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EDIT: Google blog can be found here.
My previous blog post details a bit of the process of getting up to this point, so check that out if you need a little context.
Anyway, I went to Microsoft's Redmond campus this last Sunday (Nov. 6, 2011) and it was quite the experience. This is how it unfolded.
Getting there
So the process was all really quite easy. Microsoft will send you an e-mail asking you to fill out a few dates when it's convenient to have the interview date. Eventually they'll select one, or one close to it. You tell them what day you want to fly out and come back, and preferred times, and they'll get you a ticket. You also let them know if you want a rental or a taxi, and if you need a hotel. I needed the hotel and decided to go with the rental car.
That's pretty much it. You eventually get an e-mail with a confirmation number for your flights and more rental car information. So like I said it's quite easy.
I had a layover in Salt Lake City, which wasn't so bad because looking out the tiny airplane windows at the expanse below, I realized I had never seen a mountain before (having lived in Texas all my life) and Utah had them in spades. I kind of decided right then that regardless of what happened with Microsoft, I was going to have a good time.
In Seattle
I arrived in Seattle at about 6:00 p.m., which thanks to daylight savings time means it was pitch black outside. I haven't really kept up with my driving skills in college, so the thought of driving in a city that was not only new to me, but also in the dark, scared the shit out of me.
I picked up my rental (a nice little Kia Forte) from the airport, and loaded up my carry-on in the trunk. I pulled my GPS out of my bag and for the fucking life of me I couldn't find the bit that suctions the back of the GPS to the window. I knew I had packed it but I figured maybe I dropped it. This frustrated me, so I wasn't thinking very clearly. I plugged in the GPS and punched in the address to the hotel. Of course, being in a parking garage, there was no signal. I decided to just get on the highway and hope it picked up the signal along the way. Bad choice.
Because I was frustrated and wasn't thinking clearly, the thought of adjusting the mirrors didn't occur to me, and I realized that I was pretty much blind along the highway. Not only this, I didn't know where I was, nor where I was going. I just knew in a general sense that the airport was south of Seattle, and Redmond was east of Seattle. So I just kinda went north.
Having been driving for a few minutes, I figured it would be a good idea to maybe restart the GPS to see if it would pick up a signal better. Again, this was a mistake. Fumbling with the thing led me to drift out of my lane a little bit in just a matter of a second, and when I looked back up, I overcorrected and almost lost control of my little car. 5 minutes away from the rental car agency on my first day. I decided it would be best to pull over to catch my breath and pick up all my marbles.
I pulled into a gas station parking lot and adjusted my mirrors, waited for the GPS to acquire a signal (finally) and called my girlfriend to calm down a bit.
The Hotel
I arrived at the hotel later that night, and let me tell you, Microsoft spares no expense. I had a king-sized room in a Marriott, which was located in the middle of a little mall. They also give you a very generous daily stipend at the hotel for food. I had salmon and key lime pie that night at the hotel restaurant. Everything's billed straight to the room (i.e. Microsoft), so you just sign the bill and it's all good. It wasn't until I finished eating that I realized how absolutely strung out I was. 6 hours of flying on top of almost dying in a car accident left me a little red-eyed and ready to sleep.
The next morning I woke up at about 6. My interview was at 9, so I wanted to have a lot of time to eat and get everything in order. I had a huge plate of breakfast delivered to my room at 6:15, ate, showered, and dressed. By this time I was on autopilot a bit. It was only when I got downstairs did I start to get a bit shaky.
On Campus
Once I left the hotel I finally got to see Redmond. The night before had been so dark I was vaguely aware of trees but hadn't seen them. In the morning light though, I got a better look and was absolutely astounded. In Texas, we have pretty boring trees, made even more boring by the recent drought and fires. But you fuckers in Seattle have it lucky. I decided then that I was going to have a good day no matter what.
I arrived at the campus about 45 minutes early and found my way to building 111, which I would learn is the recruiting building. There were at least a couple dozen parking spots labeled specifically for interview candidates, only a handful of which had been filled at this point. I headed inside to meet maybe 10 other candidates. After some basic paperwork, we were shown a lounge, where everyone had gravitated to a Microsoft Surface. This is basically a table with a huge touch screen built in probably 3 feet by 2 feet (I don't know I didn't measure it), where you can play different games and presumably do other shit, but I was interested in da gaemz. Here I met a few other candidates, we shot the shit, and played some random tower defense game on the Surface, a racing game, and chess. There were probably other things to do but I was fascinated by the Surface.
A few moves into chess, I was called on by my recruiter. He was very personable and noticed that I had brought along A Game of Thrones, so he made small talk about some of the characters and really helped to break the ice. He briefed me on how the day would go, told me that I was interviewing with the Commerce team, and asked me to clarify some of the answers I had made in an e-mail (primarily what would be key factors in me choosing a job). He also gave me a lot of hints as to kinds of questions to ask to help get information dealing with these "key factors" I had listed. He gave me a business card with the name of my first interviewer, and the building.
Interview One
This is when shit went down. Or at least that's what I worried about. The first guy was actually really easy to talk to, and the first 10 minutes we just talked about hiking and other things completely unrelated to what was at hand. This really helped me get comfortable. Really general questions just about me, why I got into CS, and what interested me about testing. This led to one of those questions like "how would you test this real world item?" I thought I did okay. It's pretty hard to judge if you're spending too much time on small details or if you're doing just what they want you to.
What followed was a pretty cool linked-list problem. Since we were running out of time he didn't want me to code it, just give the algorithm. I was able to come to an answer fairly quickly, maybe just by blind luck, but he seemed impressed and told me that nobody had gotten it that quickly before. I basically felt like I couldn't lose at that point. Time was up and I moved on to my next interview.
Interview Two
Another pleasant interview. She asked about past projects, and I gave her some details of a big project I worked on in my Software Engineering class here at UT. She proceeded to ask me a couple questions. The first was not too bad, and because I had gone into so much detail explaining my algorithm, she seemed confident that coding it would be trivial so we moved on to the second. It was a little bit challenging at first, but through a little bit of software design work I was able to work through it. I started to lose confidence here, thinking that my solution was probably too complicated, although it was correct. This finished my second interview and I was on to the third.
Interview Three
This was a two-part interview with the same person. The first bit was going out to lunch at one of the campus diners. The food was surprisingly expensive, but it was also very, very good. I had a grilled Italian sandwich and tomato basil soup and that was probably about 8 bucks. But it was free anyway because I got a meal card. While we were eating lunch, I asked my third interviewer to be a bit more specific about the responsibilities of my job, about the team I would be working on, and what it was like to be a tester in general. That gave me some time to eat before he started hammering me with questions right back. I explained a bit about some more of my projects and he asked me to explain how I would test a car's braking system.
The second part involved going back to his office and answering another linked list question. This one had me really stumped, and I don't know if it was the problem so much as the fact that I was starting to get fatigued. With a lot of help and standing around feeling stupid, I finally arrived at a conclusion but all my confidence was shot.
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. The question involved writing a sorting algorithm from scratch. 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.
Interview Five
My interviewer this time was a hiring manager, and I think he was told that I was pretty much worn the fuck out so he just took me over to a different building and I drank a cup of water and talked about things I liked to do. I mentioned that later that day I was going to meet up with some of the guys from the Microsoft's AHGL team (woot!) and he asked me a bit about Starcraft, and I mostly just explained how it evolved into a spectating experience for me. No tough questions, no code, just catching my breath a bit.
Interview Six
This was the final interview. The guy that actually had a bit more weight behind him as far as putting a number on my head and whose opinion was a little bit more regarded. He seemed like a really personable guy and was pleasant to talk to. He mentioned that he was reading the Steve Jobs Biography, and we talked a bit about the difference between Microsoft, Google, and Apple in general, and how the market was constantly shifting from enterprise sector to consumer sector.
Then the conversation turned to more pressing matters. He began by asking me to describe the details of this big project that I did in college. How all the classes intermingled and such. I feel like I did a pretty poor job, mostly because it was last semester and my memory was failing me pretty hard. This led into the standard "2 strengths, 2 weaknesses" question, and he asked me to elaborate a bit more about the weaknesses and how I was trying to overcome them.
Next we had a coding question. It was another tree, and I hate trees. But the question wasn't awful and I quite enjoyed it as just an algorithmic approach. He wanted production-quality Java code though, so I had to be careful to capture all of the corner cases and possible pitfalls of my algorithm, but I ended up giving a nice answer that covered everything.
Wrapping Up
I took a shuttle back to the recruiting building where I met up with my recruiter again. He asked me to recap how the day went and how I felt about things, how I felt about Microsoft afterwards, and because he knew I have an upcoming interview with Google, what the strong parts of each company are. Pretty short and I was in a bit of a rush, because I had set up dinner to hang out with some members of the Microsoft AHGL team.
