I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
I was referred to a recruiter by a friend who had interned there the previous summer. She contacted me and we set up an in-person interview on my university's campus. The recruiter was great. The interviewer...not so much. He barely introduced himself, and gave no explanation about what he did. We jumped right into a technical question. When I was explaining my answer (and not struggling, mind you) his phone went off and he pulled it out. He then proceeded to RESPOND TO AN EMAIL while I was talking. This was incredibly irritating and rude, but I assumed that he was still listening to what I was saying. Nope, when he was finished he looked up and asked me to repeat what I had just said. Incredibly unprofessional, and terrible interview etiquette.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given 2 LinkedList ListNode pointers, determine if the two lists ever intersect. Building upon that, if they do intersect, at what node. Building on that, what do you do if there is a circle in the list, and can you detect one
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.