Applied through a referral and the Microsoft careers page. I was shortlisted for the next stage, followed by a structured interview process. The process typically includes:

• An initial screening
• Technical interviews (coding, problem-solving, and system design)
• Behavioral rounds to assess skills, experience, and cultural fit.

1. How would you find the longest increasing subsequence with a difference of 1?

2. Can you write code to detect a cycle in a directed graph?

3. How would you design a URL shortening service like Bitly?

4. What's your approach to designing a scalable chat application?

5. Share an example of resolving a technical challenge effectively.