I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Atlanta, GA) in May 2022
Interview
Speaking to the interview process specifically: It was fine. Standard FAANG style feel to it, there was a pre-screen coding session and then 4 rounds of interviews with a mix of behavioral questions and 1 leetcode question.
The engineers i spoke to were nice and made the interview comfortable.
As for the recruiters/recruiting process: it was atrocious. After i applied and spoke to a recruiter about what i was interested in other recruiters (at least 4) started messaging me all asking me to fill out the same 10-15 question packet. After i finally got that sorted out it got a bit smoother until the interview rounds were complete. All communication fell apart and they began to take forever to respond. They made it seem like i did well and they were just team matching me (actual verbiage from the recruiter after the final interviews: "That being said, you were an overall [SECTION REDACTED] hire so we are just working out the details to find a team within [SECTION REDACTED] that will best suite your experience and skillsets. 😊").
Not long after the recruiter even said he found a team for me, however when we spoke he was under the assumption that i had spoken with that hiring manager, and when i said i had not he seemed confused, cut the meeting short to "investigate", and was never heard from again. All attempts to follow up with everyone i spoke with previously went unanswered.
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Atlanta, GA) in Mar 2022
Interview
Speaking to the interview specifically: It was a standard FAANG style interview. 1 pre-screen coding session online followed by 4 rounds, each with 1-2 behavioral questions followed by a technical question.
Each person i interviewed with was knowledgeable and friendly.
Its the recruiting process/post interview process that is atrocious.
After the interview rounds the email i received made it sound like i did well and they were just team matching at that point, but that was 2 months ago from the time of writing.
Excerpt from said email:
"you were an overall [Section Redacted] hire so we are just working out the details to find a team within [Section Redacted] that will best suite your experience and skillsets."
I received communication from the recruiter that someone wanted me on their team roughly a month after the interview rounds, but when the recruiter and I spoke he thought the hiring manager and I previously met. When i told him that was not the case he seemed confused and then cut the meeting. Attempts to follow up were not answered, and the technical sourcer also stopped answering.
Personally i think i would've rather been ghosted from the beginning instead of having the potential for a team dangled in front of me, it was a pretty disheartening experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode style questions, trending more toward easy/medium level.