I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (San Francisco, CA) in Jan 2016
Interview
I had two on-site interviews, probably because they knew that I am a local. The first interview was rather brief and informal; basically the same as a technical phone screen, but in person. The second was a full-day onsite with five engineers. I also had lunch with some non-technical people with whom I would potentially be working on the same team.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Because I was applying for a full-stack web dev role, two of my interviewers were back-end engineers, so they asked a lot of SQL questions.
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.