I applied through college or university. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft in Oct 2013
Interview
There were 2 interviews. One on campus, the other one at the central offices in Mexico City. The whole process took 2 months. The second interview was technical, asking from data structures to basic algorithms. The recruiter was very nice, the hardest part was controlling the nerves. It's crucial to ask a lot of questions and to brush up all the basic data structures.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a program to return true if the string is a palindrome
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Montreal, QC) in Mar 2010
Interview
Initial Phone Screening with HR, followed by a technical phone screening
1) HR - general background checking
2) Phone Screen #1 - 20-30 mins - Introductions - Implement a binary tree using linked list - list all the test cases
On site interviews 3 rounds and then i got asked to leave
1) Implement a Sudoku application (check if the sudoku is solved)
2) Design a phone book
3) Given an array, locate where the break points are
In retrospect, one should ask a lot of questions before attempting to solve the questions. They kinda expected you ask a lot of questions too
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Microsoft (Mountain View, CA)
Interview
Very fast process for me, but have heard that it went slow for some others. So varies.
Got a phone screen with some technical questions, then an onsite within a few days, and an offer a few days after that.
The interviews were good, lots of whiteboard coding questions but good questions, nothing stupid. Some basic sanity checks, i.e. very simple questions, some slightly more complicated (e.g. rearranging linked lists). Long day.
If one or two interviewers give a solid thumbs down they often stop the process so they do not waste time, so if the interview is shorter than expected then expect bad news. If you make it to see the hiring manager it is a good sign.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Honestly don't remember, but I was not stuck anywhere so there was nothing too ridiculous. But they do expect you to think of edge cases and test cases, especially for an SDET.