I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft in May 2026
Interview
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.
1
No offer
Positive experience
Difficult interview
Application
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Mumbai) in Jan 2019
Interview
There were 4 rounds of interview, all technical, in a single day process in Mumbai.
1st interview: 2 coding problems, first write pseudo code, followed by actual code in the language of your choice
2nd interview: 2 logical questions on Data Structures. Explain logic and then write actual code
3rd interview: 2 coding questions, similar to the first interview
4th interview: 1 comparatively complex logical question using Data Structures. Explain logic and write code for it
Each of the interview was 1:1 with a different interviewer, and lasted about an hour
Predominant Data Structures were graphs and trees, although questions on linked lists and array were also present.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Different logical and Data Structures coding questions.
Moderate. Do leetcode tagged Microsoft questions. They generally ask from most recent Microsoft tagged questions. I applied without referral. Will have a technical screening with hiring manager. Then DSA and System design rounds.
Interview process:
Online assessment (hard level)
1-hour screening call
4 interviews in one day:
Medium-hard LeetCode (OOP-focused)
Medium-hard LeetCode DSA problem
Long system design interview (strong focus on relational database design)
Partner manager interview (AI-focused + behavioral)
The process was technically challenging and well-structured.
However, after the final interview, there was over one month of silence despite follow-up messages. Eventually, I received a generic rejection email stating:
"This decision does not reflect on your potential or the value of your experience."
I would have appreciated more timely communication and more specific feedback after such an extensive process.