Google Software Tester Interview Questions and Answers

Professional and academic backgroundI completed Computer Science Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Microsoft interview preparation:Topics to prepare for the interview - Graphs, Dynamic Programming, Arrays, LinkedList, stringsTime required to prepare for the interview - 1 monthInterview preparation tips for other job seekers

Tip 1 : Practice as much as you can.
Tip 2 : Prepare for company, not in general.
Tip 3 : Your past work should be objective and your contribution should be very clear

Application resume tips for other job seekers

Tip 1 : Keep only relevant things for the job you are applying.
Tip 2 : Minimal data with measurable contribution and effect.

Final outcome of the interviewSelected

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be prepared

Round: Manager Round
Experience: About project and previous company experience , daily activity

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per the norms of our institute’s placement cell. For Oracle I laid emphasis on my programming skills and projects related to it.

Round: Test
Experience: The first round was the written test that comprised of 5 sections – vocabulary, aptitude, pattern matching, logical reasoning and programming. The questions in the programming section were asked from data structures and C++. The questions in the programming section were mainly from trees (from data structures). Around 400 students appeared for their written test out of which around 100 were shortlisted.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The next round was the interview round. They gave me some puzzles to solve and a program to write. One of the puzzles that I remember was that if I were to be given an egg then how would I determine its durability, i.e. how would I determine that from which floor do I need to throw the egg from so that the egg does not break if thrown from any floor below it.
For the coding question I was given a mathematical formula and I was asked to devise a code such that the program uses the formula and gives the output.
Tips: Prepare for Data Structures as well as the commonly asked puzzles for Oracle.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: Oracle is a reputed company in the space of software and ITeS. It had come to our campus with five profiles. The best means to know about all of them is to attend the pre-placement talk of the company.

Round: Test
Experience: I appeared for Amdocs through Campus Recruitment Process. Section 1,2,3 was not tough, if you have practiced RD Sharma then don't worry about these sections as it was the easiest part of the written test. After that there were two coding questions in which you can choose any language(C/C++/Java) to write your code. The code were easy, I mean it wasn't like Codechef problems. If you have ever made the programming assignments by yourself then you would definitely be able to crack this section. Even if you didn't make it then you can practice coding questions like finding H.C.F, L.C.M, Removing redundant number from array, finding whether the string is palindrome or not, finding whether the number is Armstrong number or not,etc,. Now comes the technical section that was little bit tough for those who haven't studied about UNIX ever. It was consisting of C, DBMS and Unix. C questions can easily be attempt by completing "Test your C Skills by Yashwant Kanedtkar", In DBMS most of the questions were query based, some PL/SQL questions were also there, in Unix most of the questions were from VI editor commands and some linux commands like sed, uniq, fdisk and very few questions were from shell scripting like, what will be the output of echo*. Overall the test was easy, since it is easy for everyone so you need to do lots of practice because out of more than 200 students only 39 cleared the written test in our campus.
Duration: 2:30 minutes
Total Questions: 82

Skills: Implementation Of Code Using OOPS, Coding Skills, Database Management, Ability To Think, Ability To Cope Up With Stress, Ability To Deal Diplomatically, 1)communication
College Name: NIT Sikkim

Round: Test
Experience: Output questions
Tips: focus on basics
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 15

Round: Test
Experience: Two coding problems in one hour,on Cocobues.com

1. Given two arrays of numbers. The numbers are from 0-9 you have two maximize the first array by using the elements from the second array.
the elements can be used only once.
e.g. arr1[]={5,2,3,6,7};
arr2[]={9,2,8,4,5};
You should output the modified arr1 as {9,8,5,6,7}

2.Given a matrix of characters and a word.
you have to count the number of occurences of that word in that matrix. you can move to any of the eight valid directions from current position.
e.g. word="HELLO";
matrix[][5]={ {'H','E','L','L','O'},
{'E','H','E','A','B'},
{'L','L','O','C','D'}};
output should be : 5

Tips: DO AS MUCH AS PRACTICE
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Test
Experience: One Coding question was given to all the students ,You have to code and explain it.
You are given an string as input which represents a path. You have to normalize that path inplace(NO EXTRA SPACE).
e.g.
input : "\a\b\c\..\..\file.txt"
output: "\a\file.txt"
Hint: Double dot(..) means you have to skip the previous parent.
It was on paper.
Duration: 40 minutes
Total Questions: 1

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interviewer was very nice that was an amazing experience.
Tips: Be confident and relaxed.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Again the interviewer was very nice. Firstly he asked me what i have done in technical till that time.
After the interview was over he looks impressed.
Tips: Don't see what others are doing . Take your time and try to short out the correct solution.

General Tips: Do coding as much as you can
Skills: Algorithm, Coding Skills And Knowledge On Data Structures
Duration: 2
College Name: NIT Bhopal
Motivation: It comes to our institute, and the name Microsoft is sufficient for motivation.
Funny Moments: The journey to Microsoft IDC Hydrabad was very beautiful.

Round: Test
Experience: All types of C/C++ Aptitude and I/O questions were asked.
Was not a very easy round.
Tips: Prepare from -----/ and -----/
I had done everything in these 2 links.
Other than that, you can prepare from "Test your C Skills" by Yeshwant Kanetkar. PDF available online.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 40-50

Round: Test
Experience: Two coding questions were asked. It was hosted on CoCubes website.
Questions were pretty basic.
First one was ad-hoc, requiring to count the number of set bits of a number.
Second one was the standard, minimum cost path DP problem.
Tips: Prepare from geeksforgeeks, careercup and ambitionbox.
If you know competitive programming, you should not have much of a problem.
Duration: 90 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Test
Experience: Had to write code on paper. 2 questions.
First one was to rotate a matrix by 90 degrees. Pretty standard question.
Second one was to remove all negative elements in an array to the right end. Do it without extra memory.
Tips: Apart from correctness of solution, they check for code quality. Code written must be clean, indented and with properly named variables and functions.
Keep communicating your ideas to the people who will be supervising the test. They will understand your thought process that way.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Wrote the class in JAVA. Explained the methods, and optimized them. Variables were named properly.
Also generalized the class for an nxn matrix tic-tac-toe game.
Interviewer was very friendly. Wrote the code on paper.
Tips: Prepare on class design beforehand. They are quite likely to ask you questions on OOP.
Write clean code.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Just had to write the functions. Wrote code in C++.
The interviewer tested me on edge cases. Asked me to prepare test cases.
Tips: Make sure your code is ready to tackle those dirty edge cases.
Knowing standard library functions is beneficial. Make sure you learn some important ones. They can come in handy.
Write clean code. You can choose any language you are comfortable in.

General Tips: Stay calm. Prepare well.
Focus on the data structures that Microsoft usually asks about.
Skill Tips: A good internship helps in the process. I had interned at Google, so I got selected relatively easily as compared to other candidates. Make sure your resume is as impressive as you can make it.
Stay calm in the rounds. That way you can think better.
Communicate with the company officials. They will know you and your thought process that way.
Don't stay quiet in the interview rounds. If you have doubts, ask them. I had made this mistake when they came for internships and did not get selected because I didn't clear my doubts. The interview should be ideally like a discussion, where you present your thoughts and ideas, clear your doubts, and come up with a solution.
Skills: Resume, Communication, Analytical Skills, Algorithmic Approach To Problem Solving, Coding Skills And Knowledge On Data Structures
College Name: NIT Surathkal
Motivation: It is one of the biggest tech giants in the world. I definitely wanted to be a part of it.
Funny Moments: Since I had only 2 interviews, while others had 5, I came out so early that they thought I was rejected.
They later discovered, they were wrong.