This interview was for the AI Cognitive Science org at Microsoft in Sunnyvale.

One recruiter reached out to me, and they recommended the AI Cognitive Science org based on my background. I cleared the online assessment and was told I would be moving to onsite interviews next, but that did not happen.

My first recruiter (Recruiter 1) handed off the process to another recruiter (Recruiter 2). Recruiter 2 informed me that the hiring manager wanted to conduct a phone screen first. The hiring manager procrastinated for two to three weeks before finally agreeing to interview me.

The phone screen interview with the hiring manager went well, and they immediately told me they wanted to move to onsite rounds. However, they cancelled my onsite rounds two days before, for a reason they did not disclose, and asked me to interview in Bellevue instead.

I agreed and traveled to Bellevue for the onsite interviews. On the day of the interviews, I met my second interviewer initially. This interviewer, who was also supposed to conduct the lunch interview, informed me that conference rooms had not been booked for two interviews, which was strange.

I completed my first interview in a temporary conference room. It went well. During my break between the first and second rounds, I was told to remain in the conference room and not roam around. After sitting there for five to ten minutes, ten people showed up for a scrum meeting. Apparently, the team I was interviewing for had not booked conference rooms at all, and they asked me to leave.

I had to spend my break time in the kitchen area. After my break, I informed the second interviewer about what happened. He was smiling, and I felt he knew about the situation but was trying to hide it. The second interview was supposed to be the lunch interview, but he completely forgot about the "lunch" aspect and took me to his workstation to ask whiteboard coding questions. I solved the question and provided an optimal solution.

With twenty minutes left, he suddenly remembered the "lunch" part and essentially told me to finish my lunch in about twenty minutes.

My last interview was a system design interview with the hiring manager. This hiring manager works from Sunnyvale but had called me for onsite interviews in Bellevue. It was extremely strange that they invited me there when they do not have any team members in Bellevue.

Moreover, the hiring manager joined the interview session via audio call and did not show their face. I solved the design question, and the hiring manager said I did a great job overall.

I received an automated rejection one day later. The funniest part of this process was that Recruiter 2 was hiding under the name of "conference" and did not even care to join the prep call, so I never got a chance to speak with Recruiter 2 throughout the entire process.

Even the expense reimbursement amount is less than the approved amount, which does not match what they approved. Clearly, they set me up with a fake interview process when they were not even interested. Such a waste of time! Rude people!

On the other hand, I am glad because I do not want to be part of a team or organization where people are not respected.

LeetCode Medium Questions. Not difficult at all.