I applied through college or university. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Mar 2009
Interview
I gave my resume to one of the recruiters who came to our college and they setup a phone interview with me. It took about 45-60 minutes and the interviewer asked me questions about linked lists, arrays and one brain teaser. After that i was scheduled for an on-site interview. I spoke with 2 managers and 2 developers from Remote Desktop group and i did 90 percent of the questions. However Microsoft was laying off people and they stopped a lot of positions before i went there. Remote Desktop department is not what i was going to see but i ended up seeing them. Finally 1.5 weeks later i got a letter saying that they cant offer anything
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.