Tag Archives: students

Celebrate Google’s Coding Competitions with a final round of programming fun

Google’s Coding Competitions at g/co.codingcompetitions.

After 20 years, Google's Coding Competitions come to a close with a final round.

By: The Coding Competitions Team

Remember 2003? Before Chrome, Google Calendar, Android, and YouTube? When we carefully cleaned up our saved emails because GMail and its gigabyte of storage hadn't arrived? Two decades ago – Google launched a global coding competition called Code Jam, which challenged programmers of all levels to test and hone their skills by racing to solve algorithmic problems.

From there, our coding competition lineup continued to grow. Kick Start began as a contest for recent graduates in China and quickly spread around the world. Hash Code, Google's first team-based challenge, started in Europe. And a first-in-class Distributed Code Jam asked participants to build solutions that could scale when run on multiple machines.

Throughout our coding competitions' 20-year history, you've generated billions of lines of code across millions of submissions. You've gone through hundreds of rounds for thousands of problems and put in millions of hours of code execution and testing. Over a million of you from almost every country worldwide have participated — from experienced programmers to students and everyone in between. And now, just as we invited you to our very first round in 2003, we're asking you to join us for one final event as the competitions come to an end.

Join us on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 2 p.m. UTC as we host four simultaneous online rounds of competition at varying levels of difficulty. Register now to get in on the action.

And to those who've taken part over the years: It's been an honor to learn, succeed, fail, and have fun coding with you. Through the conceptual art, the slides, the gophers, and the absurd number of pancakes, we did it – and we did it together. Thanks for going on this journey with us.

Source: Google Developers Blog

How GDSC students are using their skills to support communities in Ukraine

Posted by Laura Cincera, Program Manager Google Developer Student Clubs, Europe

Revealing character in moments of crisis

The conflict in Ukraine is a humanitarian crisis that presents complex challenges. During this time of uncertainty, communities of student developers are demonstrating extraordinary leadership skills and empathy as they come together to support those affected by the ongoing situation. Student Patricijia Čerkaitė and her Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) community at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands organized Code4Ukraine, an international hackathon that brought diverse groups of over 80 student developers together on March 3-4, 2022, to develop technology solutions to support people affected by the conflict in Ukraine.

Even far from the conflict in the Netherlands, they felt compelled to make an impact. “I have relatives in Ukraine; they live in Crimea,” says Patricijia. “In my childhood, I used to spend summer holidays there, eating ice cream and swimming in the Black Sea.”

Patricijia sitting at desk in black chair looking back and smiling

Patricijia working on the details for Code4Ukraine.

Rushing to help others in need with technology

Time was of the essence. The organizing team in Eindhoven contacted other students, connected with communities near and far, and sprang into action. The team invited Ukrainian Google Developer Expert Artem Nikulchenko to share his technology knowledge and first-hand experience of what is happening in his country. Students discussed issues faced by Ukrainians, reviewed problems citizens faced, and ideated around technology-centric solutions. Feelings of exasperation, frustration, and most importantly, hope became lines of code. Together, students built solutions to answer the call: Code4Ukraine.

Blue and yellow emblem that says Code 4 Ukraine

Then, gradually, through a collaborative effort, problem solving, and hours of hard work, the winners of the Code4Ukraine Hackathon emerged: Medicine Warriors, a project built by a diverse, cross-cultural group of undergraduate students and IT professionals from Ukraine, Poland, and Georgia, aiming to address the insulin shortage in Ukraine. The project gathers publicly available data from Ukrainian government notices on insulin availability across Ukraine and presents it in an easily readable way.

Photograph of the Medicine Warriors application design

Helping: at the heart of their community

One member of the winning team is the GDSC chapter lead at the National Technical University of Ukraine Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ekaterina Gricaenko. “In Ukraine, there is a saying: ‘друг пізнається в біді,’ which translates to, ‘you will know who your friends are when the rough times arrive,’” says Ekaterina. “And now, I can say that the GDSC community is definitely on my family list.”

