Was interviewing for an IC3 Software Engineer role at Microsoft (Redmond). Completed two rounds of the full loop within a week of each other — first round was DSA, second was DSA + behavioral. Felt solid coming out of both.

A couple of days after the second round, I got an email essentially saying that due to a recent internal change in direction, the role has been placed on hold and my remaining interviews were being cancelled. They apologized for the short notice and mentioned they'd keep me in mind for future opportunities — but gave no timeline or further details.
The part that's throwing me off is that this happened mid-loop — not before the process started, not after all rounds were done. Two rounds in, out of four.

Has anyone experienced something similar at Microsoft? Is "role on hold" typically a soft rejection dressed up, or does it actually mean the headcount got frozen? Would love to hear recent experiences, especially from folks who've been through loops at Microsoft.