Dinner with AHGL guys
I met for dinner with about 5 other guys who play Starcraft and work at MS, including MegumixBear, Cowsrule, and Bey from the Microsoft AHGL team. I was mostly pretty quiet because of how exhausted I was, but regardless the Thai food was very good and the guys were all very nice, so I certainly appreciate that.
Went home, slept, and other shit happened
Yeah I have already written an over 2,000 word essay already, and I am starting to get pretty exhausted. These details are not at all important, as I know most of you guys just wanted to hear about the interview process. I might come back and edit this bit for more closure later.
However...
All-in-all I thought very highly of the Microsoft interviewing process. It was certainly rigorous, but Microsoft has made it enjoyable by being very accommodating (hotel, food, rental, flights, everything). I did not feel confident at all about the interviews, mostly because of interview 3 and 4. But I still had a bit of hope. I got home at about 10:30 p.m. yesterday, suuuper exhausted from traveling. But laying in my inbox was a little ray of sunshine. My recruiter had gotten back to me. He said the group had very quickly decided that I was Microsoft material, and that they would like to extend me an offer.
I received the offer information over the phone earlier today, and I'm still actually reeling from everything. I don't know if my brain has fully processed it all, but that's okay. That's a burden I'm willing to endure.
EDIT: I would like to mention that I haven't accepted anything as of yet. I still am going to interview with Google. It won't be this week, like I thought, but some time next week.
(2600 words according to MS word. Wow, wtf was I thinking.)
 
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Congratulations. And this looks like an awesome blog. Just skimmed through it now, will definitely read it later (I'm a CS student myself).
Thank you for sharing.
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The first thing I thought of was... Megumi works at microsoft? wtf!
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On November 10 2011 15:40 minus_human wrote:
Congratulations. And this looks like an awesome blog. Just skimmed through it now, will definitely read it later (I'm a CS student myself).
Thank you for sharing.
You're welcome. Thank you for reading.  How far into the degree are you?
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On November 10 2011 15:40 Xeris wrote:
The first thing I thought of was... Megumi works at microsoft? wtf!
Some creepy guy uses the name
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Congrats, sounds like the CS program over at Texas is really good, I would have probably shat out at interview 1 and I was a CS major myself.
I personally hate test/interview questions involving writing code since you don't get any resources to use. Whenever I coded I always had a book and an internet browser open next to me, maybe I'm just a bad coder though =/
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Hey, cool of you to share.
I'm not sure I read your previous blog post too thoroughly, and I was just wondering what your specialization was. Seems like you're mostly into software engineering?
Good luck (not that you seem to need it) for Google.
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Congrats, man. I have a family member that works for Microsoft, and she said that while they do make you work a shit ton they reward you very well. Not to mention that there is a fucking mall inside as well as basketball courts and baseball courts outside. However, I have heard that they serve steak for lunch at google, so...
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Wow, amazing read for someone about to start doing this stuff, but maybe not at your level...yet. Thanks a bunch for sharing. Time to panic for my first interviews now.
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Wow shit 6 interviews that would be fucking stressful, exhausting, nerve wracking, everything combined. But congratulations on having the offer
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Osaka27140 Posts
Spotlighted. I've read the "How would you move Mt. Fuji" book about the problems they ask, but I enjoyed reading your personal experience too. I don't know if he still works there, but Insane worked at Microsoft for a while if you want someone else there to PM.
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As a Seattle native, yes we fuckers do have it pretty good there. I miss the rain though while im at school in cali 
Congrats btw
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Congrats!! I'll be going there in a little over 2 weeks for my interviews. So nervous....
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sickk. Any time you started talking about linked-list problems and coding trees I was really lost, but it was really an enjoyable read. Good job with everything!
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On November 10 2011 15:49 DeckOneBell wrote:
Hey, cool of you to share.
I'm not sure I read your previous blog post too thoroughly, and I was just wondering what your specialization was. Seems like you're mostly into software engineering?
Good luck (not that you seem to need it) for Google.
I actually don't have a specialization. They're starting to branch the CS program at UT out just as I'm leaving, so that it includes branches for software engineering, AI, theory, etc. I don't know what the branches are though. I have taken a lot of classes though to make myself more marketable as a software engineer, so maybe that's what I am.
And thanks for the luck. I do actually need it and I'll take all I can get. 
On November 10 2011 16:12 Manifesto7 wrote:
Spotlighted. I've read the "How would you move Mt. Fuji" book about the problems they ask, but I enjoyed reading your personal experience too. I don't know if he still works there, but Insane worked at Microsoft for a while if you want someone else there to PM.
Insane is actually MegumixBear from AHGL, so he's one of the guys I met at the Thai restaurant. And thanks for the spotlight!
As some advice for everybody, as something I've said before in my previous blog post, be fucking comfortable. Joke around some, and don't be too afraid to let the conversation wander a little bit, if it's engaging and you think you're a fairly good communicator. It's easy to get nervous and forget that these are people too, and some of them are not only judging you from a technical standpoint, but as someone they may have to work with for the years to come.
The worst thing you can do is get super stressed out, and think about the fact that they are judging you. If you stammer a lot, or blank out as a result of being nervous, it will make you look a lot dumber than you are.
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Damn, 6 interviews! I've tried 3 once and i thought that was a lot. Can most def understand why u where so tired at the end, it can be somewhat exhausting answering all the crazy question they come up with lol.
Congratulations and good job. U should make a blog about ur first week or month at work. Would read
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On November 10 2011 16:37 Vortigan wrote:Damn, 6 interviews! I've tried 3 once and i thought that was a lot. Can most def understand why u where so tired at the end, it can be somewhat exhausting answering all the crazy question they come up with lol. Congratulations and good job. U should make a blog about ur first week or month at work. Would read
I plan on it. That's going to be further down the line though, because I don't start whatever job I'll be working until after May 2012. However I do intend to do a write-up like this on the Google interview, probably cutting back on the needless details and really just spelling out the interview process, and what I can see of the campus.
I do really need to work on my writing though, I don't feel like it flows very well. I guess it's a good thing then that I'm deciding to blog everything that happens in the process though.
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this is actually very informative and seeing as im in software engineering, helped me alot, thanks for sharing! Yeah, alot of the bigger companies treat you really nicely.
I wanna try to solve the O(nlogn) binary tree sorting algorithm problem... are there any restrictions or specifications on the b-tree? cuz we can just map the tree onto an array or some linear data structure and use qsort/mergesort.
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awesome. thanks for this, it's a nice story and pretty useful, too <3
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On November 10 2011 16:57 D4Lorg wrote:
this is actually very informative and seeing as im in software engineering, helped me alot, thanks for sharing! Yeah, alot of the bigger companies treat you really nicely.
I wanna try to solve the O(nlogn) binary tree sorting algorithm problem... are there any restrictions or specifications on the b-tree? cuz we can just map the tree onto an array or some linear data structure and use qsort/mergesort.
I think that is exactly what she intended me to do, but I was not in any position to write out mergesort/quicksort on a whiteboard. I understand the concepts of those sorts at an algorithmic level, but I couldn't just write it cold.
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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.
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Katowice25012 Posts
Sick read, thanks for sharing your experience.
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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.
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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
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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!
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5/5. Great read, really informative.
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thanks for this great report :-)
It would be nice if you would also write down your experience at google :-)
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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
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On November 10 2011 17:18 Zirith wrote:Show nested quote +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
I dont think bubblesort is a tree-sort algorithm.
You would need a balanced tree, eg a red-black tree?
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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!
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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
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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!
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United States1654 Posts
Great write-up. Congrats on getting the offer!
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On November 10 2011 17:30 JeffJohnson wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2011 17:18 Zirith wrote: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 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.
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How interesting, great read. I am going into tree structures right now, I guess I'll study them hard.
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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 ^^
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My dad lives really close to the site, been there once, was a really nice place
Congrats!
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Nice read and congratulations on getting a microsoft offer.
Good luck at the google interview!
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51481 Posts
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 $_$
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See you at Seattle Barcraft?! :D
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Great read!
As a Final year CS student, I'm not looking forward to these sort of interviews!
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Thanks for the insight, being a CS student in Ireland (where microsoft has a large presence) its really interesting to hear about their interviewing process and just to learn a bit more about the company itself, thank you very much Good luck in your future ventures
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Google and Facebook food > Microsoft food, I promise. Plus Cali weather > Seattle weather.
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Congrats! I enjoyed the story alot and it also gave me some interesting insight in interviewing methods that can be thrown at me in the future. Make sure to tell us how it'll go over at Google next!
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Pretty interesting story. Thanks for filling us in about how Microsoft recruits new employees. And most of all, congratulations for the offer!
