I applied through university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Salt Lake City, UT) in Nov 2014
Interview
Phone Interview with a guy who was a technical recruiter. Pretty casual, asked some generally questions about background and technical questions. He started out asking about my resume, why I want the position, etc. Then asked me some general questions about software engineering principles. He asked me about a project I have worked on, how did I go about programming it, what kinds of challenges/bugs did I face. Then asked some technical questions. Then finally I had the opportunity to ask him questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Describe recursion like you are explaining it to a 5 year old.
2. You are give 9 identical marbles. One weighs more than the others but there is no physical way to decipher this. You are given a scale on which you can weigh marbles on either side, but you are only allowed to use the scale twice. Figure out which marble weighs more using only your two attempts on the weight scale.
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.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bangalore Rural) in Jun 2026
Interview
The interview was hard, even as a fresher the dsa they asked was hard category after I checked on leetcode. Though I couldn't solve it. Some of the other people who interviewed were asked easy - medium dsa
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.