Google General Cognitive Ability Interview

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Prepare for your Google Interview: Tips and Example General Cognitive Ability Question

The GCA round of the Google interview process can be tricky, even with lots of prep under your belt.

One of the most effective ways to prepare for these questions is with interview coaching.

Exponent has partnered with several Google interview coaches who can give you an inside look into the company’s hiring process while giving you expert advice on your potential interview performance.

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Google Gca Behavioral Interview Questions

In most cases, you’ll find that Google GCA questions will be in the form of behavioral questions.

You’ll be asked behaviorals in one way or another during every tech interview.

Still, GCA behavioral questions may focus more on situations that demonstrate how you think on the job.

In other parts of the interview, Google interviewers will also ask these questions to gauge your culture fit at the company. You can learn more about that in the article below:

Here are some examples of Google GCA behavioral questions:

Tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder.

Tell me about a time when you worked on a project with a tight deadline.

How do you prioritize if you have to work on five different projects?

Tell me about a time you faced technical and people challenges simultaneously.

Tell me about a time when you handled conflict.

How do you sell an idea to senior management? For example, if you use slides, what would the content include?

Tell me about a time you had to convince engineers to implement a particular feature.

Tell me about a time when you made a decision based on data and were ultimately wrong.

Tell me about how you brought a product to market.

Tell me about a time when you had to motivate a team after a demoralizing event.

Which Skills Do You Use To Cope With Stressful Situations

Can your candidates draw upon their cognitive skills to handle stressful situations? Your applicants may mention that cognitive sub-skills such as collaboration, interpersonal skills, or communication skills make it easier to handle stressful situations and get support for complex projects from team members.

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Study Up On And Remember Basic Facts

The first step in preparing for GCA estimation questions is studying and remembering basic facts and figures.

These basic figures can come in handy later when attempting to make some reasonable estimations.

We’ve compiled a list of some important ones you should try to memorize for your GCA interviews. Check those out here in our Estimation Fact Sheet.

This doesn’t mean you should try memorizing as many facts and figures as possible. After all, Google interviewers aren’t assessing your memorization abilities for these interview questions.

Estimation questions during your GCA evaluate how you think, so simply reciting remembered figures won’t do you any favors.

Google Gca Hypothetical Interview Questions

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One unique aspect of the Google GCA is that some of the behavioral interview questions you’ll be asked are about hypothetical scenarios.

Of course, all behavioral interview questions are designed to gauge how candidates would perform in their position if hired. So, naturally, Google interviewers will ask you how you’d act or react in a given situation.

When it comes to the GCA round, you may find that these makeup most of the questions you are asked.

Here are some examples:

You have a coworker who is not comfortable working on the team. What steps would you take to make the person more comfortable?

What would you do if you were introduced to new technology and never used it before? How would you know that you have learned it well?

Your team isn’t innovating. What will you do to analyze the situation and make them innovate?

You have 12 months to deliver on a project. After six months, you released during a meeting that another team is working on the same project. What would you do?

How would you react when you find the price of a product in a drug store to be very high?

How would you handle people who are not team players?

Imagine your manager strongly believed in something, and you did not. How would you manage the situation?

A developer is not testing the work. How would you deal with this?

What happens when a team member takes sick leave when your project has an upcoming deadline?

Cognitive Ability Interview Questions Related To Teamwork

It is critical to understand how your applicants use their cognitive abilities to work as part of a team. Ask your candidates these cognitive ability interview questions related to teamwork to learn more about this.

Have you ever had to motivate other team members? Which strategies did you use?

Why is team collaboration important to you? Which cognitive skills help you to work well with others?

Have you ever led a team? Which cognitive skills helped you to delegate and distribute tasks?

How well do you work with team members who have different cognitive backgrounds?

Have you ever mediated a conflict between team members?

Would you prefer to work as part of a team or individually?

Describe a situation where a co-worker disagreed with you. Which cognitive skills did you use to resolve this?

Have you ever mentored a new hire? Which cognitive skills helped you through the process?

Have You Ever Had To Motivate Other Team Members Which Strategies Did You Use

Applicants should know that interpersonal skills can help them motivate team members, as can problem-solving skills. Can your candidates give an example of how these two cognitive ability sub-skills helped them encourage and support a team member during a difficult project or task?

For instance, a lead peer code reviewer may need to use interpersonal skills to motivate team members when looking for mistakes.

Have You Ever Mentored A New Hire Which Cognitive Skills Helped You Through The Process

Employees cognitive skills can be crucial when they mentor new hires. Do your applicants have the right problem-solving, interpersonal, and critical-thinking skills to assist new hires and help them get accustomed to a new role?

For example, an engineering manager may need to use critical thinking skills to remove blockers when mentoring and supporting new hires.

