I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Google (San Francisco, CA) in Jul 2021
Interview
I was contacted by a recruiter after submitted my application and availability.
Then they(the recruiter and the coordinator) quickly arranged the first interview. In the first email, the recruiter didn't mention the format of the interview, so I assumed it would be an initial phone screening. However, just two days before the interview, the recruiter sent me an email told me that they would like to move forward with my candidacy and I would have a portfolio walkthrough with a designer. I was totally confused because I never prepared for a portfolio presentation, and I had no idea how they decided to move forward with my candidacy without meeting me or calling me. I expressed my confusion to the recruiter but she never replied to me, all I had to do was to ask the coordinator to reschedule the time so that I could have more time to prepare for it, but still, I had no clue what format would my first interview be.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Portfolio presentation, choose one or two projects that you are most proud of.
I did one round of a recruiter interview and moved on to a portfolio review. The recruiter interview was just walking me through the interview process, which I'm going thru and the portfolio interview was with the hiring manager.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you collaborated with engineers
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Google in Nov 2025
Interview
I was moved along the process really fast, the only slowdown I experienced was with the scheduling team (def not the most efficient or responsive, so be ready to be patient with them)
That said, the hiring team and recruiters were really good at keeping things moving. I heard back the morning of the next working day after my initial hiring manager call, and was notified that I was moving to the offer stage less than 20 hours after completing my final round.
Overall, a fast, well-run interview process once the interviews themselves started.
portfolio review, two case studies, and interviewer is nice, also ask me some followup questions. The process go through smoothly, it lasts for over 60 minutes. But I didn't pass this interview for some reasons.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked me what's my design process? What's my ownership? What did I do during the project?
UX Designer applicants have rated the interview process at Google with 3.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 47% positive. To compare, the company-average is 61.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for UX Designer roles take an average of 44 days to get hired, when considering 43 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Google overall takes an average of 38 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Google as a UX Designer according to 43 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 24%
One on one interview: 17%
Presentation: 16%
Skills test: 10%
Group panel interview: 9%
Background check: 9%
Personality test: 5%
IQ intelligence test: 5%
Drug test: 3%
Other: 2%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -