I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Boston, MA) in Nov 2012
Interview
Started out by applying online on a saturday. Got an email from the recruiter wanting to chat by Monday. We set up an time a couple of days later where I was asked some basic object oriented programming questions like access modifiers etc.
Got an email two days later to set up tech screen with one of the senior SDETs. I scheduled it a week out to give me time to study. I didn't think I did so great but got an email saying they would like to move forward with on-site! Yay!!!!!
Went on-site and from most interview stories, I knew that if I didn't make it past No 3 interviewer, I was screwed. I was so nervous as we ended the 3rd interview and at the end he said "Someone else would like to meet you" I did a dance when he turned his back!! The first 3 interviews were technical in nature; 60 mins each except the lunch interview which was 90 mins. I must say that Msoft has the best interview process. The interviewers were nice, cordial and really trying to help me succeed unlike some of the other tech company interviews I have been to. They also had senior people interview me so I guess having experienced interviewers makes a diff.
After the 4th interview with the hiring manager, I met another senior engineer from a different team who was there to validate all that the other interviewers had said. I was sure this was the last then I was told I was to meet one more person! The hiring manager's manager! I was burnt out at this point. One look at my face and he said "Its obviously been a long day, I won't keep you for long". I was relieved to hear that.
From the 5th interview, it was all general chatting about school I graduated from, behavioral questions, how many apps on my phone, passions and so on.
In all I had 7 interviews including the recruiters'. My day started at 9.45am and ended at 5pm. It was well worth it cos I got the offer the next business day!!! I'm sooooo excited!!!!
Goodluck to everyone trying to get in. Just keep working at it and don't give up. I have been rejected at Amazon, Google, Facebook and on my first try with Microsoft I got it!!!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Algorithm questions, design questions, test automation, projects, behavioral. I say just be yourself otherwise you come across as phoney
Hacker Rank test and 3 Rounds of coding plus experience based interview.
Position was for QA who should have Storage and Networking knowledge. So basic questions on storage and networking.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Feb 2020
Interview
Full day process broken into multiple individual one on one interviews which can include time at the blackboard writing snippets of code or scripting. Not for the faint of heart or the unprepared.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you write a script to reverse the contents of an array?
I applied through university. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Sydney) in Mar 2015
Interview
Applied through a university recruiter, and got to do an on-campus interview. The question was very easy (add an item to a sorted linked list) and I got to fly to Sydney for the next round. The second round consisted of 4 individual interviews with different people, with a range of difficulty for their interview questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Draw the system architecture of one of your projects