How I Gamified the Google Interview

As someone who works at Google, this seems like a grossly excessive amount of effort to get past interviews which just aren't that hard. It would have been much easier to browse through the first few chapters of an algorithms textbook, set up a simple network between two linux VMs, and (optionally) brush up on C++/Java/Python syntax if those aren't languages you use often.<p>The reason Google has a reputation for hard interview problems is that before they came around, the standard technical interview was "So, $NAME, tell me about what you did at your last job". They were one of the first silicon-valley companies to have technical interviews, and so it frightened all the unqualified candidates who couldn't just coast in on good conversation skills.<p>Before Google, the company with a reputation for impossible interviews was Microsoft. Like Google, I strongly doubt that their questions are anywhere near as difficult as the rumor stream claims.

Great post on the gamification aspect.<p>But as an aside: is it really typical for someone to prepare this hard for an interview, even if it is for a dream company? If so, then something seems to be clearly broken with the interview process. My idea of a superstar candidate is not someone who memorizes possible questions and answers, but simply someone who is really really good at what he does.

I was surprised to see no positive comments here at all (at the time I posted this comment).<p>So let me say: thank you for an excellent article. Yes, intrinsic motivation is great, and yes, cramming is not the most effective long-term learning approach. However, there are always going to be short-term challenges to overcome that require something like cramming. That's just part of life. And this is a novel, intriguing approach to it that worked for someone in the real world.<p>Thought-provoking and enlightening. Exactly the kind of thing I hope to find on Hacker News.

Lots negativity here.<p>The guy appears to have enjoyed himself while exploring a fairly unique skill in the process of working towards a major personal goal.<p>Seems like a multiple win to me.

Wow, thats a lot of negativity here.<p>There were some neat tricks to use here:<p>1) The reward feint - people are statistically terrible prognosticators of what would make them happy. Setting a stretch reward which actually uses this aspect of to create a positive outcome is really neat.<p>2) The variable reward schedule? just 2 coin flips is a really stupidly obvious solution, and variable reward schedules are like crack for the brain.<p>3) How he dealt with high energy requirement prep, during low energy periods. That's something I've faced and I used to just say "man I've just got to work through it."<p>These were some obvious things executed nicely. For people who are facing trouble with intrinsic motivation, this is something that can be set up and launched and will helps you get through the hump.<p>edit: flow/redundant bits removed.

I'm all for finding ways to motivate yourself, but there's no need to spend this much time on interview prep.<p>Google is a great company to work for, but there are many other good ones out there, and any application process is always a roll of the dice. Google turns away plenty of extremely qualified people (as do every other large tech company) and they also occasionally hire some incompetent ones. Pinning your hopes on a single company is a recipe for disappointment.

The problem is this is a little disturbing and honestly pretty unhealthy; i.e. I think this would lead to some kind of burnout or breakdown either mentally or physically. Sure, it seems like an awful lot of work for the ultimate reward of working at Google, not exactly like winning the Nobel prize or something.<p>Earning energy drinks for performing tasks that seem to almost require energy drinks in the first place seems to be a scary feedback loop. I think the other major issue with this is your treating yourself like some kind of machine or simple animal that performs tricks or that runs toward dangling carrots. If you have the discipline, which I wouldn't, to stick this burnout game, it seems like you should have the discipline to take a more reasonable and measured approach to doing an <i>appropriate</i> level of study/preparation without all this stuff. And all this business of mechanistically surrendering yourself to progress bars ... I think people that go to this extreme need to study more humanities and learn more big picture kind of things; this is like describing behavior one would find in characters in some dystopian novel.

<i>Laughs and just closes browser</i>. I've had enough guys.

This is just sad.

It's an interesting article, but I doubt the gamification stuff would work for me at all.<p>It does nothing for me to create some artificial reward unrelated to the goal I'm trying to accomplish. If accomplishing the goal isn't reward enough on its own, then why should I do it? That's especially true if the reward is something I can I have anyway. There is no net gain by depriving myself of an energy drink in my refrigerator for another hour. The energy drink was already mine; and was mine to have when I decided to have it. The gamification idea seems trite to me.

What is wrong with preparing hard. I love how he gamified the interview and used the right tools for motivation. Imagine applying this to other facets like project completion, study etc ...

theres nothing wrong with proper preparation, but the whole idea of gamifying the process seems incredibly unnecessary. As an employer I look for people that are very self motivated, and don't require any external motivations like an ipad to do something. If someone told me they needed this type of effort to get something done that as in his words "is a dream of mine", then he already failed my test.

I was expecting to read something about what he read, trained, etc. for the interview. "Gamification"? Ridiculous.

Man, the whole story is quite sad.<p>Dream company?<p>Hope you love working there for ... ever!

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