Ask HN: Google Foo.bar

I recently got a foo.bar invite and have been progressing fairly well, but the challenges are now starting to take up a significant amount of my headspace and free time. Obviously if it results in an interview with Google it may be well worth it, but I'm also questioning whether this could end up being time sink without reward if Google is unlikely to request an interview at the end of it.

Has anyone here been recruited via Google foo.bar here? Or does anyone know whether it's something they use much for recruiting new devs these days?

I'm fairly decent at algorithms (at least compared with the average dev) since algorithms are one of my autistic obsessions so I'd like to think I should do okay. I'm 99% self taught though so I kinda know the stuff I need to know and am interesting in learning, but I'm much more fussy on the theory. For example, I know what time complexity is, but I'm less familiar with all of terminology and notations that one might know had they studied it academically. Is this likely to be a problem?

Secondly, my issue from a hiring perspective has always been that I'm very poor at verbal communication therefore I'm not great at explaining things. I also don't have the other soft skills needed to be a great dev hire even if I'm technically competent enough for the role. Again, if anyone has experience I'd be interested to know much Google weights soft vs technical skills?

I guess I fear I may be wasting my time and have other things I'd prefer to be working on right now.