A lot of companies (especially the big ones like Google and Facebook) have this year declared hiring freezes for indefinite periods of time (Google has apparently extended its). Almost everywhere, economically, we seem to be going through a stormy patch, with many saying that a recession, and layoffs in the IT industry, are all but inevitable now.

Maybe SWE internships are just a way for companies to test their final candidates for an actual job at the organization. Still, many companies (like Google and Microsoft) seem to be continuing on with their SWE Internship selections like normal.

In light of these things, should one expect there to be a lot less selections (or maybe none at all, which is far-fetched) this year, or would everything continue on just like every year this time too?

I had applied for the Google SWE internship via the online portal about a month ago, and recently got an email stating that I had been rejected for the role. Though rejections, in the case of things like this, should be normal even during a 'normal' year, I would still love to know more, and it would be great if anyone could share something regarding the state of things, or just their experience with internship applications in general this year.

Thanks for reading.