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Google left a sour taste in my mouth after my first interview there. Recruiter was a mess. I had one phone interview with no coding questions. My resume could not be more clear that my best language was Python. Yet, every single question they said "use C, C++ or Java." It was very awkward and intimidating because although I knew those languages, I wasn't confident with them and the recruiter already knew this.

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That's strange, none of my interviewers there had any objection to my using Python. This was a few years back; perhaps things have changed.

After I did my phone interview and study problems in Python, I was told when I got onsite for whiteboard problems that they really preferred C++ or Java. It was a little late for me to switch mindsets day-of, didn't get enough recommendations to hire.

Weird. That is definitely not standard practice, at least as of a few months ago. Candidates provide their preferred languages and are supposed to be matched with interviewers who are familiar with them.

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