Microsoft

It was about what I was expecting for the interview process. Microsoft scheduled five interview blocks at their campus, with the fifth being "as appropriate." Each interviewer was primarily interested in evaluating how I thought through the problem,

Aptitude matters. Coding matters. Clean coding matters. Approach, more than answer, matters. Sometimes, the problem might just be puzzles. And more than solving, how you think about the solution matters more.

A recruiter contacted me around mid-September. I then had a 5-round onsite interview, plus an additional General Hiring Manager interview a week ago. After that, the recruiter disappeared without providing any update. I will treat this as a reject