The interview process began with a recruiter reaching out to me by email in early September. I had not applied to Google in the past, nor submitted an application, so I assume they found me through LinkedIn.

The recruiter set up a brief phone call to discuss my interests and to explain Google's interview process for SWE interns.

I had two 45-minute technical interviews over the phone with two separate software engineers. Both gave me a single question to solve.

My recruiter called me the next day to inform me that I did well in my interviews and would be moving on to the Hiring Committee.

After one week, my recruiter called to inform me that the Hiring Committee would require a third interview, in order to have more data points. This usually means that the feedback from the two interviewers did not match.

My third interview went very well, and after two weeks of waiting, my recruiter informed me that I had passed Hiring Committee and would be entering Host Matching.

Two days later, I was scheduled to have a call with my new recruiter to discuss Host Matching. This new recruiter informed me that the Hiring Committee would extend an Open Offer to me. This means that I have the option to accept an offer before I am matched with a host, guaranteeing a job with Google regardless of the outcome of Host Matching.

The reason this is significant is that there is a possibility of not being matched with a host and thus not receiving an offer. Open Offers are not common and are usually given to candidates who do exceptionally well on their interviews.