Photograph of Ekaterina Gricaenko, GDSC Lead

Ekaterina Gricaenko, GDSC Lead, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute

The Code4Ukraine initiative's goal of bringing others together to make an impact offers a prime example of what the Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) program aims to achieve: empowering student developers in universities to impact their communities through technology.

Reflecting on her experience leading the Kyiv GDSC chapter, Ekaterina says, “I started my journey with GDSC as a Core Team member, and during that time, I fell in love with our community, goals, and key concepts. Then, I decided to become a lead, to share my enthusiasm and support students as they pursue their professional dreams.

The Kyiv GDSC has organized over 18 workshops, written over 200 articles, run multiple study groups, and reached over a thousand followers on social media. “It’s incredible to realize how far we have come,” Ekaterina says.

A visual collage displays multiple activities organized by GDSC KPI, led by Ekaterina Gricaenko.

Getting involved in your community

Through efforts like Code4Ukraine and other inspiring solutions like the 2022 Solution Challenge, students globally are giving communities hope as they tackle challenges and propose technical solutions. By joining a GDSC, students can grow their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning environment and put theory into practice by building projects that solve for community problems and make a significant impact.

Photo of students in class in the upper right hand corner with a sign in the center that says Become a leader at your university

Learn more about Google Developer Student Clubs

If you feel inspired to make a positive change through technology, applications for GDSC leads for the upcoming 2022-2023 academic year are now open. Students can apply at goo.gle/gdsc-leads. If you’re passionate about technology and are ready to use your skills to help your student developer community, then you should consider becoming a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead!

We encourage all interested students to apply here and submit their applications as soon as possible. The applications in Europe will be open until 31st May 2022.

Source: Google Developers Blog

5 ways Search can help you learn

As students, parents and teachers continue to rise to the challenges of remote learning, we’ve created tools across desktop and mobile to help you find the best educational resources on the web. Whether it’s step-by-step guidance on complex math problems you’ve been stuck on or visual 3D models to ace that chemistry lab report, Search is here to help. These features are currently available in English everywhere, with plans to expand to more languages. And to make these tools more accessible, we’ve built these products to support screen readers and improved keyboard usage for people with motor disabilities.

Here are five tools you can use to you help you L.E.A.R.N.:

Look up over 2000 STEM concepts for quick access to educational resources

When you search for underlying science and math concepts, such as “chemical bonds'', you’ll have easy access to educational overviews, useful examples, and helpful videos from across the web.

Explore close to a million practice problems

Practice makes perfect, and with the launch of practice problems you can do just that. This interactive feature tests your knowledge of high school math, chemistry and physics topics directly on Search. Start by looking up a subject matter like “chemical bond practice problems”. You'll be one click away from learning resources from educational providers like BBC Bitesize, Byjus, Careers360, Chegg, CK12, Education Quizzes, GradeUp, Great Minds, Kahoot!, OpenStax, Toppr, Vedantu and more.

An animated image of screen showing how when you type something like 'chemical bond practice problems' into the Search bar you can access practice problems and quiz questions related to that topic.

Augment lessons with 3D models

Who said you couldn’t turn your living room into a science lab? Our 3D augmented reality concepts bring to life over 200 chemistry, biology, physics and anatomy concepts — right in your room. With the help of AR on mobile you can visualize everything from a human skeleton to Bohr’s model.

An animated image of screen showing how when you type something like 'chemical bonds' into the Search bar you can choose to view it in AR.

Review how to solve math problems

Are you struggling to help your child with their math homework? Don’t worry, Google has your back. Type the equation, like “x^2-3x-4=0”, into the Search bar or take a picture through Lens in the Google App to find step-by-step explanations in over 70 languages. We’re expanding support to even more types of math equations through our partnerships with Symbolab, Mathway (a Chegg Service), and Tiger Algebra which is coming. You’ll also be able to access a variety of explanations for how to solve math problems, increasing the chances that one of them may stick.

