I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bellevue, WA) in Jan 2011
Interview
A colleague at MS referred me. I did a brief phone interview and then I spent an entire day at the Bravern office being interviewed by several people as well as having lunch. I thought I did well in all the interviews except for one interview about databases. The interviewer asked me several questions about database theory. I wasn't applying for a DBA job and wasn't aware that the "software developer" job would require extensive knowledge of database theory. At that point the interviewer seemed to assume that I didn't know anything about databases and instead we just talked about agile practices.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The database interviewer started asking me questions like "why do you normalize" and "what are the different types of normalization"? I've worked with MySQL and SQL Server a fair amount, and I learned about normalization in a university course but couldn't talk about things like Boyce Codd Normal Form off the top of my head.
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.