I had a pretty basic technical phone screen, followed by an on-site interview with four rounds.

For the on-site, three of the interviews were a mix of technical and behavioral questions, and the final one was purely behavioral with an engineering manager. All my interviewers were kind, and I had a comfortable experience for the most part.

I was fortunate enough to receive an offer as an SDE level 60. Prior to extending the formal offer, they asked about my compensation expectations. Although my request was on the higher end, I was told that they were going to “try to get as close to that number as possible”. However, the offer they ended up making was a complete low-ball, as the base salary was much lower than what I’m currently making and the TC was over $70k less than what I had asked for. The TC package as a whole was simply not competitive for my skill level or the industry.

I attempted to negotiate this by asking for an increase in the base salary, as I value having a guaranteed income and wanted this number to be higher than what I was currently making. They claimed the offer was “final” as given, which really threw me off. It was extremely surprising that they outright refused to negotiate, since the offer didn’t make financial sense to me. I had to turn it down as a result, and was told that the offer would be attached to my name for the next 6 months should I go through the interview process and land a level 60 role again. Like, what?! The reason I turned it down was because the offer was bad in the first place! It seemed a little vindictive to me…

Upon doing a bit more research, it appears that some folks have shared similar experiences with their Microsoft interview processes on Blind, DESPITE having competing offers at the same time. It’s pretty clear to me that Microsoft has absolutely no incentive or regard for what candidates are looking for. The arrogance of a company to basically say “if you want this job, it has to be COMPLETELY on our terms. We are not willing to come to a middle ground for you” doesn’t bode well for future employment with them. If they weren’t willing to work with me here, why would I trust them to support me while I’m on the job? The nicest they were ever going to be to me was while they were coaxing me into taking the job, so I wouldn’t put it past them to potentially pull other things if I’d accepted (giving me bonuses on the lower ends of the possible ranges, rescinding the offer after I accept + give my two weeks’ notice, etc).

Overall, I was very disappointed with the outcome of this interview process, as I was initially very excited about the prospect of working there. This interview process was a great experience for me, but I would not waste my time with them again.

Phone screen:

• Leetcode-style question, followed by theoretical questions about maps.

Onsite:

• LC Medium question, designing a buffer system, maze traversal, and standard behavioral questions.