Navigate complex questions

Getting stuck on a tricky STEM question, like “0.50 moles of NaCI are dissolved in 2.5 L of water, what is the molarity?” can be frustrating. In the coming weeks, you can access detailed explanations for specific questions and similar ones as well as targeted resources on these types of complex subjects. These tools will help take your understanding to the next level.

Posted by Mailys Robin, Product Manager, Learning and Education, and Michael Le, Product Manager, Learning and Education

Source: Official Google India Blog

5 ways Search can help you learn

Here are five tools you can use to you help you L.E.A.R.N.:

Look up over 2000 STEM concepts for quick access to educational resources

When you search for underlying science and math concepts, such as “chemical bonds'', you’ll have easy access to educational overviews, useful examples, and helpful videos from across the web.

Explore close to a million practice problems

An animated image of screen showing how when you type something like 'chemical bond practice problems' into the Search bar you can access practice problems and quiz questions related to that topic.

Augment lessons with 3D models

An animated image of screen showing how when you type something like 'chemical bonds' into the Search bar you can choose to view it in AR.

Review how to solve math problems

Navigate complex questions

Posted by Mailys Robin, Product Manager, Learning and Education, and Michael Le, Product Manager, Learning and Education

Source: Official Google India Blog

5 ways Search can help you learn

Here are five tools you can use to you help you L.E.A.R.N.:

Look up over 2000 STEM concepts for quick access to educational resources

When you search for underlying science and math concepts, such as “chemical bonds'', you’ll have easy access to educational overviews, useful examples, and helpful videos from across the web.

Explore close to a million practice problems

An animated image of screen showing how when you type something like 'chemical bond practice problems' into the Search bar you can access practice problems and quiz questions related to that topic.

Augment lessons with 3D models

An animated image of screen showing how when you type something like 'chemical bonds' into the Search bar you can choose to view it in AR.

Review how to solve math problems

Navigate complex questions

Posted by Mailys Robin, Product Manager, Learning and Education, and Michael Le, Product Manager, Learning and Education

Source: Official Google India Blog

Google Summer of Code 2020 Statistics: Part 2

With the program nearing the end of the summer, it’s time for another round of updates!

Universities

The 1,198 students accepted into the GSoC 2020 program came from 550 universities, of which, 114 have students participating for the first time in GSoC.

Schools with the most accepted students for GSoC 2020:

University	# of Accepted Students
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee	48
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur	27
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad	24
National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal	23
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani)	13
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur	13
Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi	11
University of Moratuwa	11
National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur	10
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus	10
University of Tokyo	10
University Of Colombo School Of Computing (UCSC)	10

Mentors

Each year we pore over gobs of data to extract some interesting statistics about the GSoC mentors. Here’s a quick synopsis of our 2020 crew:

Registered mentors: 3,592
Mentors with assigned student projects: 2,156
Mentors who have participated in GSoC for 10 or more years: 78
Mentors who have been a part of GSoC for 5 years or more: 199
Mentors that are former GSoC students: 533 (24.7%)
Mentors that have also been involved in the Google Code-in program: 405 (18.8%)
Percentage of new mentors: 34.18%

GSoC 2020 had an international representation with mentors from 67 countries around the world!

The global pandemic, COVID-19, brought additional challenges to this year’s GSoC program. Whether living with the virus, adjusting to shifting school and work schedules, or pivoting to a remote lifestyle, students and mentors have had to prioritize their safety and delicately balance their new way of life. Despite these unprecedented times, our students continue to push on and our mentors fully support our students by sharing their passion for open source, listening to their concerns and providing them with valuable advice. For that commitment, we would like to acknowledge and give thanks to all students and mentors in the GSoC 2020 program. Not even a pandemic can dampen your enthusiasm and tireless contributions to the open source community!

