Long, drawn-out interview process of 6 months. The interviews weren't difficult, but I don't understand why Google conducts interviews without any openings. There were 5 rounds of interviews for L6 EM role - 2 System Design, 2 Leadership, 1 code review. None of the interviews were difficult, but I got some mixed feedback in System Design rounds. Also, there were no openings for L6 at the time my interviews finished, and due to some mixed feedback in System Design rounds, I had to wait for 2.5 months for a team match. Team match went super well, only for me to get rejected at Hiring Committee stage after 6 months. It shouldn't take 6 months to reject a candidate and shouldn't waste someone's time so much. Also Google shouldn't conduct interviews without having a open position. Huge waste of time of 6 months to appear for interviews and get rejected at Hiring Committee.

An external recruiter , in agreement with Google, approached me 1.5 months ago, she screened me preliminarily and considered I gather what was needed that she liked my background, and told me to expect SOON the next interview by an internal recruiter and also expect a link to do a technical assessment and fill some personal data. I kept checking-in for 1.5 months, every week, as nothing happened in the interim but in reply just got lots of childish excuses from her. Today I received that hated boilerplate message saying that Google decided to not continue with my application, blah, blah, even without experiencing a real interview!! . Very bad and poor experience, seems Google is no longer a highly reputable nor the aspirational employer if it ever was!