Recently, I had the chance to interview at Google for their SWE Internship 2026. The recruiter had reached out to me via email, stating they would like to interview me for further processes.

First, I had a small chat with HR. It was a friendly discussion about which language I'm most comfortable with for the next round and explaining one of my projects. I noted that they wanted to verify your LeetCode account and remarked on the number of questions solved; 400+ seems to be a good number for them.

Technical Round-1:

• Duration: 45 minutes, but cut short to around 35-40 minutes due to the interviewer's busy schedule.
• Due to Google's policy, disclosing questions is not allowed. However, it was a medium-level string/unordered-map question with some tweaks involving storing the rotated order of strings as well.
• This round went well. The interviewer asked about Time Complexity (TC), Space Complexity (SC), optimizations, and edge cases. However, understanding the question was slightly tricky.

I cleared this round!

Technical Round-2:

• Duration: 45 minutes.
• It was similar to Round-1, but the interviewer was a little stricter. The question was similar to finding the median of a data stream, but here the data stream consisted of all subarrays in order. (Not disclosing the exact question, as it was worded slightly more complicated and took me time to understand its meaning).
• I took too much time to understand the question and find the approach, as it was relatively tougher than the original problem. I was able to get the solution by the end, and the code seemed to be perfect.
• I was really nervous during my interview and wasn't sure about my approach. I believe this is why I got rejected.

Verdict: Rejected :(

But I learned a lot in this process, and I'm grateful for this opportunity as it came out of the blue! It was an amazing experience overall! Everything happens for a reason, and I believe something better awaits!

Key Takeaways:

• Be confident in your approach.
• Read the question very carefully!
• Just solving the question doesn't guarantee success; you should be more confident and firm in what you're saying so that the interviewer doesn't cross-question everything.

Hope this helps someone! Thanks, and all the best!! Something better awaits!

It was similar to round one, but the interviewer was a little stricter. The question was similar to finding the median of a data stream, but here the data stream consisted of all subarrays in order. (I am not disclosing the exact question. It was worded slightly more complicated, and it took me time to understand what it meant.)

I took too much time to understand the question and find the approach, as it was relatively tougher than the original problem. I was able to get the solution by the end, and the code seemed to be perfect.

I was really nervous during my interview and wasn't sure about my approach. I believe this is why I was rejected.