Hi Guys
Feeling sad but would like to share my experience interviewing with Google :)

September: A recruiter reached out to me. I requested around a month to prepare, which they kindly agreed to.

October: My phone screen was scheduled but later rescheduled due to the Diwali festive season.

November: The phone screen took place.
I was given a problem based on arrays with a medium-hard sliding window follow-up. I thoroughly explained my approach and solved the problem within the given time. I was confident for making it into the technical rounds.
Self-verdict: SH/H

December: The onsite interviews were held with three technical rounds.
First round involved a medium-difficulty string parsing question with a followup based on hashing and some tricky logic. While I was able to solve the first part comfortably, I panicked during the follow-up. The pressure got to me, and I couldn’t deliver a complete solution.
Self-verdict: LH/LNH

Second round was based on a matrix subarray sum calculation related problem of medium difficulty, and the follow-up was medium-hard, not very tough. This round went quite smoothly for me. I clearly explained my approach, handled the follow-up effectively, and felt good about my performance by the end.
Self-verdict: SH/H.

Third round was matrix-based problem involving finding tiles with multiple conditions. It had a hell lot of constraints and the main trick was to find the optimal flow of traversal. This round felt like my best. I explained my approach clearly, implemented the solution in just 25 minutes, and wrapped up the interview early. Even the interviewer was givine me confident feeling that my solution was spot on.
Self-verdict: SH/H.

Verdict:
When the recruiter called me with the results, I was devastated to learn that the feedback wasn’t positive, and I wouldn’t be moving forward. They explained that I needed at least two strong positive verdicts to proceed. My second onsite feedback was positive, but the first and third onsite round didn’t meet the bar and discussed a lot on the third one especially.

• The recruiter didn’t provide specific details, but the feedback she gave was that my code readability and writing was very upto the point, but the approach and algorithm were not. This was particularly confusing because my solution involved a single O(N×N) traversal (square matrix), and I genuinely don’t see how it could be optimized further.
• What added to the confusion was that the recruiter always gave me confident approval during the interview. They showed no signs or hints of needing further improvement and confidently said that my solution was good enough. Even when there was enough time to discuss my approach further, they encouraged me to write the code and reassured me that my solution was on track.

Ah damn it it, what happens, happens.
This marks the end of my Google journey for now.

All the best for your interviews :)