I interviewed at Microsoft.

On the surface, the process seemed very organized. They scheduled a day of interviews with three technical interviews, each lasting 75 minutes, with a 45-minute break in between.

The first interview was a problem-solving session where I was given two questions to answer—one easy and one medium—similar to LeetCode-style questions.

The second interview focused on system design and was conducted with a team manager. In this interview, I was asked system design questions as well as a medium-level LeetCode question, which I found manageable but would be considered hard by LeetCode standards.

The final interview was about OOP and low-level design.

I believe the first two interviews went reasonably well. The second one, with the team manager, exceeded expectations. In those two interviews, the interviewers showed enthusiasm and kept asking me additional questions, all of which I answered.

The third interview, however, was about designing a Sudoku system. Embarrassingly, the interviewer didn’t even know the rules of the game, and I had to correct her, explaining that Sudoku always has a single solution, not multiple solutions as she claimed.

The way she phrased her question was very confusing, and she wasn’t happy that I didn’t align perfectly with her intended design. After about 15 minutes of debate and her checking online, she admitted I was right about Sudoku having only one solution. Still, it didn’t seem to be enough for me to pass the interview.

Three days later, Microsoft called to say there were "gaps" and that they wanted me to do one additional technical interview, which wasn’t part of the original plan. I agreed.

In this follow-up interview, I spoke with another manager who asked me three questions: one about some pseudo-code designed to assess my technical knowledge, and two LeetCode-style questions. I answered all of them successfully.

So, was it enough for Microsoft that I answered all the questions to address the “gaps”? Apparently not. They said it wasn’t sufficient—despite my having answered everything. Fine. Sorry I wasted my time.

One interview about Sudoku, where the interviewer didn’t even know what she was asking about—so unprofessional. Then, a follow-up interview to fill “gaps” where I answered everything correctly but still didn’t pass? Why did you even invite me to waste my time on this follow-up interview? It feels like I never had a real chance to begin with. Answering all the questions wasn’t enough? A waste of time and a frustrating experience. This company thinks far too highly of itself.

LeetCode problems:

• Trap Rain Water
• Longest Path in Binary Tree
• Sudoku Solver
• Matrix Maze with Obstacles
• Reverse Text

Design questions:

• Low-level design of Sudoku
• High-level design of a video streaming service

Other:

• Analyzing simple code.