I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Aug 2013
Interview
There was an initial phone interview, followed by an in-person day on campus. I was flown to Redmond and put up in a reasonable hotel by Microsoft. The process consisted of a fairly tough day with about six individual Q&A sessions and usually some kind of problem to solve. The problems varied from logic quizzes to programming puzzle to theorem solving. The interviewers were always cordial and encouraged interaction during the technical bits.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Solve a logic puzzle: There are five people: Ann, Bob, Charlie, Doug, and Edgar who are having a party. A set of facts about the people allow you to figure out the attributes of the individuals. The question is usually something silly like : which person at the pizza?
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Chicago, IL)
Interview
It's was interview of multiple skills assessment and interactions with multiple tech leads and series of technical tests. Everyone assess about thing in a different way. Overall they were expecting more than what they require.
I applied in-person. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in June 2018
Interview
Had a screening call about 4 weeks after initially contacting recruiter. After screening call didn’t get any response. Followed up myself multiple time. Recruiter who works for Microsoft said prescreen went well. Then said the position is no longer available and suggested a different position. Waited few more weeks. Then got a call that I need to make interview trip within a week and a half. Took the time off for the interview. Microsoft pays for hotel and flight but at least in my case it was a 6 hour flight in a middle seat both ways. The team I was going to be working with is local so it’s not clear why trip was necessary. When interview was scheduled I got an email stating that I will be getting a call confirming interview details the day before. Never got a call so wasn’t sure if it was still on. Had to reach out to recruiter and HR to find out if interview was on. Turned out HR was on vacation. Recruiter confirmed interview was still on but didn’t have details.
Flew in. Got interview details, who I m meeting and when.
None of the interviewers had my resume prior to the interview and neither did HR. Somehow they couldn’t download it from Microsoft career website.
Met my first interviewer on time. The meeting room that the interview was scheduled in actually doesn’t exist in the building. Interviewer was very nice. Discussion lasted about an hour. Then was told team has meetings so I have to hang out for 2 hours and wait for next interviewer. I got free lunch while waiting.
Questions were mostly straight forward not difficult. Interview team were all immigrants from India. I am an immigrant too, so it just looked not diverse. Interviewers were polite and courteous. Sent them a thank you and waited. 2 weeks passed. Reached out to find out hey
or nay. Recruiter eventually called back and said although interview went great they went with another candidate who is a better fit, whatever that means. Overall I walked away with a sense that they already had someone in mind they were going with and just needed to run interviews to make it look competitive internally.
Interview questions [7]
Question 1
If you had to write a new browser how would you store user settings? How many files does settings would you need.
