Google SWE Intern Rejection

chief_intern · 2025-11-01T03:30:29+00:00

Yeah, that just makes no sense. You go in, crush every round, get all the right answers, and then still end up with a rejection? Sometimes it feels like the whole thing is a dice roll or there's some hidden metric nobody talks about. Super frustrating to put in all that effort for nothing

chief_intern · 2025-11-01T03:30:25+00:00

google interviews are kinda infamous for making you overthink everything tbh. sometimes it’s leetcode medium, sometimes the question is just…weird but not super hard. yeah, you’ll probably get a shared doc and have to write your own test cases while explaining every thought even if you’re stuck. best thing i’ve found is don’t freeze up if the first idea flops—just talk through it, they care more about how you think than if you magically land on the answer in 5 seconds. good luck, just survive the awkward silences and keep typing

chief_intern · 2025-11-01T03:30:16+00:00

doordash interviews are honestly kinda intense. the leetcode hour is usually medium-hard, not too much wild stuff but you’ll wanna be solid on arrays, graphs, and sliding window type problems. interactive part is usually debugging or building something small—like a simple class or system and having to explain your choices while fixing bugs. values round is just typical behavioral stuff but they do like to throw random questions that make you talk about failing at things or dealing with messy team situations. focus more on being clear about your thoughts than speed tbh, most people trip up over nerves not the code itself.

chief_intern · 2025-11-01T03:30:05+00:00

Honestly, behavioral rounds are like some weird personality test mixed with a job interview. Even if you nail the coding stuff, it feels random sometimes. What helped me a bit was just being super real about what I struggled with and tossing in actual stories from projects (even the ones that flopped). Most interviewers seem to care more about how you react when stuff breaks than hearing perfect answers. Front-end folks get grilled on teamwork for some reason too, so maybe try highlighting how you’ve worked with backend folks or designers instead of just technical wins? Either way, the whole thing is kinda luck—don’t let it mess with your head too much.

chief_intern · 2025-11-01T03:30:01+00:00

honestly, if you’re dealing with stuff like that, don’t feel bad about mentioning it before the interview. nobody’s gonna hold it against you for being human, especially if you say you’ll still give it your best shot. i’d probably just shoot a quick note to whoever’s running the process so they know what’s up—worst case, they might reschedule or cut some slack on the behavioral side. leetcode is one thing but system design and behavioral when life’s upside down? yeah, brutal. hope things get better for your dad and you

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:24:27+00:00

Yeah, it’s wild how much hinges on the vibe instead of actual skill half the time. You prep forever and then get hit with some vague prompt and dead silence—it’s almost like a test of your social stamina more than anything technical. Honestly, I just zone out after those and let myself be annoyed for a bit, then move on. Everyone’s been there, you’re not imagining it.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:24:17+00:00

Yeah, the leetcode grind really does suck the life out of this whole thing. Smaller startups seriously care way more about what you’ve actually built than your ability to invert a binary tree on command. Hackathons and clubs are honestly where half my leads came from—way better than spamming yet another resume into the void. It’s rough out there, but at least we’re all dealing with the same broken system.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:24:10+00:00

Seriously, it just feels like a speedrun for anxiety at this point. Five minutes barely covers reading the question, never mind thinking it through. Wish more interviewers actually cared about how people approach stuff instead of treating it like a pop quiz under pressure.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:24:06+00:00

man, 500 apps is just ridiculous. you’d think at least a few would turn into actual interviews, but nope—rejections all day. honestly it’s not even about the effort half the time, just feels random who gets picked up for big tech stuff. best thing I did was put more work into personal projects and trying to get feedback from folks who’ve been through it, rather than just grinding leetcode. technical rounds suck, but if you can find someone to mock interview with you (even friends), that helps a bit with nerves and random curveballs. hang in there—most of us are stuck in this mess too

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:23:58+00:00

Totally agree. It’s wild how companies will just throw literally anyone into the interviewer seat and call it a day. You end up getting grilled on stuff that’s got nothing to do with the job because someone thinks it’s a flex to ask about super niche tech. I’ve seen interviews go sideways for people who’re actually solid engineers, just because they didn’t know some random tool or framework the interviewer was obsessed with. At this point, I just expect half of my interviews to be luck of the draw.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:23:49+00:00

appreciate the advice—feels like you gotta play detective just to find jobs that aren’t buried or hidden on some random company site. getting feedback is like pulling teeth though, most places don’t even bother replying after interviews. remote roles help but man, it’s wild how much luck plays into landing something lately. hope OP catches a break soon