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I love reading work storys from succesfull TLers. And you seem to be one of them really soon. Quite insane to hear what the interview process is like and I totally overthink simple internship applications.
Best of luck to you and don't be evil.
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Damn, you just landed a dream job for yourself. Hope everything works out for you! :D
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Interesting read, but I got one question: Why do they have so many interviews at Microsoft?
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This blog is badass! I really enjoyed the read, very well done!
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I got an offer from Microsoft about two years (when I was a senior) ago for Azure, and went through the exact same process as well. I think, in general, the more interviews you do, the more likely it is for you to get hired. I haven't heard anyone getting hired with less than four.
For me, four out of the five technical questions (my final one wasn't super technical, it was more of a complicated brain teaser) involved linked lists. And I really dreaded linked lists at the end of my interviews.
And yea, you aren't supposed to share this information lol... I'd take it off otherwise they might rescind your offer.
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Pretty amazing - the types of questions you fielded are exactly the ones described by my profs as ones to buff up on before interviews.
For the nlogn I'm pretty sure we just went over one of those for a simulations class...map the tree onto an array (heap) then sort from there? The code escapes me too offhand lol. Must be hard to do under pressure like that.
Congrats on the offer!
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Interesting read! Tell us how the google interview goes, interested in hearing about that too
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On November 10 2011 20:25 ionize wrote:
Interesting read, but I got one question: Why do they have so many interviews at Microsoft?
Because you can't tell if a candidate is good with one or two interviews. Most respectable software firms (actually, any firm in general) will require numerous interview cycles, it may be even more if the candidate is a lateral hire (versus new grad).
Some firms are very strict in that if one interviewer says "no", then you are done. Most firms are more reasonable. The reason for a tight interview procedure is because getting rid of someone is extremely costly.
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Oh snap, sick write-up, I hope you do the same for the Google interview!
Gratz on the success as well, any chance you can tell us what their offer is?
@D4Lorg, Yep, basically just map it out to a linear heap and then sort from there. For bonus points write it in assembly!
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Great read!
I've always wondered what the process of getting hired by one of those mega-companies was like
Edit: And congratulations! Well done!
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Niceone!  interviews with Microsoft and Google? Seems like your future is secure gl buddy
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Great blog, I'm gonna shoot you a PM about that linked list problem =)
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On November 10 2011 20:40 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2011 20:25 ionize wrote:
Interesting read, but I got one question: Why do they have so many interviews at Microsoft? Because you can't tell if a candidate is good with one or two interviews. Most respectable software firms (actually, any firm in general) will require numerous interview cycles, it may be even more if the candidate is a lateral hire (versus new grad). Some firms are very strict in that if one interviewer says "no", then you are done. Most firms are more reasonable. The reason for a tight interview procedure is because getting rid of someone is extremely costly.
It's not just at Microsoft.
When I interviewed at Apple (though I didn't end up taking their offer), it was a full day of interviews similar to the set described in the OP. The "big three" (Apple, Google, Microsoft) and also Facebook all do multiple interviews over the course of a day.
And it's not just the cost of firing a new hire. A bad hire will also negatively influence the team, bringing the entire project down in quality. Most individual interviewer during the day will usually also try to see if there's a cultural fit as well.
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Cool! As a CS student myself, this blog is really useful for me. Nice read.
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Wow that's a pretty brutal day!
The most interviews i had for one job was 7, none of them competency based for a trading job at JPMorgan
It was split over 2 days, 3 on first and then 4 on the next. But most of the interviews were pretty relaxed and straightforward, i didn't have to do any crazy coding!
That sounds like an amazing experience, all that just to be a tester!
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Wow google? The stuff i've heard, it's pretty amazing, they've like four free themed cafeterisa and free healthcare and shit.
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United Arab Emirates874 Posts
Whoa that's a lot of interviews. CONGRATZZ!!
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"The food was surprisingly expensive, but it was also very, very good. I had a grilled Italian sandwich and tomato basil soup and that was probably about 8 bucks."
In Australia that would be considered incredibly cheap! Just the sandwich at a nice cafe would be $15 or some mind-blowing number it still astonishes me sometimes even after being here my whole life!
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Congratulations! Good luck in the Google interview also. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
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On November 10 2011 22:13 TheDemigod wrote:
"The food was surprisingly expensive, but it was also very, very good. I had a grilled Italian sandwich and tomato basil soup and that was probably about 8 bucks."
In Australia that would be considered incredibly cheap! Just the sandwich at a nice cafe would be $15 or some mind-blowing number it still astonishes me sometimes even after being here my whole life!
Aren't Australian dollars worth less than American dollars, though? I had a few Australian friends when I lived in Japan, and I remember them saying that if you compared incomes and buying power, Australian dollars were like 2/3 or half the value of American dollars.
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On November 10 2011 22:45 AmericanUmlaut wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2011 22:13 TheDemigod wrote:
"The food was surprisingly expensive, but it was also very, very good. I had a grilled Italian sandwich and tomato basil soup and that was probably about 8 bucks."
In Australia that would be considered incredibly cheap! Just the sandwich at a nice cafe would be $15 or some mind-blowing number it still astonishes me sometimes even after being here my whole life! Aren't Australian dollars worth less than American dollars, though? I had a few Australian friends when I lived in Japan, and I remember them saying that if you compared incomes and buying power, Australian dollars were like 2/3 or half the value of American dollars.
I'm pretty sure that has changed recently (due to US economy) and Australian currency is now worth more than the dollar.
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Thanks for sharing your experience with Microsoft, I've never heard about the interview process before. I'm not surprised that there were so many interviews and the lengthiness of it. This is a good way to test if someone can handle having a long day under some pressure i guess. Either way good luck at your Google interview and wish you the best!!!!
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I was able to come to an answer fairly quickly, maybe just by blind luck, but he seemed impressed and told me that nobody had gotten it that quickly before. I basically felt like I couldn't lose at that point. Time was up and I moved on to my next interview.
reminds me of that matrix scene with the Architect
Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here.
Neo: You haven't answered my question.
Architect: Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the others.
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Great read, and also, congratulations.
Ah, if only I could work for a big company like that.
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Great read that gives some insight to the process behind how Microsoft hires employees!
Congratulations, and gl with your interview @google. Hope to see another blog when the time comes!
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On November 10 2011 17:00 Gummy wrote:
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.
Sounds like you didn't get the job...
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Congratulations on your eligibility as a candidate in Microsoft.
My best wishes to you.
Thanks for the article, it's some nice piece of information there.
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Haha wow, I'm actually sitting on a Microsoft offer too! =) deciding whether or not to take it.
Great story, overall similar to mine, except for I took taxis (Microsoft has this great little coupon-thing that allows you to take free taxis anywhere!), and you probably got a slightly better room than I did. I was in the Residence Inn while everyone else was in the normal Marriott... probably because I signed up late...
digressing. Great story!
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On November 10 2011 17:00 Gummy wrote:
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.
smells like someone didnt get an offer
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
Sounds like that data structures class is so important.
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I like how you typed this on MS word... lol
Great read, though! I hope you enjoy Seattle :D
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On November 11 2011 00:27 T.O.P. wrote:
Sounds like that data structures class is so important.
My experience is that knowing data structures is good for learning how computers work at a deep level and for being able to demonstrate that understanding in interviews, but it's pretty rare that you have to implement them yourself. I was really into linked lists and sorting algorithms in university, and I never use them in real life. Especially the sorts; it's cool to know how MergeSort works, but there are libraries that already contain the algorithm for every major programming language, so you're unlikely to ever need to program one yourself outside of a class.
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Great read, really enjoyed it. I'm a CS major also so it made it even better.
Other than that congratulaltions!
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Congrats, and awesome writeup of your experience!!! Good luck with google!
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Congratulations! Hope the job is everything you've dreamed of.
A Game of Thrones? This sentence practically needs spoilers.
On November 10 2011 15:31 Triscuit wrote:+ Show Spoiler +
He was very personable and noticed that I had brought along A Game of Thrones, so he made small talk about some of the characters and really helped to break the ice.
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What a great story, really interesting and well written. Glad to hear that they like you and good luck in your google interview. Hope that goes well also. I am going out for a google internship for next summer. Hope that works out. Blog your google interview experience also please!
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As a seattle-ite, I feel obligated to tell you that food is ridiculously expensive here. When you can find a place that fills you up for less than 5 dollars, you frequent that place until they raise the prices. 8 dollars for a sandwich is completely normal, sadly.
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Thank you so much sir. I am sitting in the lobby of building 111 RIGHT NOW waiting another 50 minutes for my interview. reading evena bit of this has calmed down my nerves. Congrats and hopefully we'll meet if I get an offer too!
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Thanks everybody! That came as a complete surprise, getting 4 pages of responses overnight.
