This interview process was at Mexico, applying for an SDE position at Redmond.
I went to a college recruiting and a screening technical problem was applied. Once I finished, they asked me to explain the solution and any test cases I would apply. They set me up for an interview in-campus.
The interview consisted of asking me about personal and school projects, and any prior experience that may show passion for technology. Two technical questions were asked (receive two strings and print unique characters in order, implement atoi). At the end the interviewer told me to wait up to 3 weeks.
I got contacted about a week later, setting up details for an interview at Mexico City. They told me I would be interviewing with 3 to 4 persons. The interview was about a month later.
Microsoft paid for my travel expenses to Mexico City. There, I had 3 interviews, each with a different team. I was told I would not be interviewing for a particular team or position, but being interviewed by different teams gave them a good insight. Each interview is about 45-50 minutes
1. The first interviewer gave a few minutes to ask about previous projects. He told me he was in the Embedded Windows team. He then asked 2 technical questions (telephone keypad and angle between minute and hour hand in a clock), and a brain teaser. He seemed interested in knowing my thinking process, rather than the actual solution.
2. The second interviewer first focused more on behavioral questions and some past experience. He told me he was in the Operating Systems group, focused in security. He seemed as if it was an interview recipe for him, as he would not allow to talk about anything else.
The questions were the next:
- What has been the most challenging technical issue you have faced?
- Tell me about a Microsoft product you like. Why? How has it been useful to you?
- Tell me about a Microsoft product you don't like. Why? What would you have done differently, if you were part of the dev team for that product?
Then he asked two technical questions (show odd numbers from 1 to N, function that swaps variables).
This interviewer did not allow any question during the technical question. He was definitely not interested and what I thought while solving the problem, and did not want other solutions but his. H
3. My third interview was the longest, as we had a long conversation. He was in the Windows Update team, in charge of reviewing and fixing upon feedback provided, and deployment. He first asked my most challenging technical issue, as my answer was similar to the first one he asked me about another one. Interviewers share notes between them, so they don't ask you the same stuff. He also asked me what had I accomplished at my job that I was proud of. After some chit-chat on SQL and databases, he asked a technical question (Fibonacci with index).