[lpsz]

I may be misreading. With only a year of instruction and no coding background previously, he was able to get a position at Google? Is this the norm?

As a hiring manager, I would be concerned that a candidate with such short exposure to the field and no real projects under their belt would just be too green to carry their weight.

[hackerboos]

Sounds like he knows how to invert binary trees [1]. So the rest will come later...

[1] - https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?lang=en

[w1ntermute]

> With only a year of instruction and no coding background previously, he was able to get a position at Google? Is this the norm?

That depends on your definition of "norm". The average person could probably spend their entire life preparing for a Google interview and never get an offer. Others could enter any field of their choosing and reach a very high level of competency in just a matter of months. Seems like the OP falls in the latter category.

[lpsz]

No matter how academically bright someone is, practical coding experience is still highly desirable.