The interview process is very long and depends on various teams. Some teams give a Codility test as a first round, while others have a telephonic interview as the first round.

I had a telephonic interview as the first round, lasting 30 minutes. It was standard, asking banking questions on multithreading and concurrency, along with some problem-solving questions.

The next round was a face-to-face interview. I had heard so much about MS, and perhaps I was expecting too much. I went to their office, which was like any other banking office: cubicles stuffed with people (not laughing, smiling, or talking to anyone, mostly on calls). Overall, it was very dull, depressing, and monotonous.

Then started the 4-hour-long interview. I knew this was their standard process, so I ate my lunch properly beforehand, because during these 4 hours, you will not get a break.

I found it really annoying that MS, being such a big giant and brand label, should be more courteous to candidates. Frankly, they should change this torturous interview process. I was offered coffee and water, but I still feel some light snacks should be provided.

My interview was conducted by three people. The first round was okay, the second round was bad. There was a coding exercise which I was not able to do. In fact, I knew at that particular moment that I was going to be rejected. However, there were two more rounds, and in the end, I was rejected.

Ideally, they should have sent me home after the second round and not wasted their time or mine.

By the end of the last round, I was so exhausted that I didn't even care to answer any further questions; I just wanted to leave.

I would highly recommend changing this interview pattern. I usually prefer taking a break after every 2 hours, and a 4-hour-long interview is a complete no-no.

Also, they made me write code on a notepad, which I find very irritating. When you write code in Eclipse or IntelliJ, you get used to the shortcuts, and your programming style changes. If you make a mistake, you can debug and resolve it. It's stupid to write code on Notepad unless you are expecting a candidate to be a Java compiler and debugger themselves.

Overall, the questions were easy, but my preparation was not very good. Questions covered memory leaks, multithreading, some string programming, and concurrency.