Bengaluru Techie Quits Google Amid Conflict Over His YouTube Channel: "I Had No Choice Left"

Arpit Bhayani, a software engineer based in Bengaluru, resigned from Google due to a legal conflict regarding his external professional activities. In a post on X, Bhayani explained that his departure was forced by a conflict between his role at Google and his outside work, specifically his educational YouTube channel and online courses. The situation reportedly escalated to involve Google's legal department, at which point Bhayani felt he had "no choice left" but to resign.

Describing his last day on January 11, 2026, as a "purely bitter moment," he clarified it was not "bittersweet" because he had no prior intention of leaving a domain he loved, in-memory databases. Despite the conflict, Bhayani expressed gratitude for his two stints at the company, noting they helped him grow as an operator and engineer.

"Yesterday was my last day at Google. It is not bittersweet but a purely bitter moment. I had no plans of leaving, but I had no choice left. I had to leave because of a conflict with my outside work (courses and YouTube), and once legal gets involved, there is not much you can do. I am bummed about leaving a domain that I dearly love - in-memory databases. I am bummed because I was working with some exceptionally good engineers and genuinely good people. I am bummed because there was so much good stuff left to build," he wrote on X. 

See the post here:

Yesterday was my last day at Google. It is not bittersweet, but a purely bitter moment. I had no plans of leaving, but I had no choice left.

I had to leave because of a conflict with my outside work (courses and YouTube), and once legal gets involved, there is not much you can… pic.twitter.com/6jbsyAfF55

— Arpit Bhayani (@arpit_bhayani) January 10, 2026

Bhayani's post sparked significant debate within the tech community. Many users expressed surprise that a company historically known for its "20% time" policy and support for personal projects would take a hard line against educational content that often benefited other Google engineers.

One user wrote, "That's sad! Someone got jealous; otherwise, I don't see any conflict of interest between your official responsibilities and YouTube/courses. It's Google's loss. You are going to do amazing stuff whatever you choose."

Another commented, "Oh no! I remember, we have interacted through your posts about Memorystore when you got in Google. I didn't understand what conflict is here. You create educational videos that help even Google engineers at least some of them. This was a win-win situation."

A third added, "Damn, that's so unfortunate. Hard to imagine such a conflict happening at Google. Best of luck for what's next."