I interviewed with the Microsoft Azure Team - Hyderabad at their Bangalore location.

Overall, it was a very bad experience.

It was a bulk hiring process where interviewers were flown in from Hyderabad. Approximately 40+ candidates with more than 3 years of experience were called in. Everyone was made to wait, which was very stressful for the candidates due to the long wait times and for the interview panel due to the high number of candidates.

I had two rounds. Each round was less than 30 minutes and quite short. I'm unsure if this was because I provided answers immediately or because the interviewers seemed disinterested.

First Round:

• Tell me about yourself.
• About my current work and job.
• Then, one coding question: Rotate array.

The interviewer asked me to propose a solution first, then optimize it. I mentioned I had encountered this question and knew the optimal solution with O(n) time and O(1) space. He asked me to explain the solution and then code it. Once I completed, he asked me to perform unit testing and state a few test cases, which I did. That was it.

Second Round:

• A few questions about my current work and job.
• One coding question: Clone LL with a random pointer.

I had not encountered this question before and came up with a hashing-based implementation. The interviewer asked me to write it down and then inquired about alternative implementations. I suggested two other methods, all with O(n) extra space, but he was looking for an O(1) extra space solution. I could not provide one and was asked to leave.

Other candidates I spoke with were asked the following questions:

• Implement the singleton design pattern.
• Clone a circular Linked List.

Overall, the interview experience was very bad. I had to wait for more than 7 hours just to have a 30-minute interview. The interviewers did not engage in discussions or problem-solving. Once I solved the given problem, the interview was over. They also seemed disinterested in the entire process. HR coordination was also very poor. Neither interviewer had my resume; they had someone else's, which was irritating.

The major focus was on arrays, Linked Lists, and design patterns.

Rotate array. He asked to propose any solution first, and then optimize it.

Clone LL with random pointer: pointer/