By Stephanie Taylor – Program Manager, Google Open Source Programs Office

Source: Google Open Source Blog

My Path to Google – Rahul Patel, Associate Partner Manager

Welcome to the 46th installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about Rahul Patel. Read on!

Rahul during a visit to the Google Tokyo office in 2019.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I grew up in Whitton, a small town within the borough of Richmond (London). I studied Computer Science at King’s College London but did not complete the degree, I found the concepts very interesting but could not remain engaged enough to execute what was being taught. I didn’t have the best grades at school but that didn’t stop my drive to succeed in being happy with where I worked.

I have seen my parents work for a long time and am inspired by how hard they work. My work ethic slightly differs, however. I prefer to work smarter vs. harder, maintaining efficiency and fun in what I do.

Growing up, I always had such a passion for technology, whether that be fixing computers, routers, networks, or even just staying awake all night playing video games. This is what made me go down the traditional path of working towards a Computer Science degree, but realised that road was not for me. Alongside school and university, I built up a lot of work experience within different areas of work, such as in a technical consultancy, teaching, and project management. This really allowed me to understand how different businesses fall into place within the world and how everything operates.

Rahul at Noogler (new Googler) orientation

Just as I decided to leave University, I stumbled upon apprenticeships — something I had known about but not fully pursued. I saw on Instagram that Google had a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship and applied. I went through the process and found myself somewhat inspired, excited, and fuelled with motivation when I started an apprenticeship in October 2018 on the Google Hardware marketing team. I got offered a full time role in a slightly different team six months later and have been at Google ever since.

Slightly separate from work, I love street fashion and am a big gamer. Being able to express myself in what I wear, I find truly fascinating. This inspired me to create a street fashion group at Google which is like an internal community where we all share similar passions. Gaming is also a great way to switch off and escape when you need to, but in a more creative way.

What’s your role at Google?
Currently, I am an Associate Partner Manager, where I look after elements of our Consumer Hardware business at key retailers within the UK. It is a very fluid role where many things feel like a start up — this allows us to almost define our own ways of working and processing, which makes every day feel very different!

I also lead Go To Market for our Create and Wearable portfolio for the UK, which I find very enjoyable. There is a lot of planning and problem solving that is required which makes sure you’re always alert! A cool project I am currently working on is leading the launch for the Google Pixel Buds for the UK.

Rahul (right side, middle) and teammates

I have a 20% Project (which is an opportunity to work on something outside of your core role) in Stadia Marketing as well which allows me to follow my creative aspirations of working in Marketing.

I love technology and am surrounded by it everyday at Google! There is so much change with technology happening within the world, and being able to work so closely with it feels very rewarding.

What inspires you to come in (or log-in)every day?

Working at Google has been a dream of mine that I never thought was achievable. When I was at school, I had the opportunity to visit the Google offices in London, which was where I first experienced the wonders of working here. Being around the incredible people is what inspires me to come in every day, whether that be to collaborate on work, to catch up, or to learn more from an inspiring talk or event that happens. Being surrounded by technology enhances that experience, and really allows you to see what impact you have within the world.

Googlers create an ever-changing display of pixel art at the Google London office.

How did the recruitment process go for you?
I found the recruitment process quite enjoyable. There were interviews and challenges which allowed me to research, and feel very comfortable with areas I did not understand before. I was always kept up to date with what stage of the process I was in. This did take the edge off slightly, when thinking about what my future could be.

Rahul and teammates celebrate the Pixel 3 launch

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
I wish I had known to be more confident in myself. The only thing I found that could have held me back was not being able to share my experiences because I did not believe in who I was. Call it a type of imposter syndrome, where I found myself amongst the smartest people applying for a role, and I felt like I should not have been in the mix — but you should never let that hold you back and always believe in yourself.

Can you tell us about the resources you used to prepare for your interview or role?
To prepare, I went over many of the Google qualifications such as the Digital Garage, and even went over interview questions on YouTube. I read books such as “Case in Point” and chose to research Google itself. What the company did, all the many different elements within Alphabet, and why I felt I could fit within it. Watching “The Internship” for inspiration was also part of the process.

