Heard back roughly a month after applying. Their process was:

1. Screening call with recruiter (behavioural)
2. Hiring manager call (technical)
3. 1 day onsite with 8 interviews, including a 1 hour presentation about myself.
4. 1 day onsite for a trial project.

I completed steps 1-2 and the interviewers were friendly. However, when I found out that they wanted me to take 2 days off + effectively 1 extra day for preparation, I declined to proceed. The team they were hiring for was very senior and working on one of MS's most popular products, so I understand that they wanted to be selective, but to me this felt excessive.

Explain the benefits of speculative decoding.