1. 3rd Party Recruiter Call (30 minutes) The recruiters were very knowledgeable about the process and excellent at setting expectations.

2. Codility Online Assessment Test (Timed data structures and algorithm test)

3. Technical Interviews (Three consecutive 45-minute sessions) Two interviews were with team members, and the final interview was with the team lead.

I applied because I've been in tech for a long time and felt I had the experience to join Microsoft.

All the questions were very academic, making it difficult for me to catch up after years of not practicing LeetCode and HackerRank. I don't believe many of my very experienced colleagues could pass the interview rounds either, without dedicating a couple of months to grinding these types of questions first. This is challenging to do while already employed.

Overall, although difficult, the interview process was very fluid, and the interviewers were great, especially the team leads.

Mostly questions from your experience that require STAR answers.

Live coding questions: Medium to Hard. Data structures and algorithms.