I am a little concerned about whether or not I disclosed too much information. I figured a lot of the things I wrote were pretty general, and these things will change greatly from person to person. I know a lot of what I've wrote is pretty widely available on the web already, but maybe I should have been a bit more careful.
On November 11 2011 01:10 feardragon wrote:
Thank you so much sir. I am sitting in the lobby of building 111 RIGHT NOW waiting another 50 minutes for my interview. reading evena bit of this has calmed down my nerves. Congrats and hopefully we'll meet if I get an offer too!
Congratulations! Play with the Surface, dude. You'll forget all of your worries. <3
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Niceeeeee you got into MS! This seems like a really interesting experience and I'm glad that you took the time to share it with us in detail.
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congrats! I definitely think your starcraft connection helped you out. i interviewed there about a month ago and was rejected
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congrats!!! you deserve it man, seeing how you could solve some of the interview questions in such an impressive manner.
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Congratulations for the offer, good job! So now I ask you, is it too late to switch into CS?
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Very nice, and good luck man. Don't get too stressed about Google interviews though. If you are confident in your abilities, then the Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. interviews are all relatively similar with a varying degree of difficulty. It's interesting to actually hear the whole process from someone else who interviewed with them since my friends and I only casually talked about how the process was. Very useful writeup for those looking at the main software engineering companies.
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On November 11 2011 02:05 Slardar wrote:Congratulations for the offer, good job! So now I ask you, is it too late to switch into CS?
It's never too late. :D The job market right now is quite good as well, if you have the skills and have specifically made yourself marketable by taking practical classes or taking on internships.
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@the OP
Ever heard of white space obfuscation?
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On November 11 2011 02:09 Perfect wrote:
@the OP
Ever heard of white space obfuscation?
I've heard of obfuscation in general, I don't know much about it.
Why?
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I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string.
So what you do is you find the ASCII value of the letters in your password, you then conver that ascii value into a Binary code (obviously composed of only zero's and ones). Using ascii values 9 and 32 you can then turn all of your zeros and ones into Spaces and Tabs which are spit out into a .txt. When viewed with the naked eye the .txt looks blank, but its full of TABS and Spaces that get DEcoded back into your script as the password.
More of a hacker method used in VB that we are using in our enterprise "ethically"
Something fun
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On November 11 2011 02:25 Perfect wrote:
I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string.
So what you do is you find the ASCII value of the letters in your password, you then conver that ascii value into a Binary code (obviously composed of only zero's and ones). Using ascii values 9 and 32 you can then turn all of your zeros and ones into Spaces and Tabs which are spit out into a .txt. When viewed with the naked eye the .txt looks blank, but its full of TABS and Spaces that get DEcoded back into your script as the password.
More of a hacker method used in VB that we are using in our enterprise "ethically"
Something fun
Ahaha, wow... That is pretty awesome actually. So like 'tab' decodes to 0 and 'space' decodes to 1 or vice versa?
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>They knew I was going to interview at Google afterwards.
This is a big one, how did they find out / did you tell them? If you somehow give them the impression that they might be missing out on talent that Google is about to get their hands on they will bend over backwards to hire you. GJ
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On November 11 2011 01:10 feardragon wrote:
Thank you so much sir. I am sitting in the lobby of building 111 RIGHT NOW waiting another 50 minutes for my interview. reading evena bit of this has calmed down my nerves. Congrats and hopefully we'll meet if I get an offer too!
Good luck, stay chill, take a cup of water when offered (if only to get a breather), and don't forget to ask clarifying questions!
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Thanks for sharing, I got nerves just reading through your interview process. You seem like a really talented programmer so I hope you get an offer at Google as well and face the ultimate first world problem choosing to work between Microsoft or Google.
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Sounds a lot like my experience when I interviewed, especially the part about driving to the hotel! It was kind of terrifying taking the rental through dark, unfamiliar streets to find the hotel in Bellevue. Congrats! Sorry I couldn't make the dinner, I was actually hosting another friend from college that was interviewing that day.
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On November 11 2011 02:30 Triscuit wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 02:25 Perfect wrote:
I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string.
So what you do is you find the ASCII value of the letters in your password, you then conver that ascii value into a Binary code (obviously composed of only zero's and ones). Using ascii values 9 and 32 you can then turn all of your zeros and ones into Spaces and Tabs which are spit out into a .txt. When viewed with the naked eye the .txt looks blank, but its full of TABS and Spaces that get DEcoded back into your script as the password.
More of a hacker method used in VB that we are using in our enterprise "ethically"
Something fun Ahaha, wow... That is pretty awesome actually. So like 'tab' decodes to 0 and 'space' decodes to 1 or vice versa?
wow wow hahaha nice
I understood the second part but could you please explain the first part?
I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string.
Is it basically hiding the password well? Why will you need to do it? Is it modifying the way your password is stored in your pc? And wouldn't people start knowing and looking for this? A simple highlight will easily show that you're using white space obsfucation right?
And how can they hack with this? Since you're using it as a security measure .
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On November 11 2011 03:13 kingNothing42 wrote:
Sounds a lot like my experience when I interviewed, especially the part about driving to the hotel! It was kind of terrifying taking the rental through dark, unfamiliar streets to find the hotel in Bellevue. Congrats! Sorry I couldn't make the dinner, I was actually hosting another friend from college that was interviewing that day.
It seems as if driving from SEATAC to your hotel at night is a rite of passage. The exit I needed to take was closed, too. Also the bit about waking up very early the day of the interview brings back some memories
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Very nice read, thanks for posting.
Please post your thoughts on the Google interview process, I can imagine that will be just as fun to read as this one.
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On November 11 2011 03:33 JieXian wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 02:30 Triscuit wrote:On November 11 2011 02:25 Perfect wrote:
I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string.
So what you do is you find the ASCII value of the letters in your password, you then conver that ascii value into a Binary code (obviously composed of only zero's and ones). Using ascii values 9 and 32 you can then turn all of your zeros and ones into Spaces and Tabs which are spit out into a .txt. When viewed with the naked eye the .txt looks blank, but its full of TABS and Spaces that get DEcoded back into your script as the password.
More of a hacker method used in VB that we are using in our enterprise "ethically"
Something fun Ahaha, wow... That is pretty awesome actually. So like 'tab' decodes to 0 and 'space' decodes to 1 or vice versa? wow wow hahaha nice I understood the second part but could you please explain the first part? Show nested quote +I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string. Is it basically hiding the password well? Why will you need to do it? Is it modifying the way your password is stored in your pc? And wouldn't people start knowing and looking for this? A simple highlight will easily show that you're using white space obsfucation right? And how can they hack with this? Since you're using it as a security measure .
First of all I did not mean to Hi Jack this thread so I it is viewed as such please delete
A few weeks ago I was asked to make a short PS script that adds a computer to the domain automatically. So I built a basic PowerShell script that does this. However, in order to add a computer to the domain, you need to have a Login with elevated permissions to add a computer to the domain and i had to provide that information in the script.
If someone was thinking outside the box they could just edit the script and see the User name and Pass and login to the domain with those credentials. So instead I have a PS script using Whitespace Obfuscation encoding where I type in ANY password I want and it converts it into Spaces and Tabs, which to the naked eye looks like nothing.
(As said before you do this by Converting the Letter into an ascii value, then converting the ascii value into a binary code of zeros and ones, then converting each zero and one into a TAB or SPACE and printing it to a Location, and when read it looks blank)
Then I change my admin password to the password I secured in the Encoding script. Next in my addDomain script I pull back from the text document of Tabs and Spaces and rebuild it back to a readable password and supply it to my script. So Vola the computer is added to the domain automatically but no one can just read the password.
Now I know some people will say, well you could just figure out the algorithm and you have the password. Which is true of advanced Scripters, but to scrub IT tech they won’t figure it out. Not to mention that you could put your Blank spaces and Tabs ANYwhere (between words, at the beginning of code) and build it that way, which would be much more complicated but very secure.
HACKING -
You asked me how this could be used for hacking.
Well I’m using this sort of "obfuscation" idea in PowerShell as an administrator and using it for good as a protection.
If you wanted to be malicious you could pass this through HTML code and when someone looks at the source code it looks fine, but you can assign each space/tab that is used throughout the code to build a malicious pointer to another website. To any virus scanning software it will look as if there is nothing wrong BECAUSE there are SUPPOSED to be TABS and Spaces in the HTML language.
For example my reply here consists of many tabs and spaces. I could write scripting that pulls from any random spot in-between my words (or perfectly normal looking scripting) and rebuild malicious coding.
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@OP
Hi, i have a question if you dont mind answering. I'm also a CSI student about to graduate but I have some physical disabilities(spinal cord injury). My question is have you seen anybody with some disability while you were there at Microsoft?
