I applied online and received a response from a recruiter almost immediately. After that, everything went very slowly.

The entire process has taken two months, and the worst part was the communication breakdown with my recruiter. I didn't receive responses for several days, and the recruiter scheduled phone calls but didn't show up.

From the very beginning, I had the impression that the recruiter was not very interested in dealing with me. I felt like a low-priority candidate, possibly due to a lack of internal referrals.

I believe I could be a strong candidate for Google. I have a PhD with a strong math background, an excellent GPA, over 15 years of continuous coding experience, patents, and numerous cool research projects, including those related to the position I applied for. I also believe I'm a cultural fit and have a strong desire to be part of Google.

I performed well during the phone interview and was invited for an onsite interview.

The onsite interviews (four in total) also went very well. I was surprised by the number of questions the interviewers asked about my experience.

The problem-solving portion was not very challenging, which was a bit disappointing. The tasks felt routine and not well-thought-out. Solving difficult problems offers a chance to shine; with easier problems, it's more about speed and accuracy on the whiteboard. While I wasn't absolutely perfect, I'm confident I didn't fail any part, although I sometimes struggled to understand exactly what the interviewer was looking for.

The interviewers were nice and friendly. I didn't feel like I was speaking with superstars. On several occasions, interviewers seemed behind on my ideas, and I'm concerned they may not have accurately recorded everything.

I waited for feedback for three weeks. By this time, I had already received an offer from a major Google competitor, but I was patiently waiting for my "dream job." I don't know what transpired during those three weeks. According to the recruiter, she was collecting interviewers' responses, which seemed strange, as it suggested my case hadn't even reached the hiring committee.

After three weeks, the recruiter scheduled a call and informed me they would not move forward with my application because "I did not walk through problems well enough." I disagree with this conclusion, as my impression from the interviews was the opposite. My guess is the reason for rejection was something else. Ultimately, I am extremely disappointed.

My recommendation to other candidates: think twice before applying for a position at Google. The process takes too long, and the outcome is very unpredictable. They are not just looking for smart, skilled, or passionate individuals; there are evidently some hidden criteria. Also, don't place too much trust in Google's articles and videos about their recruiting process – they present their ideal, not necessarily the reality.

Another piece of advice: try not to spend too much time describing your experience or asking questions. You only have 45 minutes, and you'll need that time for algorithmic problems. I typically had no more than 25-30 minutes left for problem-solving, and I was usually given two tasks. Note that coming up with the right idea and implementing the core functionality is not considered a complete solution; they want to see 100% complete code. If you run out of time because the interviewer selected a task that was too large for the timeframe, that's your problem. The interviewer is always right.

The phrase "did not walk through problems well enough" in my case could easily mean "proposed the right solution for the second problem but did not finish writing the code in time."

No difficult questions at all.

There were some problems that just required a lot of time to carefully walk through.