I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Microsoft (Shanghai, Shanghai) in Nov 2014
Interview
two telephone interview, two onsite interview. In the two telephone interview, the interviewers are all PM(I think), they asked me many things about my resume. In the onsite interview, the interviewers asked me two simple algorithms, very easy, they also asked me some system design questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Q: how to reverse a string?
Q: Give an integer unsorted array, how to let every digital is bigger or smaller than its left and right digital. O(n) time cost.
Q: Design a distributed system to handle real-time data.
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.