I applied through college or university. The process took 8 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2016
Interview
I applied at my universities career fair.
First was a 30 minute on-campus coding interview. The problem was equivalent to a leetcode easy, and the follow up was around a medium.
After that, I was contacted to do an onsite. I was expecting a lot of algorithms, which is what I studied for. However, to my surprise, most of my interviews were behavioral. I had one brain teaser I didn't do too well on, but the rest I feel went very well.
In the end, I didn't get an offer. I suspect this is due to a couple factors: it being very late in the interview cycle (not too many positions left) and lack of algorithms. I couldn't differentiate myself enough from the students that went to better schools solely based off behavioral questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Preorder, Inorder, and Postorder traversal of binary tree.
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.