Google: Just in Time for Their Hiring Freeze

Update: Reflecting on this experience with the benefit of hindsight, the outcome feels less disappointing given the significant changes in the tech industry that followed. The landscape shifted dramatically, and what seemed like a missed opportunity became a lesson in timing and perspective. I remain optimistic about future possibilities, whether at Google or elsewhere.

Well, I aced the Google software engineering interview (I think?). Then they froze hiring.

Classic timing.

I spent months preparing. Binary trees, dynamic programming, system design. The whole circus. Every night after work, grinding LeetCode until my brain hurt. I wanted Google badly enough to sacrifice my evenings for it.

The interviews went better than I could have hoped. Five rounds. I nailed four of them completely: clean code, optimal solutions, clear communication. Only one dynamic programming problem threw me off, but even then I talked through my approach and got partial credit. The interviewers were nodding, engaged, asking follow-ups that suggested genuine interest.

Then the email came. Not an offer, but a hiring freeze announcement. The standard corporate language for "you did everything right but it doesn't matter."

I pushed my recruiter for feedback. "You would have been considered for L4." I only applied for L3. Thats what really made it sting.

A month later, she was laid off too. The irony wasn't lost on me.

I never got official results from the hiring committee. No paper trail that I passed. Just verbal confirmations and a brutal lesson in timing. If I'd interviewed three months earlier or a year later, I'd probably have that Google badge.

The frustrating part? The skills I built studying for Google did open other doors. But it's hard not to think about what could have been.

Timing is everything in tech. You can do everything right and still lose. That's not failure, it's just the game.

The whole experience taught me that the gap between "almost" and "made it" can be completely out of your control. But I'd do it again. Actually, I know I will.

(Google, if you're reading this and hiring again: my LeetCode skills are rusty but my system design got way better.)