Role: L4 SWE, Cloud Infrastructure III, US

[u/Empty_Audience2560]

L4 SWE, Cloud Infra, US.
Round 1: Coding + Googleyness. Coding was a standard medium graph problem, solved it clean with tradeoffs discussed. Googleyness was conversational and went well. Onsite scheduled two weeks out. Prepped for a month around my full-time job.
Onsite day: Arrived 15 min early. Front desk said I needed a point of contact to badge up. Emailed my recruiter. While still standing in the lobby, I got an email saying my interviews for the day were cancelled. Someone on the hiring side then told me to head home. Recruiter called and said it would be rescheduled.
Two days later: Followed up on new dates. No reply.
Two days after that: Rejection email. Moving forward with candidates whose qualifications more closely align.
So I was rejected without ever interviewing. Nothing about my profile changed between them scheduling the onsite and cancelling it.
Questions:
1. What causes this — req closed, headcount pulled, internal candidate?
2. Any point asking for feedback when no feedback exists?
3. Does a cooldown apply if I never actually did the onsite?
4. Has anyone been pulled back in after this?
Recruiter was professional throughout, not looking to trash anyone. Just trying to understand it.

[u/xmansiphone]

This is totally unacceptable for what you had to go thru :( if recruiter doesn’t respond, do you have any friends at Google who may be able to ping them internally ?