I gave my resume to a recruiter at my school's career fair and received an email back. This led to a 30-minute interview at my school's career center.
In the interview, we mostly discussed interests and general data structures concepts. The coding problem involved implementing a linked list. I passed this initial interview and was flown out to Seattle for final round interviews.
The company covers most expenses for the trip and reimburses for the rest, including food and a small stipend for sightseeing, making the trip enjoyable.
On the day of the interviews, everyone gathered at 7:30 am for a quick breakfast in a common area, which included fruit, rolls, and bagels. Approximately 40 other candidates were interviewed during this time. The candidate demographics were roughly 60% female and 40% male, with about 60% Indian, 25% Asian, and 15% Caucasian.
Following breakfast, each candidate participated in four 45-minute interviews, with 15-minute breaks in between. Two interviewers were from one Microsoft team, and the other two were from a different team. Hiring decisions are made independently by each team, meaning it's theoretically possible to receive offers from both teams (or none).
Of the four candidates from my university, we were all interviewed by different teams. The criteria for team assignments remained somewhat unclear to us.
Unfortunately, both teams I interviewed with focused on back-end development. I informed them that my interest lies exclusively in front-end development.
After the interviews, we were taken to another building on campus for lunch. The campus offers numerous dining options and is quite scenic.
Overall, the most memorable aspects were staying at a luxurious hotel and visiting the Space Needle and the large Ferris wheel. However, these were separate from the primary objective of the interviews.
Write an implementation of a linked list with functions for inserting and deleting at specified indexes.
The following metrics were computed from 135 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Engineer role in Seattle, Washington.
Microsoft's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Seattle, Washington is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Engineer interview process in Seattle, Washington.