I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Mar 2012
Interview
Phone interview with a recruiter on a Thursday, was offered to attend hiring event the next day. Flew out approx 2 weeks after that, with about 10 other people. 1:1 interviews with PMs and PM leads, all design, some behavioral, two brain teasers.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Nov 2011
Interview
I had my first interview on campus and then they invited me to Redmond for second round.
I had four interviews. they ask bunch of behavioral and design questions.
All interviewers were very respectful and professional.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Design a website for Microsoft employees to book Hotels, Tickets, ...
I applied through college or university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2011
Interview
First, I submitted my resume at a career fair and heard back within a few days. The representative was very helpful and scheduled me for an on campus interview about a week later.
The interview was 30 minutes that were split up very methodically. The beginning five to ten minutes were talking about projects I had worked on. Then I was presented a question about how to visually represent graphs. Finally, I was given the opportunity to ask the interviewer questions about Microsoft and their experiences. I heard back within a few days and was told I would be scheduled to go to Seattle in the coming weeks.
I was told to provide dates that I would be free over the course of a month. I sent my available dates and was told that they would not fit since two of the weeks of that month they would be closed and Wednesdays were not available. I wondered why I was not told these constraints originally but sent along new dates which I had to take off during my schools exam week (I was a little annoyed as my classmates who passed the first interview were told they would be interviewing during the next month when we were actually on break).
After the dates were worked out, I was flown to Seattle and had four interviews over the course of the day. They asked me various design questions and I thought the process went great. Unfortunately, I was not offered a position. Nonetheless, the interview process was very streamlined. They paid for my meals, transportation, and lodging during the trip and the reimbursement process was very painless. My only complaint was that I did not receive any indication of where I went wrong during the interviews (I understand why they would not be able to disclose this information).
While I was not offered a position I am hopeful for the future and plan to apply again next year.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Visually represent a graph to a person with no computer science knowledge.