'This is why you won’t make it to Google’: Once mocked by a startup boss, Woman techie now works at Google

Bengaluru-based Software Engineer Arpita Das, currently working at Google, shared her bitter experience of being grilled by an interviewer from a mid-level startup during a system design round. 

She shared how the interviewer in a system design round made her design infrastructure, estimate CPU costs, and basically everything except physically build the data centre.

When she stumbled, he smirked and said, “This is why people like you won’t make it to big companies like Google, Meta.”

Arpita shared in a recent post on the social media platform X: “Anyway, I work at Google now.”

“Not bragging—just wondering why some folks gatekeep based on their own insecurities,” she added.

Was grilled by a mid-level startup interviewer in a system design round - he made me design infra, estimate CPU costs, basically everything except physically build the data center.

When I stumbled, he smirked and said, “This is why people like you won’t make it to big companies… https://t.co/fDKU3blwJS

— Arpita Das (@Arpitaaa01) July 27, 2025

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Netizens react

The post quickly went viral, with netizens backing her.

One user curiously asked where the interviewer works now. Arpita’s reply? He’s still working at the same company.

A user commented, “Great story. Success is the best revenge. Keep going.”

“Wow, legendary origin story. Congrats for getting so far,” said another person.

“Today most of the interviewer see attitude and eagerness to learn as you can not judge a person on whole thing in those 10-15 minutes. Congrats for you already reached Google,” wrote another individual. 

Who is Arpita Das?

According to her X and LinkedIn bio, Arpita Das is a graduate from VIT with a B.Tech in Computer Science. She joined Google just a couple of weeks back and shared about it on LinkedIn. 

She mentioned joining Google as an SDE II, where she is working on Gemini at Google DeepMind. She called it an “incredible opportunity” and is excited to be part of a team pushing the boundaries of AI.

Also read: Reacting to the 12,000 TCS job cuts, former Tech Mahindra CEO says ‘Sholay days’ of Indian IT are over (startuppedia.in)