• Applied for the DevDiv role on their careers page on November 12, 2023.
• Did not receive an Online Assessment (OA) until late January 2024.
• Had to solve two LeetCode-style questions of medium-high difficulty in under 60 minutes, using coding and testing best practices.
• Passed the OA and then scheduled for the virtual final round of interviews just a couple of weeks later.
• Completed four 45-minute interviews using Teams, with breaks in between. All interviews included behavioral questions, followed by a medium-level LeetCode-style coding question on Codility, and concluded with an opportunity to ask questions. I struggled with only one coding question.
• A few days later, the recruiter provided positive feedback and a verbal offer. They then scheduled an "Intro call" with the hiring manager, stating it was not an interview.
• The following day, I spoke with the hiring manager over Teams. They reiterated that the call was not an interview and was solely an opportunity to ask more questions about onboarding and the team.
• A few days later, the recruiter informed me that the hiring manager had selected another candidate. I suspect I was misled, and the "Intro call" was treated as an interview for which I may not have prepared sufficiently.
• The recruiter then stated they would find another hiring manager to facilitate the offer, as I had already passed the most challenging part, referring to the four final interviews.

**** Transferred to a different job role ****

• One month later, I was scheduled for a chat with a different hiring manager who found my resume interesting. This turned out to be a full interview, including behavioral questions and one LeetCode coding challenge.
• I passed and was assigned a new recruiter, who informed me that I needed to apply to a different job posting.
• Subsequently, I was scheduled for another final round of four 60-minute interviews. When I inquired about the repetition, I was told the new set was intended for candidates at a higher career stage.
• The first interview was a coding challenge testing recursion and dynamic programming, which I performed very well on.
• The second interview was behavioral, and I believe I did acceptably.
• The third interview involved designing and implementing a solution to a problem requiring a Trie. I successfully solved it, and the interviewer agreed, but I had to fix compile errors before the time ran out.
• The final interviewer had me code a function to multiply two numbers without using the multiplication operator and then presented a math-related brain teaser question. I was required to code in the Teams chat box instead of Codility. The interviewer was not collaborative and seemed rigid. I solved the coding question but struggled with the brain teaser. This was one of the worst interviewers I have encountered.
• A few days later, the recruiter called to inquire about the interviews and stated that feedback would be provided within one week.
• Several weeks passed. I emailed the recruiter for feedback, but they never responded.
• I checked the job status on the careers page and saw that I was not selected.

Overall, this was one of the most negative interview experiences I have had, characterized by inconsistent communication and scheduling. Half of the interviewers were excellent, while the other half were uncollaborative and appeared to simply follow a script without genuine interest in the candidate.

Implement a function or method to multiply two integers without using the multiply operator.