Google India SWE + AE Intern Interview Experience — Off Campus

Hi everyone 👋

I got the opportunity to interview with Google India for 2 different profiles, both off campus. The story is quite dramatic 🙈. Hope you enjoy it.

Selection Status : ❌

Interview Experience: ✔️

Recruitment Experience: ✅(OK)

How I applied?

It was on 2nd of August when I received this mail from a Google Recruiter, which said that my resume had been shortlisted for Google SWE Summer Internship 2021, and I was asked for preferred dates for the Interview and an updated resume.

As soon as I received the mail, I replied back to the Recruiter with the updated resume and a thanking note.

Shockingly, at 2:37 a.m. late night, I receive this mail from the Recruiter saying my resume hasn’t been shortlisted and I won’t move forward in the process. I didn’t know what to say after 2 contradicting mails as the first mail stated that my resume was already shortlisted. I replied back to the Recruiter immediately with a thank you note asking for a feedback 😔

Next day, after receiving no response, I mailed the Recruiter back, this time with a more sensible mail. I stated why I wanted to work at Google, attaching a case study on Google Products which I had been working on for a year and what makes me appropriate for the position, with zero expectations of receiving a reply.

Surprisingly on 12 August I received this mail from the Recruiter asking me to call back. I attended the phone call, wherein she informed me that I was shortlisted for the Interview Round 🥳 and my Interview was scheduled on 23 August. The date could not be rescheduled as it was the last day for any Google Intern Interviews.

Preparation Time

I started preparing really hard. I was working on it since months, but now the stress was high.

On 17 August, I attended an Interview Prep Session by Google. That proved to be quite fruitful to me. I felt confident that I am prepared.

Story Time

Now comes the tragedy part. On 17 August I got my second dose of Covaxin. Shockingly, I got a really high fever 🤒which lasted for 2 days. As per doctor, the vaccine showed side-effects with my body, which wasn’t allowing my body to digest food or even water.

Somehow I managed to survive on glucose by 22 August. But, I wasn’t even able to sit properly. I didn’t know how I was going to survive the 45 min of my Interview.

For the very first time in my life, I felt like giving up. I contacted my WE Mentor Sphoorthy, told her the whole situation and asked if I should talk to the Recruiter for rescheduling. She was really humble and asked me to do what goes best for your health.

I wrote the mail, but didn’t send it. I knew my Recruiter had given me a second chance and I couldn’t risk it.

First Interview

I sat for the Interview. I decided that I won’t look at the timer. I’ll sit as long as I was able to.

Google Interviews take place on Google Meet and Google docs whose links are shared in advanced. I was prepared for it as I had appeared for STEP interview in the past. Surprisingly, interview went pretty well. I was asked a Leetcode Medium Level questions on String DP. I was able to explain the best approach in first go and coded it perfectly 😎. Our discussion went quite long.

After the interview I saw the clock and the interview had lasted for 60 minutes. It was and is an achievement for me to survive those minutes, in that health condition.

However, I didn’t receive the mail for 2nd Interview the whole day. My Recruiter had already told me 23rd was the last date for intern interviews, so I convinced myself that I have been rejected. But, somewhere around the mind, I had that my interview went amazing.

On 25 August I received this mail for the 2nd Interview to be held on 26 August 😃 Again, I prepped up.

Second Interview

To continue the tragedy, this time the electricity went 2 min before the Interview started, when I had already joined the meet and was waiting for the host to join the meeting. I rushed to a different room. Just sat on the floor, with my laptop on a the sofa table.

Now, it’s been 5 min, no one joined the meet. I am wondering what happened. Then I receive a call from the Interviewer asking me if I was joining the call or not. I said I was already in the call, and no one was letting me in. Yeah, it was a technical glitch 🥲

We then conducted a seperate meeting and my interview was conducted. I was asked a Leetcode Hard level problem on DFS-DP.

Surprisingly, the interview was very lively and interactive that it went for around 1hr 15 min. This was one of my best performances in any interview till date. For the very first time, I felt I was working with a team mate on solving a problem, and not a usual interview environment.

Initial Results
This time I was very sure of the selection. Both my interviews went amazingly well, I was able to code both the problems in the efficient manner. I received a mail from the recruiter asking for the transcripts 😉. The only drawback was, I had interviewed quite late. All my friends had finished up their interviews by 20 August. My Interviews went till 25 August.

Unfortunately, I received a rejection mail on 13 September. As per their policies, I didn’t receive any feedback.

AE Intern Interview

As I said my interviews went amazingly well, and getting a rejection was shocking to me. However on 20 October, I received a mail at 2:00 a.m.(Late Night) from the same recruiter that they want to interview me for Application Engineering Internship.

As per the information, I had cleared my coding interviews previously (SWE Intern Interviews ), they wanted to interview me for only System Design. I replied back within 5 minutes and agreed to interview.

However, I was shocked and disappointed when the recruiter scheduled my interview at 8:00 a.m. next Morning. Basically less than 6 hours were left for my interview and I had no knowledge about System Design. I requested them to reschedule it, but no use.

I gave my best efforts for the interview, tried to be as interactive as I could. You must be very well aware with your resume for this round. However, as expected, I couldn’t present my answers in the technical terms as was expected and I received my rejection mail on 22 November 2021, again with no feedbacks.

Overall Feedback

Google’s recruiters are very humble, I am grateful they reconsidered my profile. Candidates are respected at each stage and you feel valued. You’re provided with enough resources for preparation.

Things to improve :

1. I wish they give enough time(atleast 2 days) to candidates to prepare for the interviews. Recruiters share relevant resources for the interview, however candidates need enough time to go through them as well. Interviews aren’t a formality and the opportunity comes after long run efforts.
2. Besides, students must be given atleast some feedback. Else they can’t really learn from failures.
3. Interview results must be informed in at max 15 days or atleast the candidate must be told something. It’s a scary experience to wait for results for months.

I hope Google works on these aspects and give better experience to their candidates.