Example Answer: Tell Me About A Challenge Or Conflict You Faced At A Past Job

Google’s GCA Interview Overview with Sample Question and Answer

Now that you know some approaches for answering behavioral questions, let’s look at a full example. Well use one of Googles most frequently asked questions.

Try answering the question below following your preferred method. Play both the role of the interviewer and the candidate. Write down your answer, then practice saying it out loud before going through our example response. Once youve finished, compare your response to our example to fill in any gaps in your story.

Try this question:

Tell me about a challenge or conflict you faced at a past job

Answer:

Well use the IGotAnOffer method described above and answer as if interviewing for a product manager job at Google. You will find our proposed answer to the question below.

Notice that the question asks for a past challenge OR conflict, which lets you choose what youd like to highlight in your answer. If you choose a past challenge, this would be a good way to show off your leadership and problem-solving skills. However in this case, weve chosen to focus on a past conflict, which well use to display conflict-resolution and collaboration skills.

For a sample answer to the past challenge question instead, take a look here.

1. Situation

As this question isnt necessarily about a specific role, it allows you to describe a variety of situations. Well use a generic example, but you should of course use an example from your own work experience.

2. Problem

3. Solution

4. Impact

5. Lessons

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Google Interview Process + Interview Questions

Every detail about the Google interview process & 100+ interview questions.

Landing one of the most enviable jobs in tech is 26 times harder than getting into Harvard University: Googles acceptance rate is 0.2%, while Harvards is 5.2%.

The search engine giant on-boarded 20,000 new hires in 2019 — shortlisted from over two million applications. Google was poised for similar growth this year, but has cut back on hiring and other nonessential expenditures as it faces an advertising slump from the pandemic.

That said, Googles careers site currently boasts over 1,000 open positions worldwide.

In other good news, Google axed those infamous brain teaser interview questions in 2013 after internal data showed they were a weak predictor of job competency, and served primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.

Now that you know what won’t be asked, let’s talk a little more about what will. This guide will answer all your burning questions about Google’s interview process, and what you can do to prepare.

Try it out:

Google Gca Interview Questions

Now that weve explored the Google GCA interview and what you can expect, lets get into some example GCA questions that have been asked in past interviews.

As we mentioned before, there are two types of questions that come up in GCA interviews:

Behavioral questions, usually starting with tell me about a time, which test your alignment with the role based on examples from your past experience
Hypothetical questions,which explore how you would react to hypothetical scenarios that are likely to come up on the job

Weve divided the sample questions below into these two categories. These questions come from real interview reports from past candidates on Glassdoor, as well as from Google and its own recruiters. Note that some questions have been edited for grammar or clarity.

Complete Some Mock Interviews

There’s no shame in admitting that an upcoming Google interview makes you nervous. Considering how competitive and massive the tech giant is, we wouldn’t blame you for feeling some nerves on your big day.

Nevertheless, while understandable, if you’re too nervous during your GCA interview, you may not put your best foot forward.

Before you go for your actual interview, we recommend completing some mock interviews to help build your confidence ahead of time.

You can do so today using our peer-to-peer mock interview platform that allows you to complete mocks with one of the thousands of Exponent members.

Tips To Impress Your Interviewer

Finally, before we move on to some interview prep resources, we’d like to give you five helpful tips to keep in mind.

Tip #1: Get used to setting up the situation in 30 seconds or less

Use a timer while you practice to ensure you provide only necessary information. Spending too much time on the Situation step is one of the most common mistakes candidates make.

Tip #2: Stay focused on essential details

Interviewers hear a lot of behavioral stories a day. If you go into unnecessary details you are likely to lose their attention. Share your stories with a few different people before your interview and ask them what details they would suggest cutting.

Tip #3: Be proud and talk about YOU

This is not the time to be shy about your accomplishments. Concentrate on your impact, not what the team did. Not talking about YOU enough is another common mistake we see with a lot of candidates.

Tip #4: Adapt to follow up questions

Dont be alarmed if your interviewer asks follow up questions this is perfectly normal. Listen carefully to the way your interviewer is asking these questions, as there will often be a subtle clue about the specific skills theyre looking to assess from the next part of your answer.

Tip #5: Explain how failure made you better

When talking about failure, dont try to hide your mistakes or frame a weakness as a strength. Instead, show what you learned and how you grew from the failure.

Break Down The Problem Into Smaller Pieces

Remember: estimation interview questionsassess how you think, much like the rest of the GCA.

As such, you’ll need to explain and outline the structure you use to answer the question for the most effective answer.

Once you’ve clarified the scope of the question, you’ll need to break down the problem into smaller pieces and explain why you are doing so.

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Explain Why You Could Or Are Wrong

While you may have provided an estimated answer to the question, you’re not entirely done yet!