YouTube Space at the Google London office

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers?
No matter what background you find yourself from, what experiences you have, you have got nothing to lose in applying. You can only gain, whether that be interview practice, understanding where to improve yourself, or even landing your dream job. Google doesn’t have a rulebook for candidates they select to hire, it’s about you as an individual and what you have to offer. So be true to yourself and understand what it is that you do best.

Source: Google Student Blog

My Path to Google – Ana Lucero Esqueda Rocha, Customer Solutions Engineer

Welcome to the 45th installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about Ana Lucero Esqueda Rocha. Read on!

Ana at the Mexico City office.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am from Aguascalientes, a small town in the heart of Mexico. My parents are my role models! My dad is an engineer and I have always been inspired by his work. I fell in love with programming during my computer science coursework in high school. I immediately knew that I wanted to become a Software Engineer. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Information and Communication Technologies Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey campus Aguascalientes.

Even though I have been focused in different stacks of the development process during my career, I developed a passion for frontend development. I am always trying to learn new technologies and stay up to date with frontend frameworks.

When I am not working, I really enjoy doing sports. I love to read, especially historical novels, and I enjoy watching science fiction and suspense series with my husband.

Hanging around the office.

What’s your role at Google?
I’m a Customer Solutions Engineer (CSE) on the gTech team. I am based in the Mexico City office and I work with LCS on the prototyping and development of solutions to solve the unique needs of our largest advertisers. CSE’s are open-ended problem-solvers.

My team along with the teamwork and partnership in gTech are some of the things I like most about my job! You get to work everyday with very talented people, who are also full of new and interesting ideas. The opportunities to grow, learn, and have fun are huge here. The most interesting part of this role is that you are able to work on both parts of the solution, technical and human, which gives you a wider view of how things work from all perspectives.

Team dinner!

What inspires you to come in every day?

Working at Google has been one of my biggest dreams! So coming to work is like living that dream everyday, and I am really excited about it. The culture is inspiring and I admire the way Google cares about employees by providing paths to grow, learn, be challenged, and have fun at the same time. Our concern for our users and improving people’s lives also inspires me to come to work everyday and do an exceptional job.

My teammates are like friends, so working together is really satisfying and engaging — I enjoy sharing ideas and solving problems with them.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the process?
The idea of applying to Google was scary at the beginning. Even though I had prior experience at other companies and I had prepared for other interviews, I was still nervous. I’m so glad I got over that nervousness and took the chance to apply.

When I got the job, I experienced so many emotions — pride, excitement, a little more nervousness, but the feeling of knowing that I was accepted was so satisfying! Accepting the job at Google required me to move further away from my home and family, but I’m excited to live in a new city and for all the opportunities ahead.

Ana’s first day at Google.

How did the recruitment process go for you?
A recruiter contacted me, we had the first call where we talked about the role and the position based in Mexico City. After the call, I was convinced I wanted to apply. There was only one little problem, I was heading to the airport the next day for my honeymoon and I would be away for three weeks!

I was excited to move forward, but nervous that the position would be filled by the time I returned. I explained the situation to the recruiter and she said that she would be happy to wait for me to continue the process. After three weeks, I received an email from her asking if I was back in Mexico — she actually remembered me! (Nashla is amazing by the way!) She helped me start the process, and I was finally selected.

Time for a spin on a gbike.

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
I wish I had known that interviewing at Google is not as scary as we might think. Everyone is super friendly and they definitely want you to succeed. Most of the time interviewers do not expect you to create the most optimal solution from the beginning, they know that everything is a process of iteration, improvement, and optimization.

I liked thinking about interviewing as a collaborative process between two or more professionals and not as an exam where interviewers want you to fail. It really helps to be successful. It's helpful to remember that engaging with the interviewers and expressing a clear thought process on how to approach problems can increase the chance to move to the next steps.

