I dropped my resume at the university career fair and received a call for an on-campus interview a couple of weeks later. It was straightforward, with one technical question (Perform a level-wise traversal in a binary tree) and a few HR questions. Another couple of weeks later, I got a call for the on-site interview for the SDET position.

I have to say Microsoft really pampers its candidates and makes a very good first impression. I was flown to Redmond and put up at the Westin. Limos were arranged to pick me up from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to/from the Microsoft campus. It was a day-long affair with four back-to-back interviews, and the recruiters ensured the time between interviews was relaxing, which greatly helped reduce interview stress.

Interview 1 A small coding problem, which wasn't particularly difficult. I was then asked to test a parking garage, ensuring I covered all possible scenarios and test cases. I was quite satisfied at the end of this interview.

Interview 2 This interviewer was young and enthusiastic, but it turned out to be the worst interview of the day for me. We started with test cases for a function, and that went pretty well. Then, he asked me to come up with a method to find anagrams in a dictionary and kept making the requirements and scenarios more complex after each proposed solution. I came very close to the optimal solution, but even then, I felt I took too much time. His feedback was that I should ask more questions about the problem details instead of concentrating directly on solving it. It was a good point to remember, but at the end of the interview, I felt I could have done much better and was a bit disappointed.

Interview 3 This interview actually began while we were walking from the conference room to the interviewer's office. We talked about my interests, why I was interested in Microsoft, etc. Then came the most stressful part. He asked how I would test a toaster that is supposed to toast bread in outer space. An interesting problem, and thanks to the feedback from the second interview, I spent a great deal of time clarifying the conditions under which it would be used, who would use it, etc. I must have come up with around 30-40 cases, but he kept staring as if I was missing something obvious. I guess he wanted to test if I could think under pressure. This went on for about 20-30 minutes. We ended with a small coding exercise, and I was happy with my performance.

Interview 4 I was quite tired by this time, and I think it showed. The interviewer had been with the company for 13 years and was very comforting. He then asked me to test a particular function. We went over many test cases, and once we were done, he asked me to write the code for it. This was fun because I had to ensure my code passed all the test cases I had come up with myself. He helped me a bit along the way, and it went smoothly.

We, the candidates, were then taken for lunch and were free to roam around the campus. I happened to see Steve Ballmer too (he was busy on his phone). I returned to the hotel and slept the whole evening. My flight was the next day morning, and they had provided taxi vouchers to cover the fare.

I got the offer the following week. I was a bit apprehensive since I felt my second interview might have screwed up my chances, but I guess it did not. I accepted it and am now totally looking forward to joining them.

Testing a toaster in space