Hi, so I heard from a friend that only people who won some competitions and are exceptional at their university get accepted, it is really true? Wouldn't technical/soft skills be enough?

I've received the rejection email for Google's 2025 summer internship position. I was reached out to back in March 2024 through their campus outreach program, and I was told that they would open up an application on my behalf for next year's internship.

I then had a 90 minute online assessment and three 45 minute interviews in July. I spent the entire summer practicing for my interviews and online assessment. I think I managed to do good in my 1st, and 3rd interviews, and finished in around ~25 minutes or so.

I was told that I passed the technical phase, and that I would move on to the project matching phase. Around the end of November, the project matching phase started, and I was sent a questionnaire to indicate my experience and work preferences. I tried to make my preferences as wide as possible in order to maximize my chances of being matched: I indicated i was willing to relocate anywhere, work on anything, and start at anytime.

Despite my best efforts, I was not selected. I stayed in project matching for 4.5 months and I was rejected. I did not receive a single call. I knew there were other candidates from top schools, and with past internship experiences, but I did not expect to not receive a single call after all this.

I've spent thousands of hours on practicing LeetCode, and sent out thousands of applications for internships since I was a freshmen. This was my last, and best chance to get an internship before graduation. It's upsetting to see all that effort gone to waste.

I recently got a message from my recruiter telling me that I had successfully passed the OA round and I am being advanced to the next stage.

So naturally I asked my friend who was a google intern last year for advice on the 2024 SWE intern interview

Here’s what he said

“Hey man I’m not gonna lie to you, internship interviews at google at least when I did it are super easy. If you got an interview offer you’re basically guaranteed the internship. Don’t get me wrong, the questions are still hard, but recruiters and SWEs are very “gentle” knowing that this is an internship interview. Basically, if you can just describe generally how you would do it and they trust you can code even a little bit, you get the offer. The hardest part about google internship is getting an interview to begin with so once you do get that first interview you’re basically out of the weeds.”

How true is this?