Can you tell us about the resources you used to prepare for your interview or role?
To prepare, I used online programming learning platforms like TopCoder, Coderbyte, GeekforGeeks, etc, to practice coding challenges. I also watched Youtube videos and read programming blogs like KhanAcademy, Quora, Pluralsight, etc, to refresh data structures and algorithms, as well as computer science fundamentals. Of course I couldn’t miss the ‘Life at Google’ and ‘How to ace the Google interview’ videos on Youtube! Practicing coding definitely helped me to be prepared for the interviews.

I also had some interviews with my friends. This helped me understand how a real interview could be and how I could improve my work under pressure since interviewing can be stressful! I’m grateful that there are tons of online resources to prepare for interviews!

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers?
Never give up! If you want it, it will happen. Prepare before the interviews — practice, practice, practice! It is also very important to learn from rejections and not to be afraid of them. Focus on what you are best at and do it!

Ana with an Android statue at the Mexico City office

Source: Google Student Blog

Inviting students to participate in Code to Learn competition 2020

COVID has had a significant impact on how students engage with hands-on learning and poses additional responsibilities for parents and teachers to engage their students in meaningful learning experiences.

Today, we are launching the seventh edition of the Code to Learn competition as a means to immerse students in creative and computational thinking, along with building their skills in programming.

Students from Class 5 to 12 from any school in India can register through their parents or teachers to show their coding genius using exciting tools like Scratch, App Inventor and Google AutoML to build games, animation, android apps and/or their own machine learning applications; without writing even a single line of code!

Over the years, Computer Science and Programming has evolved and become one of the strongest means of solving real-life problems. The Code to Learn competition provides a platform for kids to learn the basics of coding and build a stronger foundation in Computer Science. In a fun and engaging way, we aim to inspire students to use technology to solve problems around them.

In line with this objective, we have been running the Code to Learn competition successfully for school students in India for the last six years. The program has also been adopted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India under the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan.

Artificial Intelligence has become a strong enabler to solve many challenging problems of society. Google has put AI to use to solve some of the most pressing issues, from helping predict early blindness to giving timely updates on floods in India. We have a special AI track for class 9 -12 students where they use Google’s existing Machine Learning models to create projects with a problem statement and a data set of their choice. Students define a problem and select any open dataset or create their own (images or text) and train a pre-trained machine learning model to create their own Machine Learning application using Google Cloud AutoML.

Code to Learn concluded successfully in 2019 and witnessed an overwhelming participation of students from across the country with innovative and exciting projects. We saw powerful applications ranging from fun games to applications that help farmers with timely information. In the Artificial Intelligence theme, we received excellent projects where students defined and tried to solve various societal problems like early detection of breast cancer, predicting learning disabilities through images of handwriting and segregating recyclable plastic waste using Computer Vision models.

The competition registrations are now open and parents, teachers or legal guardians can register on behalf of the student on the competition website (g.co/codetolearn). Students from across India can submit their projects by 31st July, 2020. We also have online resources available on our website to learn Scratch, AppInventor and Google Cloud AutoML to get started.

We are very excited about this year's competition, and are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that students will present to us via their projects! For more details, visit our website: g.co/codetolearn.

Code to Learn is co-organized by Google Cloud, ACM India, CS Pathshala, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), IIIT Bangalore. ACM is the worldwide society for scientific and educational computing with an aim to advance Computer Science both as a science (through CS Pathshala) and as a profession. IISc and IIIT Bangalore are research-oriented universities based in Bangalore.

Posted by Divy Thakkar, Research and Education Program Manager, and Ashwani Sharma, Head of Research Operations and University Relations, India, AU/NZ and SEA

Source: Official Google India Blog

My Path to Google – Beyza Bozbey, Software Engineer

Welcome to the 44th installment of our blog series “My Path to Google.” These are real stories from Googlers, interns, and alumni highlighting how they got to Google, what their roles are like, and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about Beyza Bozbey. Read on!

