I applied through college or university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft in Nov 2010
Interview
Generally the trick with that "design an X" question is not to design anything but to ask the interviewers questions. The trick, such as it is, is to gather requirements as opposed to actually knowing how to design anything. I personally feel it's more of an object lesson rather than an interview question - it's more Socratic than anything else.
Other than that the process is a crap-shoot. If you've read Mt Fuji there's not much left to say. Interviewers are capricious. My only suggestion is that you have the read the interviewer to try to get a sense of what they want. This isn't always possible though as borderline-Aspergers software developers don't exude body language. Kinda the opposite.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a divide-by-3 sequential circuit with 50% duty circle?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bengaluru) in Apr 2012
Interview
I had 5 rounds of interview. The first round is a gate-keeper round, which I cleared to get into a full-day interview process (which have atleast 4 rounds of interview).
The interviews are basically technical - algorithm and data structures.
The difficulty level of the interview keeps increasing, and steeply at times.
The first three rounds are simpler, while the last two rounds are more difficult and are focused on trying to exactly map out the individual's strengths and weaknesses. (I got through the first 4 rounds, but did not clear the last one)
The interviewers are pretty open to giving hints and helping you out in solving the problem.
Apart from the solution itself, I feel that positive approach, openness to reconsider, and think through the solution are also important aspects.
Preparing for the interview with online interview questions helps, but the experience of the interview is truly new. The level of questions can be easily jacked up, so it helps to prepare, but stay calm and actually think in the interview.
I also felt that they need to be re-assured that you enjoy the process of solving, and can actually do this effectively. They also are very keen on accurate self-assessment.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Give the lowest time complexity algorithm for finding out all combinations of numbers a, b, c in an array of integers such that square(c) = square(a) + square(b)
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft in Mar 2012
Interview
Interviewer asked about resume, asked me to describe some of my experiences and what I was looking for, then gave me a technical problem to solve. It wasn't that hard but I was rusty with the concept so I didn't do that well. I asked a few questions about the further interview process then left.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What are you looking to do as far as specific areas of software?