Do do they give chances to people like me or do they straight up reject app for that reason. I'm one of the top in my classes when it comes to grades and knowledge but i'm not sure if I'm will be facing some difficulties landing a good job because of my limitations. As much as I'm concerned i dont see how my disability can affect my ability to work other then maybe the fact i dont type as fast. Appreciate any answer.
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Grades are 20% of your application, the other 80% is UP TO YOU.
How you fit with their corporate culture.
How you behave.
Your mindset.
Your SOCIAL interactions.
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I hope to write a blog like this sometime soon. Congrats!
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United States4991 Posts
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United States4991 Posts
On November 11 2011 04:29 Perfect wrote:
HACKING -
You asked me how this could be used for hacking.
Well I’m using this sort of "obfuscation" idea in PowerShell as an administrator and using it for good as a protection.
If you wanted to be malicious you could pass this through HTML code and when someone looks at the source code it looks fine, but you can assign each space/tab that is used throughout the code to build a malicious pointer to another website. To any virus scanning software it will look as if there is nothing wrong BECAUSE there are SUPPOSED to be TABS and Spaces in the HTML language.
For example my reply here consists of many tabs and spaces. I could write scripting that pulls from any random spot in-between my words (or perfectly normal looking scripting) and rebuild malicious coding.
If you can execute arbitrary scripts on my computer why would you waste time doing something like that? I don't really see how you would ever be able to use that for anything actually malicious.
If you really want to encrypt data you should consider doing it with a cert instead of a homebrewed obfuscation.
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On November 11 2011 05:12 Insane wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 04:29 Perfect wrote:
HACKING -
You asked me how this could be used for hacking.
Well I’m using this sort of "obfuscation" idea in PowerShell as an administrator and using it for good as a protection.
If you wanted to be malicious you could pass this through HTML code and when someone looks at the source code it looks fine, but you can assign each space/tab that is used throughout the code to build a malicious pointer to another website. To any virus scanning software it will look as if there is nothing wrong BECAUSE there are SUPPOSED to be TABS and Spaces in the HTML language.
For example my reply here consists of many tabs and spaces. I could write scripting that pulls from any random spot in-between my words (or perfectly normal looking scripting) and rebuild malicious coding.
If you can execute arbitrary scripts on my computer why would you waste time doing something like that? I don't really see how you would ever be able to use that for anything actaully malicious. If you really want to encrypt data you should consider doing it with a cert instead of a homebrewed obfuscation.
Quite right. Obfuscation is not a method to provide real secrecy of data. It's there to prevent easy code comprehension and theft. For most obfuscation you don't need to actually have a specific compiler to make the code work. It will usually be an external tool that will rewrite the code with obfuscated methods (such as calling function a() which will contain local variable named a and global variable a... but the code is perfectly correct, just a nightmare to understand).
For white space obfuscation though you really need an interpreter to make it work. Meaning that you need first to have installed on the target system a code working with the system, Or you need to compile it (getting a binary and no longer being used in a standard HTML).
Also : congrats to the OP, I hope you find the right company to work with. It's funny though cause I had some interviews a few years ago with Microsoft for their consultancy team and had a completly different experience. Maybe it depends on which country you apply, the work experience or other things...
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Congratulations, nice to have the luxury of a job offer
Trivia: My teacher at college could probably solve any linked list problem in the world, and he could also make programs that solve them for you. But when being recruited by Microsoft he stumbled at a simple question about window sizes or similar due to being nervous... Then again, that's what he remembered and there are probably other aspects of the interview(s) that might have been the real issue.
Another thing I found interesting is that I would probably have done very well with all those technical questions right after school (don't know about the other questions). But today I would have to think long and hard, and probably draw everything on the whiteboard until I remembered it :p Not many programmers have to think about linked lists or binary trees at work.
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On November 11 2011 05:02 Insane wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 04:50 boski055 wrote:
@OP
Hi, i have a question if you dont mind answering. I'm also a CSI student about to graduate but I have some physical disabilities(spinal cord injury). My question is have you seen anybody with some disability while you were there at Microsoft?
Do do they give chances to people like me or do they straight up reject app for that reason. I'm one of the top in my classes when it comes to grades and knowledge but i'm not sure if I'm will be facing some difficulties landing a good job because of my limitations. As much as I'm concerned i dont see how my disability can affect my ability to work other then maybe the fact i dont type as fast. Appreciate any answer. You might do better asking one of us who works at Microsoft . I've seen multiple people who are confined to wheelchairs in various states of ability from within the wheelchair [and who have jobs here]. Microsoft definitely provides good support for people with physical disabilities, and there's no way they'll reject you based on that (they'd get in deep shit if they did ) See the page from our state on this: http://www.hum.wa.gov/FAQ/FAQDisibility3.html e: nobody on my team has such a disability, so I don't actually know how they do their work on a day to day basis, but I assume they have some special setup. e2: I wouldn't worry about typing speed btw. I type quite quickly, but there are some people at work who type very slowly . It's more important that you know things and can logically think through and solve something without losing sight of the "big picture".
I have also seen people around Microsoft with varying physical issues (canes, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.). Go for it!
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On November 11 2011 05:41 humblegar wrote:Congratulations, nice to have the luxury of a job offer Trivia: My teacher at college could probably solve any linked list problem in the world, and he could also make programs that solve them for you. But when being recruited by Microsoft he stumbled at a simple question about window sizes or similar due to being nervous... Then again, that's what he remembered and there are probably other aspects of the interview(s) that might have been the real issue. Another thing I found interesting is that I would probably have done very well with all those technical questions right after school (don't know about the other questions). But today I would have to think long and hard, and probably draw everything on the whiteboard until I remembered it :p Not many programmers have to think about linked lists or binary trees at work.
Yeah, which is part of the reason why the interview process doesn't really revolve around getting the right answer, it's more of how you think. Or at least it's supposed to be. Sometimes I just get very specific questions that are "you either know it or you don't" and I think that is the most frustrating part of interviewing. Because then you get all that pressure like "great, I can't answer this problem" and that leads to floundering and you almost always just look bad at the end.
Very few of the questions I encountered at Microsoft fell under the category of just knowing things. It would help to understand the data structures, but fundamentally everything you need to know could be answered by looking at a picture they drew, or in a minute or two of explanation.
I've had interviews where they literally hand you a test and leave the room. And the test was on trigonometry, which I haven't had in 4 years. That was fucked up.
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On November 11 2011 05:12 Insane wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 04:29 Perfect wrote:
HACKING -
You asked me how this could be used for hacking.
Well I’m using this sort of "obfuscation" idea in PowerShell as an administrator and using it for good as a protection.
If you wanted to be malicious you could pass this through HTML code and when someone looks at the source code it looks fine, but you can assign each space/tab that is used throughout the code to build a malicious pointer to another website. To any virus scanning software it will look as if there is nothing wrong BECAUSE there are SUPPOSED to be TABS and Spaces in the HTML language.
For example my reply here consists of many tabs and spaces. I could write scripting that pulls from any random spot in-between my words (or perfectly normal looking scripting) and rebuild malicious coding.
If you can execute arbitrary scripts on my computer why would you waste time doing something like that? I don't really see how you would ever be able to use that for anything actually malicious. If you really want to encrypt data you should consider doing it with a cert instead of a homebrewed obfuscation.
Oh.. definatly. Its easy to say, why this, if this. The difficult part is understanding it. And to the naked eye where you could easily browse through and find malicous coding or have protection type software that is constantly doing a look up "white Space" obfuscation is just a fun and really neat way of using what you know.
Mind you Scripts are just doing what you tell them to, if someone knows the reverse its easy, its understanding it thats the difficult part
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welcome to seattle son (if you accept the offer)
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On November 11 2011 05:48 kingNothing42 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 05:02 Insane wrote:On November 11 2011 04:50 boski055 wrote:
@OP
Hi, i have a question if you dont mind answering. I'm also a CSI student about to graduate but I have some physical disabilities(spinal cord injury). My question is have you seen anybody with some disability while you were there at Microsoft?
Do do they give chances to people like me or do they straight up reject app for that reason. I'm one of the top in my classes when it comes to grades and knowledge but i'm not sure if I'm will be facing some difficulties landing a good job because of my limitations. As much as I'm concerned i dont see how my disability can affect my ability to work other then maybe the fact i dont type as fast. Appreciate any answer. You might do better asking one of us who works at Microsoft . I've seen multiple people who are confined to wheelchairs in various states of ability from within the wheelchair [and who have jobs here]. Microsoft definitely provides good support for people with physical disabilities, and there's no way they'll reject you based on that (they'd get in deep shit if they did ) See the page from our state on this: http://www.hum.wa.gov/FAQ/FAQDisibility3.html e: nobody on my team has such a disability, so I don't actually know how they do their work on a day to day basis, but I assume they have some special setup. e2: I wouldn't worry about typing speed btw. I type quite quickly, but there are some people at work who type very slowly . It's more important that you know things and can logically think through and solve something without losing sight of the "big picture". I have also seen people around Microsoft with varying physical issues (canes, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.). Go for it!
