Microsoft Interview Experince
Education: Tier 3 College
TC: ~34L
YOE: 3 in PBCs (including MAANG) (Currently SE2)
I recently got a chance to interview with Microsoft and it was probably one of the worst interview experiences ever.
Team: CCE - Commerce Customer Experience (BEWARE OF THESE FOLKS!)
Round 1 - March 27, 2024
An engineer from WA reached out to me via call and told me that they want to interview me for an opening. I was happy and agreed for an interview the next day at night. In the meantime, I asked the seniority, the job description, and the interview structure. He said 4 rounds and sent me a SE2 job description. He asked me DSA and some basic Java Questions. The interview went very well.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
The email I sent to 1st round of interviewer:
The response I received:
Round 2 - April 1, 2024
A manager (who would have become my manager if selected), called me. He sits in HYD office. Asked me for an interview. He asked me tougher DSA and System Design. The interview went very well.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
Round 3 - April 10, 2024
Another person, who is the manager of the 2nd interviewer called me and asked me for an interview. Same, DSA, System Design. The interview went very well.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
Before round 4, I had to call and write emails to my 3rd round of interviewer to ask for updates as there is no HR involved; and he said, "The position has been put to hold because of some internal restructuring. Please just wait!"
Round 4 - April 24, 2024
Another person called me from WA, and requested to schedule an interview. I thought this would be my last round. He asked me DSA, and tried to understand my profle and asked me some AA interview like questions. The interview went very well.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
Now, I was just hoping for a call form the HR to ask me for details to release an offer. But now the twist starts!
Round 5 - May 9, 2024
I randomly receieved and email from another manager from WA, working in the same team, and asked me for an interview. This guy explained me my work if shortlisted, some DSA and gave me scenario based questions. I told him that this was my 5th round of discussion, and he said that he knew. After the interview, he said there might be one more person who would speak to me. And that genuinely shocked me, but I agreed.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
Now, the wait just won't end. I mailed my 5th round of interviewer multiple times, and he said "put on hold and we will reach back to you once we have further updates.". I had to resign because I just got another considerable offer but my preference was still Microsoft. I wrote to him in another email that I am on notice and still wish to join MSFT so please act faster to which he replied, "someone from his team should reach out to me tomorrow.", but that didn't happen. I had to write more emails after which I got my next round of interview after almost a month.
Round 6 - June 6, 2024
Received an email from other senior manager in WA, and immediately accepted the interview invite. He didn't even have much to talk. He just asked me about my experience and my interests. In order to kill time, he gave me a puzzle to solve and I solved it at one go. We were just aorund 35 mins and he said "you're pretty famous in our team, and one more colleague of mine wants to speak with you.", and I said, "fine". Thankfully the other person was online at around 10:30 PM his time, and joined the same meeting invite.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
Round 7 - June 6, 2024
This guy was a colleague of 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd round of interviewer. He immediately joined the call, and started having a very in-depth discussion about expectations in the role and a little bit of system design. He was very impressed with my skills while designing and I was able to assure that I will be able to contribute nicely to this role. Everything looked good. Interview went well. Lastly he said, he will pass the feedback to his manager and he may also speak with me.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
Immediately after this call the owner of this team (who is the manager of my 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th interviewer, let's call him P), sent me a referral for this role and sent me a separate email to me asking me to fill up that form. Only now I am in the system. Until this point there was no HR contact.
Now, the next day, my 3rd round of interviewer called me, and told me all the feedbacks have been positive. The owner of this team P, who sits in WA will call me. I informed him that I've filled up the form and informed him too that I have filled it. Even he said that his manager (same person who sent me the form), might speak with me.
On June 10, the HR team of Microsoft sent me an email asking me for documents and I sent them all the documents by June 12.
Round 8 - June 13, 2024
An HR called me on June 13, and scheduled a AA interview on June 13. This guy is a senior manager, and is from a totally different team. He asked me DSA and System design. He also asked me some scenario based questions, very much like a AA round. It was a good interview.
Self Verdict: Pass
Actual Verdict: Pass
If you've read this far, thank you, but there is more.
On June 14, a different HR reached out to me and she said that I have cleard all rounds of interview and she has seen all my documents. Now she will speak with P and get back to me on Monday. I asked her about seniority, she said she will speak with P and tell me about it. She said she has also seen my counter offers.
June 17, 2024
I sent the HR a WhatsApp message, asking for the next steps, and then she called me and told me that she has spoken to P and they have decided that they can only give me L60 (SDE 1) at 25 LPA base. This brings me a very bad sitaution as I was already on notice and I tried to explain the recruiter my situation and asked her to consider giving me L61. She was like "take it or leave it", and later she said, she will talk to P again, but she already knows that he won't agree.
Now, given how cold the recruiter responsed, I decided to write an email to P and the HR explaining my situation, literally requesting them to reconsider giving me L61 because they took 8 rounds of interview, and I am already an SE2 and the compensation is too low. I also added that my interviews were very well.
But they did not agree at all.
This is my email:
This is their response:
The next day, the HR called me back and she said they cannot move ahead with my role. Not even L60. I don't know why.
Offer Verdict: Reject
Worse part: I was already on notice and I was very +ve that I will clear Microsoft but here we are. At this point I am at crossroads of destiny and I don't know what to do.
If you're in MAANG or any nice company and if you are hiring. Please help me by filling this up: https://forms.gle/CqdeAk5XeNBrG5rz5
Thanks a lot for reading. Please help me! And let me know your thoughts.