The rules are pretty clear on what the interview will cover. The recruiter tells you months before the interview and they (Google) even send you a list of what books and papers to read before you consider yourself ready. That is more than fair. I just joined a start up. It consists of 3 non-minorities and 3 minorities. All three non-minorities were recruited early on because they all knew someone within the company (and they all were competent). All three minorities came in through a recruiter - expensive and the bar definitely was a little higher than the internal referral-hire process.
So In summary, I like Google's process for its fairness. They also seem to hire quite a few good engineers and a few great ones too.
I had an interview (and got rejected) at Google in 2012. Nobody sent me a list of papers and books to read.
I applied for a software engineer position. I was rejected when I couldn't answer system administration questions (the guy asking the questions was a system administrator at Google)
> The recruiter tells you months before the interview and they (Google) even send you a list of what books and papers to read before you consider yourself ready.
Right, because I have nothing better do in those months than to rehash CS 101 and waste my time inverting trees and reversing strings.
Nobody is telling you to spend all your free time on CS101 for months. It shouldn't take months. Go back, pick up an OS textbook and read a few pages without all that academic pressure. I bet you'll appreciate the writing a little more.
You totally missed the point, may be this makes sense for a few people. But a whole majority of people don't find it a very good use of their time to gain knowledge just for its own sake.
If I were writing a OS, I would bury myself in all the OS books in the world, and work atrocious hours to build one. But if you are asking me to do it, because I have to face an hour of interview 6 months from now, I find this a pointless exercise.
So In summary, I like Google's process for its fairness. They also seem to hire quite a few good engineers and a few great ones too.