Indeed, and if you need special ergonomic gear (convertible sitting/standing desk, keyboards, etc. etc.) they're really good at helping you out with that as well. It's far more important that you are able to solve problems, implement algorithms in code, and communicate well, than being able to type at X or Y WPM or being able-bodied. There's several people in my building with varying degrees of disability who get on just fine.
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Holy shit. I'm a third year COSC major right now, and reading this just scared the shit out of me.
Microsoft interviews, you scary. =/
How'd you prepare for this?
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For Google, are you flying to California? The Google campus in Mountain View is pretty amazing. I've toured it and its super super nice.
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Gz on the offer, but man 6 interviews, must just drain you so much.
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Oh nice, I was also at the campus (on the same day as you!) interviewing for Software Development Engineer in Test (Intern), but didn't get the job... maybe we saw each other!
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Cool blog. I live near Redmond and I'm studying CS so I'll be doing a Microsoft interview pretty soon. Nice insight.
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United Kingdom16710 Posts
Congrats on the MS offer. Good luck with your Google interview as well.
By the by, if you get an offer from the latter as well, which will you choose?
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'Grats on the offer and I hope you take the job that's best for you, great insight on the interviewing process of these huge companied though, cheers.
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On November 11 2011 08:32 Telcontar wrote:
Congrats on the MS offer. Good luck with your Google interview as well.
By the by, if you get an offer from the latter as well, which will you choose?
That's a hard question, and honestly it will come down to the content of the job. They both offer comparable salaries, benefits, etc., and they're both huge and reputable companies. I would have to go with the specific job that I feel is best for me and my career.
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This scares me so much.
I code for money and I could not do that on a white board.
Some of the other questions sound like something a teacher would try and trick you with.
I better shape up.
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i would be very interested to hear about your experiences at google! man, i love that company so much. wish i could get a job there some day.
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Nice read, congrats on the offer. Your journey begins...
As for the nlog(n) tree sort: I don't want to give away the answer for those who like a puzzle, but here's a hint: the key lies in how you store the integers in the tree, not the retrieval itself. Let the nature of the data structure help you.
Also, I'm pretty sure putting it all in a tree, then pulling it all back out into an array and doing a qsort is not what they're after (since the tree itself is irrelevant in that approach).
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I wish I was smart D:
Nice blog
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As someone who has done an on-site interview with Google, a couple suggestions. First, if you find your knowledge on basic tree algorithms lacking, make sure to brush up. Much of Google's core code makes use of distributed tree and hash structures, and while they probably wont expect you to know much of the distributed versions, they will expect you to be able to work with both trees and hashes as local data structures. Do not expect to luck out and not see questions involving them.
Second, be ready to code in one language, and make sure you know some of the more esoteric features of that language. The question that was the hardest for me involved combining C++ operators and C macros. They will ask which language you know best, and wont expect you to program in anything else.
Finally, brush up on string algorithms, particular those that use trees (tries, TSTs, etc.). These are critical in many of their systems. Memory management will likely also be on the menu if you decide to do the interview in C or C++.
I had great fun at my interview at Google, and I think that's the way to approach it. Don't worry about the job, just go ready to have a day of really interesting problems. Best of luck!
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Very cool. :D I've lived in Redmond for two years now. It really is a wonderful place, isn't it? The Marriott you spoke of is only a few blocks away from me, and I know a guy that has a desk job there. Small world, huh? I've also got a friend that recently got offered an interview with Microsoft, and is really excited. I'll be sure to pass this blog on!
Thanks!
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The thing about the algorithms is interesting. I've thought for a while it would be a good exercise to write some search algorithms, test them out and even plot the results to verify what all the books say.
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I laughed at the part where you said that we in Seattle have it lucky. Rain, rain, and rain all day
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On November 11 2011 03:33 JieXian wrote:wow wow hahaha nice I understood the second part but could you please explain the first part? Show nested quote +I just wrote some powershell coding to use white space obfuscation to hide my Password to an administrator account that i need to call in my script but i dont want it to be locked into a secure string. Is it basically hiding the password well? Why will you need to do it? Is it modifying the way your password is stored in your pc? And wouldn't people start knowing and looking for this? A simple highlight will easily show that you're using white space obsfucation right? And how can they hack with this? Since you're using it as a security measure .
I may not be a CS major grad, or do much in this field, however my own major which is Information Security Management, really makes me feel itchy when I hear about obfuscation. It looks like security through obscurity.
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awesome work! well done, you are about to embark on one of the biggest changes in your life, wish you all the best.
MS hiring policy is certainly very rigourous by the sounds of it...6 interviews in one day! just wow, at least they weren't all behavioural questions!.
but $8 lunch is expensive?! haha. barely get a burger for 8 bux around here. =P
good luck son
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Great read, I was a CS major grad but it wasn't really my thing or at least it didn't interest me much in comparison to e.g playing games and watching series so I couldn't really bring myself to study it because I'm such a lazy ass .Everything felt so hard without studying which wasn't the norm for me(not trying to brag here even though it might seem as such) and a lot of other little things took place that probably had great influence in how everything turned but anwyays, I just kept going through the semesters missing A LOT of classes(attend one day, miss the other and so on) so I eventually quit even though I felt like I didn't really give it a try which makes me so so disappointed in myself, I mean, a lot of people manage to do what they have to do despite their problems, right?
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What do you mean by the car braking system question? How did you respond? Why is that relevant?
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Grats on the job offer but being a tester for ~3 years was horribly boring and unexciting. I couldn't wait to get out of that department (not Microsoft.)
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The quality of the testing jobs at Microsoft is quite varied. If you are in the right group at Microsoft, it is exciting and fulfilling. However for many groups being a tester is pretty meh. I happened to be in a meh group for a tester and left after 4 years. I enjoy being a developer in my new job much more.
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I didn't understand the O(nlogn) question about the binary tree. Aren't binary trees always sorted?
Then you just perform a LMR (left middle right) search on the tree and you get the numbers sorted ascending, as long as the tree is moderately balanced (which should be the average case).
If you don't have the tree to begin with but just the numbers you can just use the first one as root node and then add left if smaller than root, right if bigger than root and recursively for the subtrees or am I missing something?
Is the problem that this has O(nlogn) average case but O(n^2) worst case? But then I'm not sure if such a solution exists easily for binary trees...
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On November 11 2011 16:57 kirdie wrote:
I didn't understand the O(nlogn) question about the binary tree. Aren't binary trees always sorted?
Then you just perform a LMR (left middle right) search on the tree and you get the numbers sorted ascending, as long as the tree is moderately balanced (which should be the average case).
If you don't have the tree to begin with but just the numbers you can just use the first one as root node and then add left if smaller than root, right if bigger than root and recursively for the subtrees or am I missing something?
Is the problem that this has O(nlogn) average case but O(n^2) worst case? But then I'm not sure if such a solution exists easily for binary trees...
The definition of a binary tree is that each node has at most 2 childs.and that it is a tree(No cycles). Aside from that there are no other constraints.
You're thinking of a binary search tree. If it was a BST then it's already sorted and it has O(n) case always. With any sort of traversal you're going to be visiting a node at most 3 times, which is a constant factor of the n nodes that are in the tree.
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Great to hear you got an offer, was totally rooting for you! GMH that when I graduate I'll be able to find a good job
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On November 11 2011 16:57 kirdie wrote:
I didn't understand the O(nlogn) question about the binary tree. Aren't binary trees always sorted?
Then you just perform a LMR (left middle right) search on the tree and you get the numbers sorted ascending, as long as the tree is moderately balanced (which should be the average case).
If you don't have the tree to begin with but just the numbers you can just use the first one as root node and then add left if smaller than root, right if bigger than root and recursively for the subtrees or am I missing something?
Is the problem that this has O(nlogn) average case but O(n^2) worst case? But then I'm not sure if such a solution exists easily for binary trees...
No, a binary tree by itself is just a binary tree. What you are thinking about is a binary search tree, which has the neat property of "go left, numbers get smaller, go right, numbers get bigger".
Edit: crap, beaten. :D
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Congrats man, that's very cool.
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So many interviews, man it really is an intimidating thing to try to work for these big name companies. I also want to work for google as well, I'm looking forward to a blog about google =)
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5 freaking stars man, that was a great read and very informative
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GL with Google. I think MSFT and Google are very different companies and you should really pick the company and team (very important) that you are most comfortable with.
