I was contacted by a recruiter.

I had a preliminary 'skills phone interview' where they asked about my experience using specific technology.

I was honest, stating I have 15 years of C++ experience, but less than 6 years in web development and C# front-end.

I was then called in for a day-long interview. I was told I would meet with three people.

After my third interview (lunch), I was taken to meet with two additional people, and then walked to the door.

On the surface, the interview was more or less normal. The interviewers were experienced software developers; some were nice, some grumpy, some arrogant, some sociable, and some not. It seemed normal.

They asked what I was working on, and some questions about my past. I then asked what they were working on. After that, each interviewer asked a technical question, seemingly because they knew they were supposed to, given it was for Microsoft.

The questions were hard, but not as nitpicky as I feared. After working through the problems, I felt I arrived at reasonable solutions. However, I didn't get an offer, so perhaps they didn't feel the same. Honestly, for several of these problems, I would have answered by classifying the algorithm, looking it up on Wikipedia, and then coding.

My last interview with the senior staff member was the worst. He didn't seem very interested in my answers. He asked if I wanted to change any of my answers to previous interviewers, as if there were 'right' and 'wrong' answers, I guess. Was sticking to who I am and what I do best the wrong approach?

He asked if I had any questions, but then provided non-answers to the ones I asked. So, I said I couldn't think of any.

I asked about work-life balance and got the distinct impression that I was way out of bounds.

Now that I think about it, I don't feel really good about the experience. Between all the emailing between interviews, the trading of information, the puzzles, and the trick questions, it felt more like trying out for a game show than a job. I believe these individuals were reducing me to a zero or one (hire/no hire), and their questions were tailored to make their decision. It wasn't about trying to understand who I am and what I could bring to the table. So, did I answer that I prefer references over pointers and am therefore a 'no hire'? Immature at best.

In that regard, it was a bad experience. Be prepared to be underestimated, under-respected, and not seen. After putting yourself out there for this kind of experience, you will inevitably end up feeling like a fool. Why do they use a process like this? One has to wonder about the experience working there if this is the recruitment setup.

One interviewer intimated that they work pretty crazy hours there, so I suspect a big part of the interview was trying to find someone Microsoft could 'own'. Not me, I guess, though the technology was tempting. I would have tried it, I admit.

The recruiter was on time with the no-offer news (5 days), which was the best part about the interview, though I did enjoy talking to a couple of the guys.

It worked out, I guess.

Write code to quantize an image to 256 colors.

Write a routine to assign an optimal 256-color palette to an image.

Write a function that has a variable number of for loops. How to enumerate an arbitrary dimensional set of array indices?