I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
I was referred by a friend of mine. They took a very long time to get back to me and finally scheduled a phone interview. Unlike most phone interviews where there is a coderpad of some sort that I am coding on, he simply wanted me to describe how something would work to him which was difficult as I had a hard time understanding the interviewer.
After struggling to understand what he was looking for and attempting an explanation he rudely interrupted me. He then said "Normally I would ask more questions but I think I have everything I need. Maybe sometime when you understand these thing you can work for Microsoft." And that was it.
Overall the interviewer was extremely rude, hard to understand, and very pretentious.
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.