Interview Process Coding Assessment An initial technical coding challenge to evaluate problem-solving skills, algorithmic thinking, and code quality. Recruiting Coordinator Call A discussion covering background, role expectations, logistics, and cultural fit. Five Onsite Interviews a) Coding Interview #1 Live problem-solving session focused on data structures, algorithms, and writing clean, efficient code. b) System Design Interview Designing a scalable system, discussing architecture decisions, trade-offs, performance, reliability, and testing strategies. c) Lunch Interview / Technical Conversation Informal discussion covering technical depth, past experience, collaboration style, and real-world engineering challenges. d) Coding Interview #2 Another hands-on coding session, often emphasizing edge cases, testing strategy, performance considerations, and code maintainability. e) Coding & Technical Discussion (Extended Conversation) A deeper technical discussion including whiteboard coding, design reasoning, debugging approaches, optimization strategies, and explaining concepts clearly and concisely (30+ technical terms, concepts, and trade-offs).

1. Recruiter screen: recruiter was friendly but had their camera off. They asked me about my recent work experience, my strongest programming language, and salary expectations 2. Technical Screen: live HackerRank coding challenge with a team member of the team hiring for the role, over Microsoft Teams. The interviewer had their camera off but was easy to talk to. The coding challenge was a LeetCode-style challenge that required the backtracking algorithm. Interviewer spent extra time aftwards to take questions from me and share information about the team and employer. 3. 3x "Full Loop Interview Technical". The interviewers did not show up to these interviews. I emailed the recruiter who told me that interviewing for the role had been cancelled. My overall impression of Microsoft based on their hiring practises is the company is dysfunctional, employees are disengaged, their hiring practises are disconnected from the actual job, and they don't care about candidate experience.