I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Sep 2018
Interview
Long interview process with modestly difficult questions; approximately Codeforces C level difficulty. Interviewers cared more about soft skills and ability to reason outside the box (i.e., how would you change the question to make your algorithm more efficient?)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Compute the hamming distance between two bitstreams.
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.