I provided my resume to my university's recruiter. I had worked with her in the past for a Microsoft-sponsored student event, so she knew me.

A few weeks later, Microsoft was conducting interviews on my school campus and invited me for what they call "on-campus interviews." This takes the place of a phone screening.

Before the interview, I fill out a form stating what positions I'm interested in:

• SDET
• SDE
• PM

On the day of the interview, you are interviewed by a single person who asks general questions and then questions more specific to your preferred area.

If you pass this phase, you're invited to an interview at Microsoft. You meet with multiple people, generally interviewed by two teams. You go to the office of the person interviewing you and have to answer technical questions and do whiteboard programming.

At each stage, the interviewer can choose to send you home, but if they don't, you're eventually interviewed by the fifth and final person, the hiring manager, who has the final say in whether you get an offer or not.

It took several months before my last interview before I heard that I was going to be getting an offer. This was unusual compared to my friends' experiences.

How would you design a CD player?

Specifically, what UI choices would you make?

And then how would you test it?