To be honest, the whole process was quite disappointing from all points of view.

I never had a call with a recruiter to discuss the position and was not informed at all about the process and next steps.

It took 8 months to receive an offer.

Recruiters would contact me via email every 3-4 weeks to urgently schedule the next interview within the next 3-5 days. They wouldn't tell me what the interview was about. After each interview, I wouldn't receive any feedback for 3-4 weeks again.

I completed 6 interviews, in this order:

• 3 coding
• 1 SQL
• 1 system design
• 1 culture fit

Interviewers were mostly nice (apart from one checking his phone and arriving 15 minutes late), and the problems were LeetCode medium. The SQL interview didn't go well, as I wasn't prepared at all and wasn't expecting it.

The diversity of interviewers was very low; they were all 40-year-old male principal engineering managers. Plus, I had to do several interviews at 8-9 PM because they were in the USA.

After this super painful and long process, I received an insultingly low offer. After several years (6+) of FAANG experience and a solid interview in system design, I would have never expected to be offered a junior position.

I don't think I'll apply again at Microsoft any time soon.

LeetCode Medium SQL System Design Past experience