On November 11 2011 14:49 RedDeckWins wrote:
The quality of the testing jobs at Microsoft is quite varied. If you are in the right group at Microsoft, it is exciting and fulfilling. However for many groups being a tester is pretty meh. I happened to be in a meh group for a tester and left after 4 years. I enjoy being a developer in my new job much more.
The team thing is definitely true. My GF worked as a PM intern and she really disliked it, and never went back. I have another friend who worked as a PM intern on Bing, and he loved it and is now working there full time.
During the interview, they will *always* tell you how SDE, SDET and PM are pretty much equivalent, I don't think this is true at all. Speaking with my friends who actually work there, I do think SDET is the lower tier of the three, with PM and SDE being similar. I think you get paid 5k less as SDET as well.
I personally wouldn't take an SDET job, since I prefer to develop something that has an impact, rather than something that ensures some other thing developed by some other people has an impact.
(I originally applied for PM, after my first round of interview, they told me I would be more suitable for SDE; but then I interviewed for SDET on campus for some reason; and I had an extra round of phone interview for SDE)
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Saw your dinner invite on the Starcraft 2 list, but couldn't make it out.
Grats on the offer though!
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United States4991 Posts
On November 12 2011 00:33 Cambium wrote:GL with Google. I think MSFT and Google are very different companies and you should really pick the company and team (very important) that you are most comfortable with. Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 14:49 RedDeckWins wrote:
The quality of the testing jobs at Microsoft is quite varied. If you are in the right group at Microsoft, it is exciting and fulfilling. However for many groups being a tester is pretty meh. I happened to be in a meh group for a tester and left after 4 years. I enjoy being a developer in my new job much more. The team thing is definitely true. My GF worked as a PM intern and she really disliked it, and never went back. I have another friend who worked as a PM intern on Bing, and he loved it and is now working there full time. During the interview, they will *always* tell you how SDE, SDET and PM are pretty much equivalent, I don't think this is true at all. Speaking with my friends who actually work there, I do think SDET is the lower tier of the three, with PM and SDE being similar. I think you get paid 5k less as SDET as well. I personally wouldn't take an SDET job, since I prefer to develop something that has an impact, rather than something that ensures some other thing developed by some other people has an impact. (I originally applied for PM, after my first round of interview, they told me I would be more suitable for SDE; but then I interviewed for SDET on campus for some reason; and I had an extra round of phone interview for SDE)
They're not going to tell you that PM and the other two are equivalent because they're really not . I do personally think being a PM intern is a bit harder than being an intern of the other two roles, because as a PM you're kind of expected to drive a feature, as opposed to just doing more what you're told as the other roles (as an intern I mean). It's a bit harder to come in as an intern and be the proactive take charge that you need to be.
That said, I'm not a PM, nor was I ever a PM intern so that's just my take as an SDE.
I don't think the starting salary for SDET is lower, and you are indeed supposed to be doing an SDE job, except you are developing test code / infrastructure. It really does vary from team to team .
Your interviewing experience sounds kind of messed up with all the different roles though Cambium lol.
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On November 12 2011 00:33 Cambium wrote:GL with Google. I think MSFT and Google are very different companies and you should really pick the company and team (very important) that you are most comfortable with. Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 14:49 RedDeckWins wrote:
The quality of the testing jobs at Microsoft is quite varied. If you are in the right group at Microsoft, it is exciting and fulfilling. However for many groups being a tester is pretty meh. I happened to be in a meh group for a tester and left after 4 years. I enjoy being a developer in my new job much more. The team thing is definitely true. My GF worked as a PM intern and she really disliked it, and never went back. I have another friend who worked as a PM intern on Bing, and he loved it and is now working there full time. During the interview, they will *always* tell you how SDE, SDET and PM are pretty much equivalent, I don't think this is true at all. Speaking with my friends who actually work there, I do think SDET is the lower tier of the three, with PM and SDE being similar. I think you get paid 5k less as SDET as well. I personally wouldn't take an SDET job, since I prefer to develop something that has an impact, rather than something that ensures some other thing developed by some other people has an impact. (I originally applied for PM, after my first round of interview, they told me I would be more suitable for SDE; but then I interviewed for SDET on campus for some reason; and I had an extra round of phone interview for SDE)
Again it depends on the group you are in with regards to the tiers. In my group it was Dev, Test, then PM since we had a bunch of shitty PMs that couldn't program at all and didn't really know how the product worked.
All disciplines start at the same salary for the most part. The longer you stay is where the salary differentiation starts to come in as Devs and PMs will start to get larger raises.
The one good thing about being in test is it is easier to differentiate yourself from your peers. For example I was given a 25k stock bonus (separate from regular bonus) after 1 year, whereas some of my peers in Dev who I would consider better engineers than me did not receive such a bonus.
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On November 11 2011 04:29 Perfect wrote:
Now I know some people will say, well you could just figure out the algorithm and you have the password. Which is true of advanced Scripters, but to scrub IT tech they won’t figure it out. Not to mention that you could put your Blank spaces and Tabs ANYwhere (between words, at the beginning of code) and build it that way, which would be much more complicated but very secure.
I'm not sure about your definition of very secure, but any method of storing a password in plaintext (be it readable letters, or binary representation) is far from secure
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Awesome stuff, I hope you take Microsoft! :D
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Wow grats man. You sound like a highly skilled CS
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Hey guys, just a quick update. I've got a lot of stuff going on right now so it's tough for me to respond to a lot of posts. I will check through here later and respond to any specific questions.
I would like to say that my interview with Google is actually this upcoming Monday. I just got all the travel information stuff worked out. I know Google is maybe a little more secretive about their process than Microsoft, so I shot my recruiter an e-mail to verify that it would be okay to write a blog about it.
I don't want to fuck up my chances by posting something I shouldn't and potentially violating the NDA they're having me sign, although I'm not sure if the NDA even pertains to the process, it is more previous employee confidentiality, but I can't read legalese very well so I'll have to go back over it a few times to really "get" it.
Regardless, thanks everyone for all your support. This was an incredibly surprising amount of exposure for me, and I'm glad to be able to help those of you who are already, or will be in the job market. Or at the very least present a halfway entertaining story. <3 <3
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On November 12 2011 09:28 Triscuit wrote:
Hey guys, just a quick update. I've got a lot of stuff going on right now so it's tough for me to respond to a lot of posts. I will check through here later and respond to any specific questions.
I would like to say that my interview with Google is actually this upcoming Monday. I just got all the travel information stuff worked out. I know Google is maybe a little more secretive about their process than Microsoft, so I shot my recruiter an e-mail to verify that it would be okay to write a blog about it.
I don't want to fuck up my chances by posting something I shouldn't and potentially violating the NDA they're having me sign, although I'm not sure if the NDA even pertains to the process, it is more previous employee confidentiality, but I can't read legalese very well so I'll have to go back over it a few times to really "get" it.
Regardless, thanks everyone for all your support. This was an incredibly surprising amount of exposure for me, and I'm glad to be able to help those of you who are already, or will be in the job market. Or at the very least present a halfway entertaining story. <3 <3
Pretty entertaining for anyone that has anything even slightly related to CS going on.
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Awesome read. Thanks for sharing the experience. Looks like your hard work is paying off!
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On November 12 2011 09:28 Triscuit wrote:
Hey guys, just a quick update. I've got a lot of stuff going on right now so it's tough for me to respond to a lot of posts. I will check through here later and respond to any specific questions.
I would like to say that my interview with Google is actually this upcoming Monday. I just got all the travel information stuff worked out. I know Google is maybe a little more secretive about their process than Microsoft, so I shot my recruiter an e-mail to verify that it would be okay to write a blog about it.
I don't want to fuck up my chances by posting something I shouldn't and potentially violating the NDA they're having me sign, although I'm not sure if the NDA even pertains to the process, it is more previous employee confidentiality, but I can't read legalese very well so I'll have to go back over it a few times to really "get" it.
Regardless, thanks everyone for all your support. This was an incredibly surprising amount of exposure for me, and I'm glad to be able to help those of you who are already, or will be in the job market. Or at the very least present a halfway entertaining story. <3 <3
GLGL
For me, Google interviews were much harder than Microsoft. Just some perspective: I didn't get an offer from Google but received offers from Microsoft and Amazon (didn't apply to FB/Apple).
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On November 12 2011 12:42 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On November 12 2011 09:28 Triscuit wrote:
Hey guys, just a quick update. I've got a lot of stuff going on right now so it's tough for me to respond to a lot of posts. I will check through here later and respond to any specific questions.
I would like to say that my interview with Google is actually this upcoming Monday. I just got all the travel information stuff worked out. I know Google is maybe a little more secretive about their process than Microsoft, so I shot my recruiter an e-mail to verify that it would be okay to write a blog about it.
