I had one short interview on campus, and after three months, I received a phone call for a phone interview. I also had to fill out a rather boring and long form asking about my interesting projects.

The first interview was easy, mostly HR-related. Afterward, they sent me an online test with two questions. The first was to implement FIFO using LIFO, and the second was on the lines of selecting random nodes from a tree. The second question was quite tough, but I completed both in one hour, compiled the code, and sent it to them.

Then, they called me for a technical interview, asking the following questions:

• How would you test an application that takes three inputs and draws a triangle? (Black box testing)
• Write a data structure class that works as both a Stack and a Queue. Write test cases for it.
• Write code to reverse a linked list. Write test cases.
• Write code to merge-sort two linked lists (no duplicates). Write test cases.
• Write code to delete all nodes in a linked list that contain odd integer values. Write test cases.
• Write code to delete alternate nodes in a doubly linked list. Write test cases.
• Given "ABC/EF," where would you place the values G, H, and I? (Pattern matching puzzle)
• How will you write a function to merge two sorted arrays, assuming one of them has enough space to hold all the members?

After this, they invited me to Microsoft's EU headquarters in Ireland. It was a pretty basic interview, with five back-to-back interviews. They were all pretty easy, asking questions about C++ internals, pointers, and a few simple algorithms like searching a list, sorting an array, and overloading.

After this (i.e., after about ten interviews in total and one coding test), they proceeded with an offer the next day. Sadly, it was only €30K, an amazingly low offer from such a big company. I discussed growth prospects and expected pay after one and two years with Microsoft HR. It turned out to be pretty basic: €36-37K after the first year and €40-42K after the second.

I had also applied to Accenture, and they offered €42K plus benefits straight away. So, I couldn't believe it, but I had to ditch Microsoft and join Accenture. In the end, I felt that Microsoft wasted so much of my time; it wasn't worth applying for a job there.

My advice is: if you are smart and can make it, join Google. Otherwise, go for the money. There is no prestige in working for MS anymore.

Implement FIFO using LIFO.

LIFO second was on the lines of selecting random nodes from a binary search tree.