Never thought it would be more than an all-expense-paid trip to the Seattle. But to my surprise I did get 2 job offers.
For all the hours (not many actually) I spent reading about their interviewing process on other people’s blog! Well, the purpose of this post is to give back to the society. :)
I was scheduled for interview with business intelligence and infopath team. I had initially gone for the SDE role and MSFT HR felt I was more of a match to PM role. Well, whatever (refer to the first paragraph of the post again)!
There were 7 interviews, 5 were technical. Here is the summary. Enjoy!
Interview #1Technical question, given a stream (meaning you can’t have time complexity greater than O(N) !!) of numbers, find the sub-stream with largest product. Next technical question was to compare 2 database tables to check if they contain the same data. Later he asked me to design an ATM machine for kids.
He kept on emphasizing on how he thinks that fresh graduates from school (like me) don’t have customer orientation etc etc. And later I was offered his team (with him as manager). You know my response.
Interview #2This was a lunch interview and my interviewer finished his food so quickly that I remained hungry (he almost couldn’t wait!!). I felt that during the first interview I had already proved my technical soundness, so no more technical questions were asked from this point onwards. I was asked to design the remote control of the Windows Media Centre. I had never seen one before, but to my surprise, later I realized that my design is almost what they have built *feeling smart*.
Interview #3I was tired and starved by then. The interviewer asked me about my favorite software and how I would like to improve upon it. Next, he asked me to design a traffic monitoring system to be used by the car-drivers. I could bet that I entirely fluked this interview.
Interview #4I was again asked the question about my favorite software and how I would add more features to it. I chose Microsoft Outlook and got grilled on it. Then again a design question - design a kitchen for a person on the wheel chair. I was thoroughly drained – physically and mentally. At one of time, he told me that so far I only managed to get the low hanging fruits and needed to show him something more creative and unique. Perseverance!
Interview #5I didn’t expect to make it this far!! The interviewer was gentle and outright smart. He asked me to draw the GUI I made for a past project and explain my design decisions to him. We also discussed how it could be improved. I was again asked the question about my favorite software and how I would add more features to it. I was pretty sick of this question but better prepared by now :). This was my best interview ever!
Tips1. Make sure you carry energy snack bar with you and keep yourself hydrated.
2. Get a good night’s sleep as you are going to be grilled till you are mentally drained.
3. Persistence is the key. Don’t give up and ask questions.
4. Passion!
Hope this is useful to at least some one :)