I don't want to fuck up my chances by posting something I shouldn't and potentially violating the NDA they're having me sign, although I'm not sure if the NDA even pertains to the process, it is more previous employee confidentiality, but I can't read legalese very well so I'll have to go back over it a few times to really "get" it.
Regardless, thanks everyone for all your support. This was an incredibly surprising amount of exposure for me, and I'm glad to be able to help those of you who are already, or will be in the job market. Or at the very least present a halfway entertaining story. <3 <3 GLGL For me, Google interviews were much harder than Microsoft. Just some perspective: I didn't get an offer from Google but received offers from Microsoft and Amazon (didn't apply to FB/Apple).
I think the way Google handles their interviews works a bit more to the way I think. Most of the questions I have encountered from Google have been fairly simple to comprehend at a O(n^2) speed or O(n) space, but they just drill you until you're able to optimize it to O(1) or O(n) time, and O(1) space.
Like I said in my previous blog, I thought I did horribly on the phone interviews, but apparently I did quite above average because I was relentless in trying to optimize the problems, and I guess they liked the way I thought about things.
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gl dude!
for the sorting of the integers in the binary tree, couldnt you just read it and then e.g. quicksort it for O(n+n log n) which makes O(n log n) ?
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On November 12 2011 04:56 Okiesmokie wrote:Show nested quote +On November 11 2011 04:29 Perfect wrote:
Now I know some people will say, well you could just figure out the algorithm and you have the password. Which is true of advanced Scripters, but to scrub IT tech they won’t figure it out. Not to mention that you could put your Blank spaces and Tabs ANYwhere (between words, at the beginning of code) and build it that way, which would be much more complicated but very secure.
I'm not sure about your definition of very secure, but any method of storing a password in plaintext (be it readable letters, or binary representation) is far from secure
Yeaah... you shouldn't ever assume that your algorithm is unknown, though I don't think he was protecting himself from any hackers or anything.
Also, OP you went for a testing job? Why do they ask you coding questions? I've never interviewed for QA, but I've never seen QA even look at a single line of code (apart from coming over and seeing my computer screen).
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On November 12 2011 16:02 Montana[TK] wrote:
gl dude!
for the sorting of the integers in the binary tree, couldnt you just read it and then e.g. quicksort it for O(n+n log n) which makes O(n log n) ?
Yeah, that's easy. But the hard part is writing the code for quicksort or mergesort. Which I don't know off the top of my head.
On November 13 2011 00:14 King K. Rool wrote:Show nested quote +On November 12 2011 04:56 Okiesmokie wrote:On November 11 2011 04:29 Perfect wrote:
Now I know some people will say, well you could just figure out the algorithm and you have the password. Which is true of advanced Scripters, but to scrub IT tech they won’t figure it out. Not to mention that you could put your Blank spaces and Tabs ANYwhere (between words, at the beginning of code) and build it that way, which would be much more complicated but very secure.
I'm not sure about your definition of very secure, but any method of storing a password in plaintext (be it readable letters, or binary representation) is far from secure Yeaah... you shouldn't ever assume that your algorithm is unknown, though I don't think he was protecting himself from any hackers or anything. Also, OP you went for a testing job? Why do they ask you coding questions? I've never interviewed for QA, but I've never seen QA even look at a single line of code (apart from coming over and seeing my computer screen).
I don't understand. How can you test the functionality of software without writing code?
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On November 13 2011 00:14 King K. Rool wrote:
Also, OP you went for a testing job? Why do they ask you coding questions? I've never interviewed for QA, but I've never seen QA even look at a single line of code (apart from coming over and seeing my computer screen).
Usually a distinction is made between QA and automated (unit/integration/system/etc) testing. The OP didn't mention QA at all (though under some definitions QA encompasses pretty much all testing/verification processes).
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On November 13 2011 00:14 King K. Rool wrote:
Also, OP you went for a testing job? Why do they ask you coding questions? I've never interviewed for QA, but I've never seen QA even look at a single line of code (apart from coming over and seeing my computer screen).
It's different for every team at Microsoft, but my team is pretty code heavy. We don't look at the product code very much, as the developers handle their own unit/integration tests, but we still have a pretty good understanding of how the product works under the hood (gray box testing). We sometimes have to execute our test cases manually, but for the most part we have an automation framework to execute and verify the cases automatically.
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It's interesting how different those processes are handeled in different companies/instituttions. I work in the the IT department of one of my countrys biggest unverisities, yet my two interviews only took about roughly 45 minutes and i didn't get my travel expenses compensated.
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On November 14 2011 02:43 Doso wrote:
It's interesting how different those processes are handeled in different companies/instituttions. I work in the the IT department of one of my countrys biggest unverisities, yet my two interviews only took about roughly 45 minutes and i didn't get my travel expenses compensated.
I think that it is more about the location than the company. Here i was interviewed as a developer for Microsoft without even getting a refund for my parking fee.. (not that i blame MS, all the companies act that way here). So hearing that a company would pay you for flight, hotel, car and food just to get you interviewed simply blows my mind.
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On November 10 2011 22:13 TheDemigod wrote:
"The food was surprisingly expensive, but it was also very, very good. I had a grilled Italian sandwich and tomato basil soup and that was probably about 8 bucks."
In Australia that would be considered incredibly cheap! Just the sandwich at a nice cafe would be $15 or some mind-blowing number it still astonishes me sometimes even after being here my whole life!
You have to remember that your minimum wage is 15.51, while ours is 7.25 or so (it varies among states, as well). Something to consider. It isn't so much currency relationships, it's that your wages are so much higher than ours, and it balances out in the end.
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But congrats.
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As someone local to the Redmond area, I could imagine pretty much everything you wrote about from the airport to the mall you probably stayed at to the campus. Good luck with Microsoft and Google!
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Hey guys. Another update. I'm currently in my hotel in Sunnyvale, CA (Domain Hotel on El Camino Real if you're local). Google interview is tomorrow at 10:30 PST. I am still waiting to hear back from my recruiter to know if it's okay to write a blog about my Google experience. I am concerned about this because I had to sign an NDA coming into the process, but I don't think that was for the interview specifically.
You'll hear one way or the other by the end of tomorrow. I think I'll put a little more effort into my Google one, just because I'm disappointed at how sloppy my Microsoft write-up was, and I don't think it properly captured my emotions.
Also I'm really not sure if I should share, in any form, the technical questions they ask, in the off-chance that the NDA has a clause about sharing interview questions. Please understand from my point of view that I don't want to do anything to jeopardize a job offer I might receive.
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On November 13 2011 01:54 Triscuit wrote:
I don't understand. How can you test the functionality of software without writing code?
I work as a consultant for a big Swedish company and the way we work, we as developers test the code, the big company tests the product. They do regression testing and everything like that, but they do not write, nor read, any code. Some of them know their way around a database, but that's it.
The way to test a software without writing code is to use it.
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Just got back from my interview with Google. I'm going to write something about it, and because I didn't get an answer back from my recruiter if I should post something, I'm just going to post something anyway and if I get a response I'll edit the writeup or take it down (worst case).
@Tobberoth
I think Microsoft's thinking is to provide a structured framework to be able to test a product and its integration between systems, so that a lot of the issues that would normally come up during actual usage can be weeded out systematically before the product actually ships, like security, scalability, and corner cases.
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Great read man. I'm up in the Redmond Area myself. I lose to the AHGL guys once or twice a year at the Intel InfernaLAN events (super fun stuff!!). There's also PAX once a year up here as well, so the environment is well suited for gamerdom. Being from California originally, though, I desperately miss all of the sunshine. I look forward to reading your next post.
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tree and linked list the butter and bread of interview questions
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I just actually got offered a phone interview for a job at the Redmond campus of Microsoft myself right now. I'm a UK student, so for me it's a pretty big deal for that to happen, especially when I had got denied by the UK division of the same company.
Any idea on tips I should know for the phone interview?
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On November 15 2011 10:03 Triscuit wrote:
Just got back from my interview with Google. I'm going to write something about it, and because I didn't get an answer back from my recruiter if I should post something, I'm just going to post something anyway and if I get a response I'll edit the writeup or take it down (worst case).
@Tobberoth
I think Microsoft's thinking is to provide a structured framework to be able to test a product and its integration between systems, so that a lot of the issues that would normally come up during actual usage can be weeded out systematically before the product actually ships, like security, scalability, and corner cases.
Pretty much. Thanks for the updates and good luck!
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Glad to hear you survived the google interview, from what my cousin tells me, working for google can be quite a bit more stressful than other tech companies, he's now COO at a startup based in Australia so things might have changed at google in the past few years.
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You're in UT CS?
Do I know you? :O
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You might. Are you in CS357, CS347, or CS378 (Software Design) this semester?
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EPT
