How failing my "Google SRE" interview twice led to my first digital product (and my first sales!)

Hey everyone,

I've been a lurker on IH for a while, and I wanted to share the story of how I stumbled into creating my first product.

For years, I was a software engineer doing what we're "supposed" to do: study LeetCode, read system design books, and apply to FAANG. My target was a Google SRE role.

I failed the interview. Twice.

It was incredibly frustrating because I knew the material. The "aha!" moment came when I realized I was studying for the wrong test. The interview wasn't about knowledge; it was a test of judgment under pressure.

The "Scratch Your Own Itch" Moment

Out of that frustration, I started building the resource I wish I had from day one. It began as a massive Notion doc where I reverse-engineered the entire SRE interview process. I broke it down into the core "mindsets" they were really testing for, not just the surface-level questions.

• The NALS round? It's a war-room simulation, not a design test.
• The coding round? It's about automation and safety, not clever algorithms.
• The behavioral round? It's about blameless communication during an incident.

I spent about 6 months turning these insights into a complete, structured blueprint.

From Notes to Product

After finally using my own system to pass the interview, I shared it with a few colleagues. When they started getting offers too, a lightbulb went off. This wasn't just my personal cheat sheet; it was a potentially valuable product.

I decided to take the plunge and turn my system into a sellable digital product on Gumroad.

The Launch (Happening Now!)

I've spent the last few weeks turning my notes and guides into a comprehensive bundle called The Google SRE Interview Blueprint. I also realized this "mindset-first" approach was missing for other roles, so I partnered with other experts to create similar bundles for DevOps, Data Engineering, etc., under the brand Ace Interviews.

This week, I started my marketing push by writing about my journey on platforms like Dev.to and LinkedIn.

The results so far:

It's early days, but the response has been amazing! The articles are getting great engagement, and I've already made my first few sales, which feels incredible.

My question for the IH community:

For those of you who sell info products, what's one marketing channel you wish you had focused on sooner?

Thanks for reading my story!

Links:

• My Product: https://aceinterviews.gumroad.com/
• The Blog Post I Wrote About My Journey: https://dev.to/aceinterviews/i-failed-my-google-sre-interview-twice-heres-the-blueprint-i-created-to-pass-2jl7