I applied online. The process took 12 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Dublin, Dublin) in Mar 2021
Interview
I interviewed for a Dublin-based position. The interview process had multiple steps. First, initial interview, then coding challenge and then a final round (4 interviews each 45 minutes).
The final round interviews were medium hard. The first was about system design - Design an endpoint for a form to collect customer feedback to a current Microsoft website.
In the other 3 interviews I was asked about how I work in a team, challenges that I have faced in the past and how I resolved them. Then each engineer (the interviewer) asked one Leetcode-like question and I had to walk them through how to code it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Q: Given an int, return a string of the formatted int. Such as given 12348, return 12,348 as a string.
Q: Given a string, return the first non-repeating character in the string.
The OA was two Leetcode Medium questions, although the difficulty seemed to vary from Easy to Medium. Optimisation was critical to pass the tests. I think it was first come first serve.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Combinations of binary digits, modifying strings in a certain manner.
Short interview over the phone about the neurodiversity hiring program. The interviewer was very nice and the program is tailored to neurodiverse individuals. Adjustments allowed:
-Longer breaks between interviews.
-Don't have to tell your manager or anyone else about your neurodiverse nature.
-Don't have to prove your neurodiversity.
Generally, easy questions, but really depends on your interviewer. Format is 3 separate technical interviews. I had 1 interview where I was made to use a language I have never used before which was unlucky, but i think this is a rare case.