As we said, these questions aren’t looking for exact answers because let’s face it, your answer is almost certainly wrong.

So, once you provide your estimate, you should also mention how or why it could be wrong. Then, explain to your interviewer if the number you provided is likely overestimated or underestimated.

Mention some other factors you could have considered to find a more accurate figure.

How To Ace The Google Gca Interview

Google Interview (2 of 3): Googleyness, Example Behavioral Questions and the STAR Method

During your upcoming Google interview, there will be a critical round called the GCA, or General Cognitive Ability, interview.

As the name suggests, GCA interview rounds assess your general cognitive abilities, thought processes, and approach to solving problems. As such, they will typically be in the form of behavioral, hypothetical, or estimation questions .

Despite the importance of this part of the , they are typically difficult to prepare for many candidates.

You’ll still need to ace this section if you hope to receive a job offer at the end of your Google interviews.

So, to help you do that, we’ve prepared this guide to dive deeply into the challenging GCA interview at Google.

Let’s get to it!

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How Long Is The Interview Process

Historically, Googles infamous interview process involved 15-25 interviews over a period of 6-9 months. It has since been whittled down to 4-9 interviews over a period of about two months, consisting of a phone screen and onsite interviews.

According to Indeed, nearly 40% of hires are headhunted by recruiters, while 22% apply through online job boards. Some recruiters say over 80% of hires come in through sourcing or referrals!

Learn About Googles Culture

Many candidates fail to do this. But you should take the time to make sure it’s actually the right company for you, and to gain insights about the company that will help you during the interview process.

If you know people who work at Google or used to work there, talk to them to understand what the culture is like. In addition, we would recommend reading the following resources:

Google Interviews Whats That All About Gca

Google has a reputation for having a high bar for entry. This, of course, is something you can afford when you are such a giant capable of impacting almost every individuals life on earth.

Having worked in Google for 11 years and having been an interview coach for 2 years, I have encountered countless numbers of cases where candidates struggle to bring out their best performance during the interviews. Out of the 4 areas you are being evaluated, you can do good in Role Related Knowledge, Leadership or Googliness. The hiring committee can be slightly flexible, in those areas but not when it comes to General Cognitive Abilities .

You basically have to prove that you are smart and capable of solving problems possibly nobody has faced before. In an ever-changing environment, what you specialize in can be obsolete in a few years. Interviewers want to make sure that you have the problem-solving skills to embrace change, strive in ambiguity and resolve potential conflicts, etc. The survival of the smartest is real within the walls of big G.

Within those 4 areas, Googlers ask 2 types of questions: Behavioral & Hypothetical. Behavioral questions focus on your past experience and are easier to prepare for. An example could be Tell me a time when you failed. Get some shiny examples from your experience, practice and you are mostly ready.

Over time I have gathered some simple but effective ways to prep candidates for GCA questions. Here are some tips:

What Is A Behavioral Interview At Google

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Google uses behavioral interviews to assess job candidates based on their past experiences. These questions typically start with Tell me about a time you and focus on soft skills such as: leadership, communication, teamwork, problem solving, etc.

To round out your preparation, we’ve also included some resume, HR, and hypothetical questions such as “what are your strengths and weaknesses?” or “how would you…?” in this article. As these are real questions that have been reported by past candidates, we want to make sure you’re ready for anything.

These questions will appear at every step of the and Google Cloud Platform, from the initial recruiter screen all the way through to the onsite interviews. They may even appear as icebreaker or transition questions during technical screens. The frequency and type of behavioral questions will vary per role, but be prepared for many.

For more information on the process for a specific role, consult one of our comprehensive interview guides below:

Now, what will your interviewers be looking out for?

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What Exactly Is Google Looking For

Google evaluates its candidates on four main attributes: Role-Related Knowledge , General Cognitive Ability , Leadership, and Googleyness.

Heres an overview of each of these attributes:

Role-related knowledge and experience . The company wants to make sure that you have the right experience, domain expertise, and competencies for the position you’re applying for. More information in this guide.

General cognitive ability . The company wants to hire smart employees who can learn and adapt to new situations. Here your interviewer will try to understand how you solve hard problems and how you learn.

Leadership. Google looks for a particular type of leadership called emergent leadership. You’ll typically be working in cross-functional teams at Google, and different team members are expected to step up and lead at different times in the lifecycle of a project when their skills are needed.

Googleyness . The company wants to make sure Google is the right environment for you. Your interviewer will check whether you naturally exhibit the company’s values, including: being comfortable with ambiguity, having a bias to action, and a collaborative nature.

These attributes are assessed across the interview process, most notably during the final onsite or virtual loop.

In some cases, candidates final interviews are explicitly labeled with these attributes .

Now lets take a closer look at GCA interviews and interview questions.