SWE internship 2026 — brutal out there

Applied to ~90 positions this cycle. Ghosted by 60+, rejected by 15, exactly 3 OAs so far.
Last year I had 5 interviews by this point with the same resume. Is this just market correction or are we heading into another recession?

The whole "everyone and their mom switched to CS during COVID" really hit the junior market hard. Any upperclassmen have advice on making it through?

Have you tried startup job boards? They actually respond. Applied to 5 on YC Work at a Startup, got 3 interviews.

Leetcode grinding isn't enough anymore. Behavioral rounds are where I've been losing offers — they want to see real project ownership.

Senior here — last year was worse tbh. I had 0 offers by December, ended up with a return offer from a company I interned at sophomore year. Network >>> cold apps.