I applied through college or university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Apr 2009
Interview
They treat their interviewees very well. They will put in a nice hotel, give you a rental, and pay your expenses for you to spend an extra day and night in the area to get to know it and explore and have fun. The interview itself lasts a fair part of the day and involves talking to several engineers. The questions are pretty standard algorithms and problem solving questions. Almost all of them asked me to write code. Even lunch was an interview with the topic about facing difficulties/working in teams/interacting with others and so on.
I was very impressed with the work, offer, and suggested flexibility.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How to write an evaluator for a string like "(1+3 * ( 5 / 4)) and get a numeric result.
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Melbourne)
Interview
After submitting an online application, I received a HackerRank assessment after passing the resume screening stage, then I was rejected after completing the assessment and did not proceed to further interview rounds.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The assessment consisted of two LeetCode-medium-level coding questions to be completed within 75 minutes.
45 mins technical interview with a member of their San fran team. Very relaxed and informal but questions were focused and lots of follow ups. Easy to schedule as was over video conferencing platform
Straightforward technical loop overall, with strong interviewers at every stage. I genuinely enjoyed the in-depth conversations around technical challenges and algorithmic problem-solving — the entire process felt well-structured and genuinely engaging.