Only had 4 interviews onsite myself. I thought we weren't supposed to talk about this process though... ~_~
They didn't make me sign an NDA like some of the other companies I am looking at, but I don't think Microsoft appreciates this, considering there are at least 2 more weeks left in the main fall recruitment season.

Also pretty sure that if a Microsoft employee finds this OP they can quickly figure out who you are and send you angry emails.

Heyoka

Katowice25012 Posts

November 10 2011 08:04 GMT

#22

Sick read, thanks for sharing your experience.

Imbu

United States903 Posts

November 10 2011 08:04 GMT

#23

First off... Congrats!

All of those interviews seem quite extensive, getting me ab it scared for when I have to actually start looking...

And best of luck with the job, your writing was highly enjoyable.

Zirith

Canada403 Posts

November 10 2011 08:18 GMT

#24

Interview Four

This interview didn't go terribly well. She started off asking me why I would like to work for Microsoft. Some more questions like why I would like to be a tester, and then we moved on to the coding part. I about shit myself. She wanted me to write code to perform an O(nlogn) sorting algorithm for integers in a binary tree. I just couldn't do it. I asked questions but she seemed like she didn't really want to help me. It seemed almost as if she just thought of the interview question a couple minutes before, because maybe some of you won't agree, but I feel like this was a bit much for a whiteboard interview question.

I basically just gave up. She seemed sort of okay with that, and we just say down and continued to talk. She asked me about the basic things to test, like functionality, security, performance, scalability, etc. I gave her answers but I felt defeated. That wrapped up this interview.

Bubble up bubble down man! That was so a second year algorithms question. lol

Golgotha

Korea (South)8418 Posts

November 10 2011 08:22 GMT

#25

gratz man. holy cow i cant believe they give so many interviews. im so used to just having to do one. but then again it is MICROSOFT! WOOOT U GOT IN!

moltenlead

Canada866 Posts

November 10 2011 08:22 GMT

#26

5/5. Great read, really informative.

JeffJohnson

Germany62 Posts

November 10 2011 08:24 GMT

#27

thanks for this great report :-)
It would be nice if you would also write down your experience at google :-)

Ashes

United States362 Posts

November 10 2011 08:29 GMT

#28

Hey Good Luck!! Btw if you come across a guy called Guillermo Calderon Meza at Microsoft, say Hi to him. He was my mentor during my PhD

JeffJohnson

Germany62 Posts

November 10 2011 08:30 GMT

#29

On November 10 2011 17:18 Zirith wrote:

Show nested quote +

Bubble up bubble down man! That was so a second year algorithms question. lol

I dont think bubblesort is a tree-sort algorithm.
You would need a balanced tree, eg a red-black tree?

Daikas

United States118 Posts

November 10 2011 08:30 GMT

#30

I am a CE major and reading this has been insightful, as I realize how much experience I lack and skills that I was not taught during my college career. Being rejected after interviewing for GE last August has made me delay applying to other jobs and consider pursuing graduate school instead. I don't doubt my own skills in being able to learn and do work, but all these questions they expect me to know (not that they're over-demanding, but I should have been taught / have learned) hinder my chances of being offered a position with many companies.

Congrats on your success tho dood, way to be a baller!

Mirosuu

England283 Posts

November 10 2011 08:31 GMT

#31

My girlfriends brother works at the Redmond campus for Microsoft and I myself applied to Microsoft just last week, and even though I met all of the grade requirements for an interview, they declined me an interview.

I visited the campus in Redmond in the summer and it is an awesome campus. We got treated really well whilst walking around the place, getting free soda's and an awesome food court with plenty of selection. Plus some cool insights into the offices of the people who make the products we all see on our computers in a few years.

Great read! :D

TheDemigod

Australia79 Posts

November 10 2011 08:33 GMT

#32

Awesome read! Read it all and can't believe I did lol. So I take it you were going in as QA for their coding? Was super interesting

Also, congratu-fucking-lations!

Sigrun

United States1654 Posts

November 10 2011 08:34 GMT

#33

Great write-up. Congrats on getting the offer!

Gummy

United States2180 Posts

November 10 2011 08:34 GMT

#34

On November 10 2011 17:30 JeffJohnson wrote:

Show nested quote +

I dont think bubblesort is a tree-sort algorithm.
You would need a balanced tree, eg a red-black tree?

Heapify in nlogn read em off in 1.

Exempt.

United States470 Posts

November 10 2011 08:35 GMT

#35

How interesting, great read. I am going into tree structures right now, I guess I'll study them hard.

ulan-bat

China403 Posts

November 10 2011 08:50 GMT

#36

On November 10 2011 17:35 Exempt. wrote:
How interesting, great read. I am going into tree structures right now, I guess I'll study them hard.

99% of the time you won't design any sorting yourself. Any good language will have data structures and sorting ready for you.
If after years of experience you finally need to do complex sorting by hand you'll always have internet.
I guess the interviewers can't answer the questions properly anyway. Developpers need a brain and internet, not memory ^^

JerKy

Korea (South)3013 Posts

November 10 2011 08:50 GMT

#37

My dad lives really close to the site, been there once, was a really nice place
Congrats!

Mithriel

Netherlands2969 Posts

November 10 2011 08:51 GMT

#38

Nice read and congratulations on getting a microsoft offer.

Good luck at the google interview!

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51480 Posts

November 10 2011 08:52 GMT

#39

Microsoft! Doing things properly :D

Seriously, dont go to Google when Microsoft just offered you a job!! Bill might give you the company one day!! Moneys $_$