Status: New grad, B.Tech 2021 (Campus placement)
Position: Associate Consultant at Microsoft
Location: Hyderabad, India
Date: Late September - October 2020

Online Assessment (85 minutes)

(Held in early September on Mettl)
Each section had separate time limits. You couldn't move back to a section after completing it. We were told that each section's had an individual cutoff.
~25% who appeared qualified for the interview

• Aptitude (20 questions, 20 minutes)
• Technical MCQ (20 questions, 20 minutes)
• Coding (2 questions, 25 minutes)
• English (1 essay, 20 minutes)

Technical Interview [Onsite - virtual] (40 minutes)

• Started with a casual chit-chat - my current location, where I study, what do I like about that place etc.
• He went over my profile and asked me to introduce myself.
• Asked a few questions related to a project in my profile (How was I involved, what is the current status etc.)
• Talked about a few courses I did, how and when I did those.
• As my profile did not have much experience with a MSFT technology, he asked why was I interesed in joining Microsoft, how would I feel about learning a new technology etc.

Technical Questions

1. He asked if I had studied computer graphics-
   He drew an oval and a grid and asked me to write a code to move the oval from one point to another. (The oval should appear to be moving)
2. Reverse a LinkedList in C
3. An output based question based on 16-bit turbo-C compiler. (Overflow)
4. Write SQL code to create a students table (He shared a schema)

Overall experience

• The interviewer was quite friendly and helpful. He was sharing his screen and writing the questions on Microsoft Whiteboard.
• I was asked to write the answers on a notebook and show it with the webcam.
• As my original stack did not match anything related to this role (Azure and AI), he talked about how I could adopt to new fields.
• At the end of the interview, he said that these questions helped him guage that I can adapt to a new domain and even suggested how I should present myself better for other interviews (which are not related to my domain of expertise)

Managerial Interview [Onsite - Virtual] (25 minutes)

• Started with basic discussion
• Introduced myself
• Talked about projects and internships
• Discussion on my expectations, teamwork, why I chose Microsoft
• Scenario based HR questions
• I asked her questions about how my day-to-day life would look like and remote work due to the pandemic.

Final Interview [Onsite - Virtual] (30 minutes)

This was also a managerial round. The interview was delayed twice (in total by an hour) because the interviewer had to attend to some urgent business. (I was informed ~15 minutes before scheduled time for both delays)

• Started with my introduction
• He asked a few questions based on my projects and internships
• Discussion about teamwork, why Microsoft over other companies
• Discussion about microsoft technologies - What I thought were their top technologies, latest news about MSFT etc.
• He asked a bit about my background and family. Some general chit-chat, what work he did, his family background etc.