Reviews

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? by William Poundstone

eirarangel's review

medium-paced

3.5

bretth1331's review

challenging informative slow-paced

2.75

happyocelot's review against another edition

1.0

I thought this book would be a lot more interesting than it actually was. I read it twice just to make sure. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly disappointed. I think it is because I don’t interview for the types of jobs this book is geared towards.

lobna's review

4.0

A very useful book for anyone who wants to pass an interview at a good multinational company in the new economy. It gave many examples of puzzles and unconventional interview questions that have been asked at many of the fortunate 500 companies, although at times the puzzles discussed were too technical and required a good background in physics or programing. But overall I believe the book would be helpful for job seekers or for improving your mental acuity in general, and don't feel bad if you can't solve most of the book's puzzles, I couldn't solve many of them as well ;)

robk's review

3.0

Probably 2/3 of this book are explanations of the brain teasers and riddles it mentions. Overall, it's a fun read, especially if you are into logic puzzles and creative thinking. I used several of the questions and techniques with my interview class, and the students seemed to enjoy the challenges as well.

innamercs298's review

2.0

Hoped it would be helpful in my job hunt but it was pretty much meh

sandrahodgson's review

4.0

Aaaand, the answer is NO! But an interesting mind-puzzling read.

bookworm596's review

3.0

This was a fun collection of brain teasers and logic problems. The first half is a quick read about how the popularity of tricky interview questions arose. I find most value in this book from the second half, which consists of detailed answers to the questions/puzzles posed at the end of each of the book's chapters. I'll pick this book up when I want to stretch my thinking- but not too hard. I knocked a few stars off my review because I would have preferred a deeper dive into the company culture at Google and its contemporaries, or more discussion about the flaws in standard interviewing psychology.

pogue's review

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot. I was a bit disapointed in the puzzels listed as my grandparents had us doing most of them when we were kids. This book was a fun read.