RejectedSWE Internship at Google
- Difficulty
- Process took
- 1-2 Weeks
- Rounds
- 2
- Format
- Remote
- Applied via
- Company Website
How it went
- If you’re preparing for Google or any top company remember every round is a chance to learn, every rejection is feedback
What they would tell you
- If you’re preparing for Google or any top company remember every round is a chance to learn, every rejection is feedback
How to prepare
- In the second round, I misinterpreted the question. It made me realize that understanding the problem statement is often more critical than solving it itself.
Their background
I’m currently a Computer Science student in my third year and have been actively participating in coding challenges and competitive programming for the last couple of years. I have solved over 500+ problems, which I believe played a significant role in my application process for this internship.
Round by round
- 1
Technical Round 160 min
The question was based on string manipulation and involved using unordered maps, with a twist where I had to handle rotated versions of strings. I found it a bit confusing, but once I understood what the question was really asking, everything started to fall into place. The interviewer asked me to optimize my solution, think about edge cases, and explain the time and space complexity. Once I got the idea, I explained my approach step by step and then wrote the code.
- 2
Technical Round 260 min
The question was about handling a data stream, but instead of regular numbers, it involved subarrays, which made it a bit more complicated. It was kind of based on the Median of a Data Stream problem, but with extra steps and logic to understand how the subarrays were connected.
What came up
A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.