MockRun

How to prepare for a Google behavioral interview

Google’s interview tips say many of its questions sound like “Tell me about a time when…” or “How would you approach this situation…?” Prepare a broad set of specific examples from your own work, measure the impact of each one, and practice explaining your reasoning out loud, because Google tells candidates to expect follow-up questions. Candidates often call this the “Googleyness” interview, but Google’s hiring process and interview tips pages don’t use that word.

By Updated 4 min read

A tangle of black string becomes a straight yellow line that leads to three rising cream blocks.

What Google says its interviews look for

Google’s hiring page says every candidate is assessed with clear rubrics, the same ones for everyone considered for a role, and that its open-ended questions aim to understand “how your mind works, how you interact with a team, and what your strengths are” (Google’s hiring process). Its interview tips are more specific about the behavioral side (Google’s interview tips):

  • Past work: your accomplishments and the lessons you learned along the way.
  • Data: how you measured the impact of what you did.
  • Ambiguity: how you decide without the full picture, and how you grow outside your comfort zone.
  • People and teams: handling conflict with a colleague, influencing teammates and driving collaboration.
  • Leadership: mobilizing others, including when you weren’t officially the leader.

Candidates often call this part of the process the “Googleyness” interview. Google’s hiring process and interview tips pages don’t use that word, so lists of Googleyness traits you find elsewhere are other people’s interpretations. Prepare for the themes above, which come from Google itself.

How to prepare your stories for Google

  1. Collect occasions, not habits. Google says its behavioral questions look for specific examples rather than “I always do X”, so a broad library of examples is the core of your preparation.
  2. Cover each theme twice. Two stories each for ambiguity, working with people and leading without the title means you never have to stretch one example to fit.
  3. Put a measure on every result. Google suggests the form “Accomplished [X], as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]”. If you have no exact figure, say what you observed and call an estimate an estimate.
  4. Say your assumptions out loud. Google’s tips ask you to tell the interviewer when you are making an assumption, or going deep instead of broad, and why.
  5. Keep the story concise. Google notes that interview time is limited. Cover the important points and leave room for the follow-ups.

Which MockRun practice areas cover Google’s themes

MockRun organizes practice by Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles, because between them they cover almost every behavioral theme. The principles are Amazon’s, and the match below is ours, not Google’s:

  • Ambiguity: Bias for Action and Are Right, A Lot.
  • Growing outside your comfort zone: Learn and Be Curious.
  • Conflict and influence: Earn Trust and Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit.
  • Leadership, with or without the title: Ownership, and Hire and Develop the Best if you manage people.
  • Impact you can measure: Deliver Results and Dive Deep.

Read what interviewers listen for under each principle, or start a practice session on ambiguity, conflict and results with one question on each.

Practice questions on Google’s themes

MockRun wrote these practice prompts around the themes Google describes. They aren’t Google’s interview questions.

  • Tell me about a time you had to decide with important information missing.
  • Describe a time you changed a teammate’s mind without having authority over them.
  • Tell me about a disagreement with a colleague and how you resolved it.
  • Tell me about a result you’re proud of. How did you measure it?
  • Describe a time you led a group when nobody had asked you to.
Fictional example: turning a result into data
Before
I made onboarding for new support agents much better.
After
I cut the time before a new support agent handled tickets alone from six weeks to four, measured by the date of their first unassisted shift, by pairing each new hire with a senior agent for their first 20 tickets.
Likely follow-up
How do you know the pairing caused the change, and not something else?

Written for this guide in the form Google suggests. The team and figures are invented.

Practice out loud before your Google interview

Google’s tips say your first answer may need refining and further explanation. In MockRun you answer one behavioral question out loud, or type if you prefer, then answer follow-ups about the story you just told. The debrief quotes your words and names one detail to explain better next time.

MockRun’s interview feedback page showing a Strong hire practice verdict, the rule behind it, and overall feedback on the answer.
A fictional practice example. The verdict is MockRun’s coaching rubric for one practice session; it does not predict an employer’s decision. Open the full-size example

MockRun is an independent practice tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Google, and its questions are not Google’s. For the shape of each answer, read the STAR interview method. For the probes that follow, read behavioral interview follow-up questions.

Common questions

What is Googleyness in a Google interview?

Google has used the word informally, and many candidates use it for the culture and collaboration side of Google’s interviews. Google’s current hiring process and interview tips pages don’t use or define it, so prepare for what they do describe: ambiguity, working with people, leadership and measured impact.

Should I use the STAR method in a Google interview?

Google’s interview tips suggest a behavioral technique like the STAR approach to structure your examples. Google’s version calls the A step Activity: the specific steps you took and the role you played.

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