I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Vancouver, BC) in Sept 2008
Interview
Was contacted by recruiter who found my resume online. She suggested two positions in kernel team and search team. After I agreed phone interview was scheduled. It took about 30-40 minutes. Recruiter was very positive. Nothing really difficult. Experience question. Generic C knowledge, a couple (or one) brainteasers. One of the questions was which MS products did I use and how I would improve them. I didn't use any extensively so I mumbled something about plugins and that's it. Got polite "do not fit" email next day.
The interview was a long process. There was first the recruiter screen, which was followed by a 4-loop interview structure that covered technical, behavioral, and system design. The interviewers were very kind and accommodating.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
After my application to ClipChamp - Microsoft, a recruiter reached out and scheduled my first interview. It was about basic interview questions and background analysis. After that I had my technical interview. The recruiter specifically said that I would be facing medium hacker rank questions. So I prepared accordingly. However, what I actually got was to analyse an application and re work it according to new requirements. I felt like I was set up for failure on purpose. Didn’t even hear back after that interview.
Took a bit longer than I thought, spanning about three weeks from start to finish. After a quick recruiter screen, I had a technical round where I was asked about validating a binary search tree. The wild part is, I had literally seen this exact problem on prachub.com while prepping. It helped me feel more confident discussing my approach and edge cases. There was also a behavioral interview where I shared my experiences, and eventually, I received an offer. I chose to decline it, though, as it wasn't the right fit for me at the time.
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