That was a factor for me when I applied to Google. I asked for 4 weeks to interview - I should have asked for 4 months. I hit the algorithms textbook and I did

That was a factor for me when I applied to Google. I asked for 4 weeks to interview - I should have asked for 4 months. I hit the algorithms textbook and I did CTCI questions, but I just wasn't ready. Whether I could get ready is an open question, I don't want to claim I necesessarily would have passed had I studied intensely for a longer period of time. But yeah, I have kids in school, a job, I was a baseball coach at the time, there's homework, music lessons, all that. Honestly, I do wonder if maybe part of the purpose of the interviews is to filter out people like me who can't drop everything to prep for an interview. I'm not trying to be glib here. My inability to prepare for a white board exam at this level actually does tell you something about how much time I am able and/or willing to devote to work. But yeah, it's a bad feeling, I'm with you there.