I submitted my resume online through the Micro website. Several months later I received an email for a phone interview. The interview was about half an hour and we mostly discussed previous projects of mine-- there were a few questions to pick my brain and hear thought processes. The interviewer of course asked about prior experience as well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The questions I was asked are previously posed on this thread.
I applied through university. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Feb 2013
Interview
First of all, they went to my university for a presentation and I gave them my resume. A week later, I was contacted by email about scheduling a phone interview. The phone interview (about 20 minutes) consisted of questions like:
- How would you test a keyboard?
- What is the difference between threads and processes?
- Imagine that you get home and you find out you don't have your keys. What would you do?
Then I received an email about my phone interview and the process for an interview at Microsoft started. Microsoft pays for flights, accommodation, taxis and even your food.
I was interviewed by four different people. The interviews start with a few questions and at the end the interviewer comes up with a problem and asks you to solve it. Once you present your solution, he asks you to code it on the board.
My advice is that you should keep talking and pay attention to the hints the interviewer you give you. If he notices that you're doing something wrong, he'll probably make a comment that you can use in order to find out the problem in your idea / code.
After coding, the interviewer will ask you to come up with test cases for your code. He is probably expecting you to come up with many test cases, so think as much as you can about ways to break the code!
In the same week after my interview, I received an offer by email and accepted it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe the most interesting project that you worked with and why you liked it.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Nov 2013
Interview
Interview process was very pleasant. I had a single phone interview (problem solving in nature) and was then flown out to Redmond a month or so later. Microsoft gives you plenty of resources to do the things you want while you're out there, so take advantage of it. They'll pay for cab fares, but I recommend getting a rental, to make sure that you're on time to wherever you need to be. On the interview day, I was shuttled to HQ with a group of other candidates (about 15 others). We had lunch and learned about the interview process. There were a total of 4 45 minute interviews, each with a different person. Each interview was pretty similar: about 15 minutes getting to know you and about 30 minutes of coding/problem solving. The questions weren't too bad...make sure your answers are geared towards a testing standpoint.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A question that I was not ready for was a networking question: about how traceroute works. The interviewer gave hints. It had to do with the TTL of a packet.
I applied through university. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
Interview
I had an on-campus screen and didn't feel that I performed very well, especially with the behavioral questions. Nevertheless, I got an email inviting me to interview in Redmond, WA. The day of the interview, I was nervous, but excited and enthused. My optimism and cheer carried me throughout the day. Everyone I met was so nice and genuine, and declined all phone calls and texts to give me their full attention. One of my interviewers gave me a hard time for not understanding his instructions for testing an algorithm I wrote, but I kept a smile on my face, took his criticism, and ended up giving my own good insight on the solution. I solved every problem during the day, although I didn't always get the best solution the first time. I was very thorough in my testing of each algorithm.
I was very excited to find out that I would be getting a 4th interview, which was with a manager. The function I had to code during this 4th interview was fairly straightforward. It was also easy to test.
Regarding the culture, as I said, everyone was very genuine and attentive. These were all people I would be excited to work with, and I had some pretty good banter with most of them. I got the affirmative interview results soon after. I had a great time in Seattle, and Microsoft of course paid all the expenses.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I would rather not disclose any interview questions. I will say that half the questions I got were very personalized, while the other half are similar to the ones you can find online... Know your algorithms, data structures, and design patterns. My networks, information security, databases, compilers, and finite state automata knowledge came in handy as well.