I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Microsoft in Aug 2010
Interview
1. the first step is of course the written test which is a subjective evaluation of your basic programming and algo skills about an hour long.
2. then followed by 3 to 4 interviews
3. interviews had puzzles and coding questions both
4. the last interview was with a guy from the redmond office , US
5. apart form C , C++ , there was some OS , DBMS also.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
there are three buckets with a label each: oranges, apples, oranges + apples
the labels are guaranteed to be wrong
make minimum draws from the buckets and tell which bucket contains what?
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.