I needed to go to Seattle to visit a friend, so I applied online for a Senior Engineer, Android role. At the time, I was unfamiliar with Microsoft ranks and didn't realize that I was grossly underqualified for Senior SDE with only 2.5 years of industry experience. Luckily, they must have realized this and adjusted my application for an SDE II role.

The onsite process was excellent, perhaps even better than Google's, who makes you book your own flight. It was probably second only to Facebook, as they included an excellent breakfast buffet at the hotel I stayed at. The hotel itself was decent, but the breakfasts contained no meats, which was disappointing. I managed to wrangle the flight times to give me an extra couple of days, and they provided me with 2 nights in the hotel and 4 days with the car, which was perfect. I highly recommend it.

The interview itself was really fun. Microsoft's hiring process is a lot more granular than other Big N companies, because you apply for a specific team, and that's the team that interviews you. In this way, it's more important to impress on a social level, because the hiring folks will be working with you directly.

My interviews were more design and theory-focused than normal, but that's not necessarily typical. One thing that stood out to me was that "lunch" was actually the third interview. This really tripped me out because normally you eat lunch with a neutral party. So, I was chatting with my interviewer, and afterwards, he said, "Okay, let's go to my office and do some problems." They pay for your lunch, but be sure not to get the pizzas or grill items because they take way too long. Opt for a soup and some bread, and observe your interviewer's eating pace for cues. This approach also helps you avoid eating too much and becoming sleepy.

What is the relation between a process and an application in Android? This is followed by discussions on inter-process communication (IPC) in Android.