I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
A recruiter reached out to me via Linkedin and after applying I was invited to an on campus interview. The interview was only 30 minutes long. My interviewer spent about 5 minutes on my resume and then moved on to a coding question, which took the rest of the time because I blanked. He wasn't able to answer my question about some of Microsoft's volunteering efforts, but that's understandable.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a sorted array of integers, return a string array in the format ["start int -> end int", int] where start is the beginning of a substring of continuous numbers to end, and int is non continuous integers.
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.