There were two rounds. The first was an online coding assessment, and the second consisted of on-site/virtual Zoom meetings, which included four individual rounds.

I have signed an NDA, so I won't be discussing the specific questions. However, they were typical LeetCode medium-easy level. This is my second time reaching the final rounds at Microsoft. My first experience was very smooth, and the interviewers were amazing. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for one of the interviewers this time around.

Second Round

1st Interview: Two questions were asked, both of which were easy. I produced a working solution for both.

2nd Interview: I have conducted many interviews before, and this one ranks among the worst for me, both in terms of my performance and the interviewer. The question was easy to understand, and I had a clear alternative method in mind. However, the interviewer was adamant about using his data structure, which I struggled to comprehend. We spent around 20 minutes discussing the pros and cons of using his approach versus mine, leaving me with only 25 minutes. The interviewer eventually allowed me to proceed with my solution but stopped me midway to insist on his again. This was both distracting and difficult, as it broke my chain of thought.

While I respect that the interviewer has long tenure at the company, their interview style was completely unacceptable. I have always dreamt of working for Microsoft, a childhood aspiration, but this experience was very disappointing and has made me question my decision.

3rd Interview: Two questions were asked, both falling on the medium spectrum of difficulty. I received some good feedback from the interviewer and provided a working solution for both problems.

4th Interview: This interview covered basic OOPS concepts and another coding question, which was easy in difficulty. I managed to produce a working solution for this one in the final moments.

Interviews 1, 3, and 4 were very pleasant experiences, consistent with my interviews at other companies.

Overall, I produced a working solution for five out of six questions but was still rejected. I will definitely take this as a learning experience and move forward to join another company.

Signed an NDA. I wish I could help other aspirants like me. I would say follow all the medium questions on LeetCode and practice a lot of string and int array questions.

A little bit of Binary Tree and Recursion is also important.