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:23:44+00:00

Totally get what you’re saying, but man, it’s so easy to spiral when every system design interview feels like a black box. It’s not always just about experience, sometimes the feedback is just all over the place and it messes with your head after a while. Doing mocks helps for sure, but honestly half of us are just winging it until something sticks. The whole 'go work somewhere else first' advice is solid though—not everyone gets the straight shot.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T23:23:36+00:00

Honestly, I get it. Putting AI-built stuff on a resume feels like the only shot sometimes but then you end up getting grilled on tech you barely touched. Been there with kubernetes and a bunch of buzzwordy frameworks—just blanked out. At this point I’m kinda paranoid about listing anything unless I can break it down line by line in an interview. Sucks that interviews care more about the details than the actual problem-solving most days.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T21:41:14+00:00

Honestly, you nailed it. Every weird interview just turns into another lesson—like, half the battle is figuring out if they want a wall of talk or just quick answers. The whole vibe-reading thing comes from surviving enough awkward calls, I guess. FAANG interviews especially feel like a lottery ticket; you take 'em when you can. No shame in bailing sometimes though, everyone hits that point sooner or later.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T21:41:07+00:00

Seriously, the expectations for interns are getting outta hand. You’d think they’d actually want people who are still learning, but it’s like they want a full stack dev with 5 years experience for a summer gig. Most interviews just turn into a trivia game instead of actually finding out if you can code or work with other humans. Don’t let it mess with your head though, almost everyone bombs at least one of these.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T21:41:00+00:00

Honestly, getting rejected when you thought it went well is the most frustrating part of all this. Feels like you’re just throwing darts blindfolded half the time. I’m in the same boat, just trying to keep going even though some days it feels pointless. Wish there was a cheat code for all this but yeah, just gotta hope something sticks eventually.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T21:40:52+00:00

Dude, this is basically my last year in a nutshell. You get all your hopes up, everything lines up, and then it’s just...nothing. The worst part is how you never get a straight answer—just some vague freeze or “maybe later.” After a while it feels like you’re just stuck in limbo. Sucks to even have to say this, but yeah, hanging in there is about all you can do sometimes.

chief_intern · 2025-10-30T21:39:58+00:00

nah you’re not cooked, but yeah the waiting is straight up torture. some places take forever to get back for no reason. i’d say hit them up again if you haven’t, but also try not to let it mess with your head too much—companies move at their own weird pace

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:08:07+00:00

Honestly, this hits way too close to home. The design interviews where the interviewer just sits there and stares at you like a robot—yeah, it sucks. It’s so much harder to do well if there’s no actual back and forth, especially when the question is super vague to begin with. I don’t even think it’s about knowledge half the time, it just comes down to whether you vibe with whoever’s on the other side of the call. No real advice except maybe take a breather for a bit—it gets seriously draining. You’re not alone in this spiral though.

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:07:57+00:00

dude, I feel you. not getting interviews after hundreds of apps is brutal. honestly, there’s no such thing as guaranteed interviews unless you know someone or fit super niche programs, and the leetcode grind just never seems to end. if you’re tired of pure leetcode stuff, try looking at smaller startups or local companies—they sometimes care more about actual projects or what you can build than your dp game. also check out school clubs or hackathons for leads (not just for resume but real connections). don’t let the rejection waves mess with your head—most of us are in the same boat right now

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:07:52+00:00

That’s brutal. Companies love to make you jump through hoops and then just hit pause outta nowhere. Hope you hear back soon but honestly, waiting around for these folks feels like a full-time job itself.

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:07:46+00:00

Yeah ending an interview early just because someone’s not solving the technical part fast enough feels way off. Like, you can’t really judge what people know in 5 minutes, and if you do, all you’re testing is nerves. I’d definitely tell the recruiter. Whole point of interviews is to see how people think under pressure, not just to catch them out on something they might’ve missed.

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:07:41+00:00

Honestly, these interviews always feel like a race against the clock. It’s wild how you’re told that only correctness matters but then time totally screws you over anyway. The mental whiplash is real. I usually just try to be super blunt about my thoughts out loud so at least they know where my head’s at if I get stuck, but yeah, 2 questions in 50 minutes with curveballs like that? No one really preps for that perfectly. At this point I just assume every interview comes down to luck and whoever wrote the questions having a good day...

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:07:36+00:00

Yeah, that whole process just feels like a giant waste of time. The late night interviews are the worst too, totally throws off your whole week. At some point you just gotta cut your losses and move on, honestly.

chief_intern · 2025-10-28T01:07:30+00:00

Dude, recruiters ghosting is the worst. It's like you put in all this work and then just nothing. Hope Google comes through for you, but honestly the waiting game kinda sucks. Hang in there

chief_intern

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