I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bellevue, WA) in Mar 2022
Interview
From beginning to end, this was one of the most aloof interview processes I've ever been a part of. I applied online and didn't hear back until 3 weeks after, which was fine since I was willing to wait for Microsoft. But what was most egregious was that my recruiter was nonexistent throughout the process, it literally felt like a robot was just sending me things to sign and never actually interacting with me. I sent multiple emails asking questions and even leaving voicemails, which went completely unanswered. It wasn’t until I asked the interview coordinator (yes, a different person) who finally helped me get in contact with my supposed recruiter. She apologized and then promised to call me back, which again she never did (oh well). On the day of the virtual onsite, my first interviewer asked about how a JavaScript bundler works, which produced some awkwardness because I was not a frontend developer. He noted this and quickly pivoted the discussion to my Java experience, which made things even more awkward because my background wasn't in Java either (LOL). Clearly, he didn’t review my resume/profile. The next interviewer was friendly but obviously not a native English speaker. We talked about situations where I had encountered disagreements and what I did to overcome them (pretty standard). We proceeded to the coding challenge and I recognized how a stack can be used to solve my problem. She tells me unless I can articulate clearly how I use the stack, I can’t use it. Okay… well, I tell her that I’m not 100% sure but sometimes having the code written down lets me visualize it and brainstorm better (we have our unique ways of doing things). Nope, not allowed to do it. I end up going with a brute force implementation which she obviously did not want. For the third interviewer, we get into the system design portion and I start drawing and talking about my approach. Again, it's hard to understand what they were asking (English not being their first language). In the end, they ding me for not asking enough clarification questions and not explaining my idea before jumping into the implementation. Sure, because I can certainly read minds and know what everyone's expectations are *sarcasm*. If you don't outline what your expectations are for the candidate, you can't fault them for making certain assumptions and taking liberties with their answer. Anyways, at this point, I’ve had enough and I email the coordinator to withdraw my candidacy. I can honestly say this was unequivocally the worst and most unorganized interview I’ve ever been a part of.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (San José, ) in Feb 2022
Interview
The worst interviewing process, they contact me in LinkedIn, I respond that I was interested, they reply me with 10 questions on my inbox, so I answered them and later on the week they send me an invitation for the OTS (Online Technical Screening). I show up 5 minutes early and no one attended the meeting. I wait for an hour, and sent a couple of mails, and nothing happened. One week later they show up tellingbme that the position was closed for LATAM, that he could transfer me to a job position in other team that could hire someone from LATAM, and that he would send me the OTS next day. I'm still waiting, I sent emails but no response, a complete waste of time and the discouragement of being stood up
Interview questions [10]
Question 1
How many years of working experience do you have in Software Development?
What are your desired salary expectations (In your local currency)? (please detail gross monthly/annual Base Salary, variable compensation, bonuses, benefits package, etc.)
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Tel Aviv-Yafo)
Interview
- codelity questions: fix a binary search, write a simple crud app with dropwizard (2 hours)
- homework: write text classification CLI app given your input is path to scan on file system, json classification rules.
- 3 interviews one after another with 15 min break between each. 1 about the homework, 2 about stuff you did, 3 design interview.
- AA interview: talking about your entire past
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
- wanted to know why I left any company I worked for
- tell us about what *we* do in MDA (wtf??)
- tell me about a conflict in your job
- tell me of something you are proud of
- does it scare you to start in a new place?