I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
Interview
Applied through Microsoft Careers. A couple of weeks later was contacted by Hiring Manager via e-mail who suggested to have a phone conversation. During phone talk we discussed my past experience, my approaches to solve problems and I was asked to solve one algorithmic problem. Soon after that I was contacted by HR team who invited me for on-site interview in Redmond. Trip to on-site was perfectly organized and I really enjoyed it. I had whole day on-site interview. I was pleasantly surprised that besides algorithmic and design problems interviewers also discussed my past experience, asked for the examples how I solve problems at work and overall they definitely read my resume :-) A couple of weeks after my on-site interview I was contacted by recruiter who told me that I've got the offer.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Mar 2011
Interview
5 rounds, the first one is easy, the coming 3 are getting tougher, if you are lucky, you will see the HM. sometimes people will have 6 rounds, depends on team
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Mar 2015
Interview
Short phone conversation with recruiter/HR, which lead to a Skype-based technical screening/interview. After passing the technical screen, I was flown out to Seattle for on-site interviews. Two one-on-one interviews in the morning, followed by a lunch-based "team-fit" interview, then an afternoon interview with the hiring manager. Each interview was roughly an hour long, with a short break between each.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a particular (naive) run-length compression algorithm. How can you improve the compression ratio of this algorithm without affecting certain properties (streaming, performance, etc.). Discuss.