I applied through an employee referral. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Google
Interview
Got referred by a "Googler". Initially rebuffed by recruiter due to lack of a CS degree. Said Googler ensured that I had software development experience. Recruiter was very polite and timely with proceedings.
Interviewed with a Product Manager in Pittsburgh. They seemed cold, uninterested, and generally busy. Asked generally about my current work at a startup, then asked how I would implement a very broad feature in Gmail. It was a very large question, and they offered no guidance or clarification on what they were looking for. Went down a bunch of roadways with a bit of disinterest. Finally asked me why I wanted to work at Google and not a startup, then the interviewer had to leave for a meeting.
Overall: short, disinterested, and cold.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Let's say we wanted to implement an Amazon Mayday like feature in Gmail. How would that work?
Very self-driven, first of multiple rounds, where I had to take the initiative to arrive at the problem, constraints, approach, solutions, tradeoffs and reasoning behind it in a matter of 30 minutes.
You would have to do a hiring assessment first, then a recruiter screening follows. First round interview with the hiring manager. Majorly product sense and product improvement. The questions were not direct though.
Overall a lot of steps to the interview process. Talked to different people and had opportunities to ask questions. Many different stages which made it a lengthy process overall. Wasn't too bad.