Editor’s note: Beyza speaks about her experience participating in Google’s longest running coding competition, Code Jam. The 2020 online qualification round is happening this Friday, April 3. If you would like to register, you can do so at g.co/codejam.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. In high school, I participated in a special program that prepared a small number of students for the Informatics Olympiad computer science competition. I was the only woman in the program from my high school. When I learned programming and algorithms, I discovered my passion for Computer Science. After I finished two years of college in Istanbul, I transferred to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where I studied Computer Science. During college, I participated in robotics and fashion clubs and did an internship at a fashion tech startup company which was a great experience for me to combine my programming skills with my interest in fashion.

Outside of work, I love traveling, following fashion trends, and watching movies and TV shows — especially supernatural ones. I'm a huge Marvel fan and I once camped out to get into a panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

What’s your role at Google?

I'm a Software Engineer on the YouTube Comments team. I've been working on the backend side of a new project about the comments section. What I love the most about it is that everyday is a challenge and it never gets boring. When I create a new feature or fix a bug, it is truly amazing to see that the impact reaches thousands of users around the globe. This is absolutely what makes me get out of bed every morning. Also, Google has an incredible amount of resources, therefore learning at Google is a never ending journey.

Beyza posing in front of YouTube sign at her office.

You’ve participated in a few Google coding competitions, can you tell us more about that?
I’ve participated in both Google Code Jam (Google’s longest running coding competitions for individuals) and Hash Code (Google’s team coding competition). I didn’t realize it at the time, but the types of questions I really enjoyed during the Informatics Olympiad competition were very similar to Google coding competition questions. My first Google competition was Hash Code — when I heard about it, I was so excited. I found two friends from college and convinced them to join. While the problems were a little advanced for our level, it was fun to work together and brainstorm in order to solve the questions.

Code Jam registration is open now — any advice to those thinking about getting involved?
Definitely sign up! You don’t have to know everything about coding competitions already. The UI is simple and it’s also really fun to see other people solving a question. When I see that others have solved a question, I think, “if they solved it, I can solve it too!” It’s encouraging.

Has participating in Google's Coding Competitions affected your path to becoming an engineer at Google?
Yes! I started to realize that I was developing a lot of great skills while doing the coding competitions. Code Jam was a similar practice and environment to a coding interview, making it fun and useful at the same time!

Beyza sitting inside a giant "G" statue.

Can you tell us about your decision to enter the Google application process?
After I learned programming in high school, I wanted to learn more about how Google Search works. As a high school student in Turkey, working at Google was like an impossible dream for me. Then I heard that someone who graduated from my high school started working at Google and that inspired me. I realized that it was an attainable goal, so I decided to apply. However, my application wasn't accepted and I couldn't get an interview. One year after my internship application got rejected, a recruiter contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in interviewing for another internship. I was super excited and nervous, but during that time, I was trying to adapt to moving to a new country (the USA) and transferring to a new school (USC), and unfortunately, I couldn't pass the interviews. Fast forward two years and two more attempts at interviewing and I got a full-time offer. Do not give up if you don't get it your first (or second or third) try!

Beyza in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

What do you wish you’d known when you started the process?
I wish I had known Google's interview process better before my first interview. I remember that I was so nervous that I couldn't even understand the question. I should have asked some clarifying questions and talked about my thought process.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with aspiring Googlers?
LeetCode was super helpful, but sometimes it makes you lazy to check edge cases. You can submit your solution with just one click and if it fails, it's so easy to find out which edge case caused the failure since the website shows you the input already. However, in a real interview, you walk through your solution by hand. You have to find the edge cases on your own and which input might break your solution. Therefore, I highly suggest aspiring Googlers code on a piece of paper and practice walking through your solution by hand. You can also pair with a friend and practice interviewing ... and sign up for Google's coding competitions!