I Applied to Google SWE Intern for Summer 2026 (USA) — Here’s Everything That Happened

I’m not writing this because I got the offer. I’m writing this because I didn’t — and I think that’s exactly why you should read it.

The Application

I applied for the Google Software Engineering Intern role (Summer 2026, USA) on August 25, 2025 — the same day Google opened applications. I saw the posting go live and submitted within 3–4 hours. If you’re serious about this, don’t wait. More on that later.

The Online Assessment

Exactly one month later, on September 25, 2025, I got the OA invitation. They gave me 7 days to complete it.

The format: 90 minutes, 2 questions. I can’t share the exact problems (NDA), but here’s the flavor:

Question 1 — Medium to Hard: Backtracking combined with BFS and DP memoization. Not something you crack if you’ve been casually grinding.

Question 2 — Easy: Frequency counting. Straightforward. 90 minutes for two questions is generous — the difficulty difference between them was real.

I submitted on September 30, within few days of receiving it.

The Interview Invite

On October 1st, I got an email from a recruiter. It had the NDA formalities, Google’s official interview prep guide, and the scheduling details:

2 technical rounds, 45 minutes each

All online

They asked for your preferred programming language and availability for scheduling

I had midterms and some personal problems, so I pushed it to October 23rd. Both rounds on the same day.

Interview Round 1

The first thing that caught me off guard — she asked me to share my screen. I’d read on Reddit and heard from friends that Google doesn’t usually do this. It wasn’t a problem, but what followed was something I genuinely didn’t expect: she started asking me about my resume.

I’ll be honest — I wasn’t prepared for that. I thought it would go straight into technical questions. I gave her an overview, she went deeper, I got a little nervous. But I held it together and answered everything.

Then the coding question. It was a graph problem — topological sorting, similar in spirit to Course Schedule II on Leetcode (Kahn’s algorithm) and Topological Sorting, but with its own twist. I walked her through brute force first, then the optimal approach. She accepted it. Then she asked follow-ups which was pretty much difficult as I was already nervous, But still I answered that too.

Then she asked me to do a cold code walkthrough in Google Docs — no IDE, no autocomplete. Drawing a graph in a Google Doc is… an experience. I fumbled a bit with the visualization, but I explained the example and edge cases and got through it.

Interview Round 2

This interviewer had a different style — more direct. The first question was a heap problem, similar to Kth Largest Element on Leetcode, with some tweaks. I went straight to the optimal approach, coded it up, explained my reasoning. He was satisfied. No follow-up.

With about 20 minutes left, he gave me a second question — an easier one, involving element retrieval with positive and negative offsets.

I started explaining my approach. He stopped me: “Don’t explain. Whatever you write in this document will be submitted.”

Fair enough. I wrote the brute force. Then explained the optimal. He said again: write it, don’t explain. So I wrote the optimal solution too. By the end of 45 minutes, I had solved 3 problems across both questions. I felt good walking out. I was pretty much confident.

What Happened After

I waited. And eventually, the rejection came.

I don’t know exactly where it went wrong. Maybe the resume portion in Round 1. Maybe something in how I communicated. Maybe they just had stronger candidates that cycle. I genuinely gave it everything I had — and it still didn’t work out.

That’s the part nobody talks about enough. You can do a lot right and still not get the offer. It’s not always about one mistake. And that’s okay.

Tips for Anyone Going Through This

📌 Apply the day applications open. Google interviews on a rolling basis. The earlier you’re in the pipeline, the better your chances of a slot.

📌 Prepare your resume, not just your LeetCode. I got grilled on my projects and experience in Round 1. Know your resume cold — every line of it.

📌 Do LeetCode Properly not Just Blind75 or 150. Not just the easy ones. Focus on graphs, heaps, backtracking, and DP. That’s what showed up for me.

📌 Practice coding on Google Docs, not just an IDE. No autocomplete, no syntax highlighting, no error indicators. You will make indentation mistakes. You will forget semicolons. Practice this specifically — it’s a different skill.

📌 Ask the interviewer upfront what they want. One of my interviewers wanted written code only, no verbal explanation. Had I asked at the start, I would have adjusted faster.

📌 Communication is everything in 45 minutes. You’re coding, thinking, explaining, and managing time simultaneously. Practice talking through your thought process out loud, not just getting to the answer.

📌 Schedule early once you get the invite. I pushed mine due to midterms — that’s understandable — but if you can go sooner, go sooner.

If you’re going through this process right now, I hope this saves you from at least one of the surprises I ran into. And if you have questions, reach out — I’m happy to talk through it.

Good luck. You’ve got this.

UNTILL NEXT TIME, ARYA MEHTA LINKEDIN | GITHUB | PORTFOLIO