I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Nov 2008
Interview
The hiring process consisted of an initial phone screen. There never really was any technical phone interview. I believe that at this level, the companies mainly want to gague if the individual is interested in the job or not.
The on-site interview was also quite interesting. Quite a few very senior people in the organization interviewed me and the questions were not the typical run of the mill questions. Instead the questions pertained to the problems that the interviewers were working on at that point in time. At the very end of the day, i got a chance to meet the VP and spend an hour with him. This was very encouraging.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a big image, how will you pan and zoom into the image in a way so as to focus on the important parts ot the image.
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.