I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Nov 2012
Interview
I applied for a first round interview on campus my senior year. The technical jobs were lumped into PM,test, and dev. I was unsure what track to choose when I started the interview. It was 30min long and eventually went down the PM track. I had a brain teaser about how to find the jar with coins that weight 1.1 grams in one weighing. Then I had to explain the importance of inheritence and then explain it to a young child. Then I was asked to design a dorm that allowed students to exit as quickly as possible. The importatnt thing here is to think of high density traffic times and alternative modes of travel to prevent bottle necks. At the final round I was told I would have 2 interviews. I ended up having 5 interviews, the 4th being an algorithms interview. The first 3 were design questions, (ie design a desktop background uploading application, design a phone app, design a airport security line, design an online voting application).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The algorithm question was about storing a tuples as efficiently as possible while keeping the order in which they were received intact.
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Hyderabad) in Jan 2026
Interview
Not a great experience with interviews taking 1 month to complete. Despite ongoing communication, the role did not move forward, reportedly due to approval constraints. The overall experience highlights a gap in aligning internal approvals before progressing candidates to advanced stages.
Clearer communication and better alignment internally would improve the candidate experience
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions on Project Experience and Thought process
The interview process is grueling and I get why people do it but its more awareness, know that you'll spend an entire day and meet several people, so it's important to be mentally and physically prepared. Eat a good breakfast but not heavy stay hydrated. This was just for a PM role it's their standard process I imagine executive level is another thing altogether
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you didn't agree with someone who was a stakeholder on your project and how did you handle that?
Very smooth, thoughtful interview process. It showed the recruiter really cared what I had to contribute and asked great followup clarifying questions. Would definitely recommend everyone try an interview with them even if it doesn't pan out.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Name one project that you have worked on and tell us the outcomes?
