Referred by a friend.

Took a standard coding question over the phone.

Had a two-day on-site interview:

• One day for HR only.
• One day for technical interviews.

There were two technical interviews, followed by a lunch. Afterward, I was told, "You'd better begone."

I was very unlucky. I know senior guys at Microsoft tend to ask puzzles, and I met a senior like this. Furthermore, he was in a VERY BAD MOOD. Was it because it was Friday? My current job was described as a "baby game" for him. He kept yelling, "Why do you NOT know this Windows system function? Why do you NOT answer my question in the way I like?" He explained his work with a stupid pride.

Overall, my background did not match. It was a complete waste of time. But it is my fault in the first place. I should not have even applied, being a pure Linux application developer and a Windows-hater.

More sadly, all the technical questions on the first five pages of Glassdoor's Microsoft interview section were not asked. So, it was hard to know how to prepare.

Write 4 locker functions:

• acquire_read_lock
• acquire_write_lock
• release_read_lock
• release_write_lock

Use Windows-specific helper functions.

Here's one more brain-teasing puzzle.