🥰

[@Hosamo7]

Thanks Jeff, I noticed that you made the answer much harder on yourself by asking so many questions and narrowing your manouvering space . Can't we just give few assumption before we start and that's it?

[@jeffhsipepi]

@Hosamo7, great question! The purpose of clarifying is data gathering and to show your problem solving capabilities. By simply assuming up front, two things might happen, first your interviewer might really not like that you assumed without clarifying and or, your assumed path is not at all what the interviewer had in mind and asking questions could have helped you get that alignment. I want the focus to be narrow, it is only when the focus is narrow that your interviewer can visualize you in the role. General assumptions and solutions are hard to picture. Lastly, if I interviewed someone and asked them a hypothetical question and they asked no clarifying questions, I would instantly assume that this is how they would act on the job. Specifically, that they would try to solve challenges in the organization without clarifying their assumptions first. I hope this helps!

[@SamairaJain11]

Hello Jeff, can you please make a video for business intelligence analyst interview? There are no resources available for this position.

[@jeffhsipepi]

Sail, I have received a lot of requests to do Analyst videos, so I will seriously consider making one, thank you.

[@SamairaJain11]

@@jeffhsipepi Thank you so much! Do you have any pointers to share here for business intelligence analyst interview?

[@jeffhsipepi]

@@SamairaJain11 yes, make sure to not only focus on data & analysis, but also strong communication and collaboration skills. You can like find some good practice questions in the free resources section of my website - www.practiceinterviews.com/free-resources

[@SamairaJain11]

@@jeffhsipepi Thank you Jeff. Will do that!

[@garrettzwar4369]

Studying hard!!

[@jeffhsipepi]

Garrett, I would expect nothing less, effort = hired 😬 Good luck!!

[@daniellekozelian1326]

Hi Jeff, so helpful while preparing for my interview! Just wanted to ask since the initial question states we aren't allowed any additional tools or resources. Wouldn't gathering data and conducting surveys be considered as additional tools or resources?

[@jeffhsipepi]

Danielle, good question. I hadn't thought of it that way! I think the primary focus of additional resources is more people or money, I think!

[@Lima3578user]

Technical recruiter round scheduled, fingers crossed

[@jeffhsipepi]

lllima, good luck!!

[@Lima3578user]

@@jeffhsipepi Thanks Jeff, GCA scheduled for early next week.🤞, seeking your help with more content and scenarios for next set of rounds for TPM role .

[@jiawenng5714]

Hey Jeff, thank you so much for your videos. I have attempted the question before hearing your answer and I took 24 minutes. Is that too long? How long should I take to answer these hypothetical questions?

[@jeffhsipepi]

Jiawen, yes this is too long! Ideally your complete answer would be around 10 minutes, but this is with three solutions. Meaning you spend about 5 minutes going through your clarifying questions, framework, assumptions, and first solution. After the first solution make sure you are trying to push to another part of the solution and doing that a few times usually yields a good answer. Just make sure you are breaking up your answer and checking in/collaborating with your interviewer.

[@tercial]

Yeah the open ended questions were very vague for me and made it difficult

[@jeffhsipepi]

C4Zero, yes, the vagueness makes it so much harder!!

[@vladx3539]

Hi Jeff me again! Again thanks a lot for sharing. But I have a question, shouldnt your first question in this scenario be.. how is CSAT measured? what are the actual KPIs used? it is such a specific ask 80 -> 90 , unless you know how these are calculated...it is hard to answer - based on my real life experience having dealt with increasing customers csat :)

[@jeffhsipepi]

Vlad X, when we ask interviewers open-ended questions to an open-ended question, it can cause them to shut down. Giving them options makes the likelihood that they answer much higher, even though it is a little awkward. This is not how we would ask questions like this on the job, but in an interview, we want to clarify between one item or another as opposed to asking questions that ask our interview for structure.

[@vladx3539]

@@jeffhsipepi makes sense. thx for answering

[@somnathYashwantsawle]

Danewad sir

[@gofastcj]

Is it good to intertwine a real world example of how you've done this? Specifically explain how you used your approach with a customer to improve satisfaction ratings and the outcomes for example, or best to keep it all hypothetical?

[@jeffhsipepi]

CJ, it is critical to remember your interviewer has an agenda, and that hypothetical questions should not be answered with examples.

[@dsraverstar]

@@jeffhsipepi , I learned this the hard way. I gave them an example of my experience instead of breaking down the hypothetical question.

[@jeffhsipepi]

@@dsraverstar it is okay, not all interviewers are as rigid as I am, but I strongly recommend CFAS for anything open-ended

[@shaiknagurbasha8410]

After completing course next permeantly job in Google

[@jeffhsipepi]

nagur basha shaik, good luck!

[@pascalbruyere7108]

I feel that there should be more about how the 80 and 90% are measured, and root causes of the lacking 20%. If you don’t know how it’s measured, you can not bring it up higher. Same if you don’t know the root causes.

[@jeffhsipepi]

Pascal, yup! I love focusing on historical data, without knowing how we got there, we cannot solve.

[@zhihangzhou7141]

Hopefully they don’t ask such question for engineering position

[@jeffhsipepi]

Zhihang, not for a Software Engineer, but for a Customer Engineer, they would