Read Solved Interview Questions !
Strange Microsoft Behaviour
So after my a few days of my on-campus interview. I contacted the recruiter twice with no response when suddenly a third guy called Kellen emailed me the usual sugar-wrapped rejection that "I wasn't a good fit and that they were pursuing other candidates at the moment". However strange things happen at Microsoft. Around start of Feburary I get a mass email from the same guy that they would be calling us for a second round in mid Feburary. One thing that always pay-off is being persistent. I was not to hear from them for the next two months until April but I kept emailing Kellen politely about the progress on scheduling the 2nd rounds. She/He got to know me sort of personally over the email and finally flew me in for on-site interviews at the end of April. Here's the even more interesting part, another girl in my department had also received the mass email from Feb but she didn't bother to contact the recruiter and hence never got an invite.
It doesn't end here. Once I got to know that a specific Microsoft recruiter was recruiting from my undergraduate university and we were suppose to email our resume on her email address. The initial response was to fill a questionairre followed by a phone interview. I emailed my resume twice on the email address but never heard back. I simply then took the questionairre from my friend, filled it with my own answers and sent it out to the recruiter. What do you know,I was a few days later phone-interviewed and then flown out to Dubai for a final interview. I didn't get in that time even though my interviews were no less setllar than the ones on which I got a job offer.
So the moral of the story is that recruiters are after all humans prone to mistakes and susceptible to emotions so try being persistent in a polite manner. One thing more, I interviewed on campus for a PM position. I was invited on-site for SDE position interview and when I actually reached there I was told I was interviewing for SDET position.
On-site Interview
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The microsoft interview logistics were very smooth and very well coordinated. I put me up at the Hilton Hotel and a basket of goodies awaited me as I entered the hotel room with a card reading good wishes for my interview on behalf of the Microsoft team. Microsoft gives generous amounts of meal and transportation reimbursements compared to Google. |
 Hilton hotel room |
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The next day I took a cab to building#19 at Microsoft Campus. I was greeted by a couple of desk receptionists who were not too friendly. This a room with free drinks and snacks. There was also a surface computing soccer game being player by other candidates who were sitting around a flat screen which resembled a table. Next my recruiter came in and chatted to me for a while and then sent me off to another building in an electric car which was labelled recruiting and painted green and white. These car rides were being run by Microsoft itself. We were also given a lunch coupen worth $50 and a paper with the details of how the day would progress.
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Here is one very important caveat I need to give to all of you. Always heed your recruiter's advise on interview preparation with a grain of salt. When the first time I was invited to Dubai for Microsoft interview I was given a long list of books to read from in preparation for the interview. The list was so long that I quit my job just to complete reading every book mentioned and guess what I was asked ABSOLUTELY nothing from the books I read. This time the recruiter sent me an email for interview prep and I did just the opposite. I am pasting the excerpt here:
Problem Solving Questions - These probably won't be the "old school Microsoft" problem solving questions (i.e. How to Move Mount Fuji http://www.jsharf.com/bookReviews/Default.aspx?bookId=14), but they will test you on how well you think about the problem being presented. Often it is not the answer that you give but your THOUGHT PROCESS and reasoning that interviewers are testing. We are fully aware that sometimes you will answer a question well and other times you may struggle in answering, that's okay, we are looking at how you think as much if you can answer the problem correctly.
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Notice the words in red that they won't be testing "old school" questions. This is entirely false. Thank God I had read the book before leaving and I got asked a couple of questions OUT OF THIS VERY BOOK in the interviews ! For your convienience I am uploading a soft version of this book for downloads. Make sure you read this book before you head for your interview! |
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