College: Tier 2
Branch: B.E. Computer Science
Status / Current Company: Good product company
Experience: 6.5 years
Location: Chennai
Date: March 2022

Application Process

Applied through Microsoft career portal. I've been applying for many roles for the past 6 months. Most of the time, the application was either not accepted or remained in the submitted state forever. I tried changing my resume a couple of times, but that didn't have any effect. Had the same issue with employee referrals as well. There is nothing much we could do about it.

Then one fine morning, got a Codility URL to take the online assessment. The entire process from online assessment to verbal offer took nearly a month. So, I'd say patience is key here.

Online Assessment

There were two questions. One was based on Javascript concepts and one was LC medium.

1. Implement object validation using JS proxy. Basically, the question was that, when an object gets created using the method we're implementing, it must also accept the data type of the attribute. When a user tries to modify it, we must throw an error.

2. String manipulation - Leetcode medium problem

After a few days, got a call from the recruiter who collected my basic info and scheduled the next round of interviews.

Round 1

1. Set Matrix Zeroes
   - Leetcode medium problem. Was able to solve it and optimized it based on hints.
2. Questions on CDN, Caching, Cookies
3. A CSS styling problem - Using grid, flex, and positioning
4. Some questions on react, JS components
5. Web page Optimization techniques

Round 2

1. Three sum problem - Leetcode medium. Was able to solve it. Also, the interviewer modified it a little bit to make it tricky.
2. Javascript event loop, closures, the concept of this, Web workers, SSEs, etc.
3. Questions on react hooks

Round 3

1. Questions on the current project and tech stack.
2. System design based on the current project I was working on.
3. Behavioural questions - how do you handle conflicts, Any instance where you helped your team, why looking for a change, what opportunities do you expect from Microsoft, etc.,

Round 4 (As Appropriate - Final round)

This was the final round with a manager in the US.

1. Initial 30 mins were behavioral questions similar to the previous round.
2. Another DS question - Optimizing data packets - Haven't seen anywhere else. Was able to solve it. The interviewer was very helpful and provided more hints to optimize it the way he needed it to be. Was able to solve it

Offer

Got a call from the manager stating that I was selected. Yet to receive the actual numbers and the level. Will update it once I get more info. Hoping for L62 and a decent offer.

Thanks

The Leetcode community helped me a lot during my preparation. Thanks much for everyone here. Also, special thanks to the Neetcode youtube channel and Blind 75 list.