Is Microsoft on hiring freeze? I was informed regarding successfully completing phone screen on feb 27 for senior software engineer in azure in bay area office. Since then they have not scheduled onsite. #microsoft
No. I just got an offer today.
Congratulations. Will you mind sharing some prep info LC hard/medium/easy, system design etc..?
Sure. Leetcode medium is essentially what you can expect. Unfortunately, I was rushed into completing the interview and I only had 9 days of prep. I would recommend taking at least 2-4 weeks to prep. Because I didn’t have much time, I basically leetcoded like a mad man for the 9 days. There’s a blind curated list of questions...about 75 problems. I didn’t solve all of them, but in 9 days I got through quite a few. 20 mins for medium, then look at and understand the solution. Move on to a new problem and use spaced repetition to revisit problems you’ve bombed. https://leetcode.com/list/xoqag3yj/ Remember, you care about remembering concepts, not the specific problem. Being able to say “hey, this feels like something we can solve using sliding window” is what you’re after. Being able to identity the “types” of problems. Knowing that “generate all possible blah blah blah” is probably backtracking...THIS is what I’ve missed in previous interviews. I was hoping for problems I’ve seen, instead of hoping for concepts that I remember. I got zero concurrency problems, but I keep seeing people say recently that they’ve been given concurrency problems. Take that with a grain of salt. Trees, DFS, Backtracking, Sliding Window, and Strings are your friend. Obviously understand time complexity. Was asked about time complexity about each and every problem I solved. If you’re mid level expect some system design and/or questions about your experience...in depth questions...no glossing over details or using tech jargon...they will probe and probe and probe, but this is a great opportunity to showcase your skills beyond leetcode. Talk out loud about what you’re thinking. This is the most important thing. You have to do this no matter what. When I got stuck on a problem, I remember talking out loud and my interviewer said “hey a few minutes ago you mentioned this...talk some more about that”. Then it clicked! Had I have kept my ideas in my head, the interviewer would not have been able to give that hint without ruining the problem. People will help you if they feel like you would have got there eventually. Lastly...f’ing relax. This is the first interview at a big company that I literally did not care about the results, because I’m extremely happy at my current position. This allowed me to just chill during the process. I know this is hard to duplicate or emulate if you’re nervous, but it helped me tremendously. Regardless of the result, passing or failing does not validate your abilities. Oh yeah, and for system design I watch a lot of the Success in Tech YouTube videos on the topic. Oh yeah, sometimes starting with the brute force is the only way to get to the optimal solution unless you’ve seen the problem. Do not fail to mention the naive solution before looking for a better one.
Definitely a hiring freeze. My onsites were scheduled on March 6th which reportedly got postponed in less than 24 hrs notice. The recruiter, since then, has ghosted.
Which org? Some orgs have virtual hiring events during the next couple of weeks.
My org is hiring heavily. I’m doing virtual interviews pretty much every day and we just did a hiring event too. Not Azure.
Do you suggest I follow up with them. Actually there is no recruiter involved here. A senior manager from the team had emailed me and he only informed that he will ask some recruiter for onsite arrangements. I had followed up once after that, on 4 march donot know what happened to them after that.
Yes, I’d just follow up. If you don’t get any traction, it’s not necessarily because of a hiring freeze. Sometimes things just get lost or slow down. Could be that the manager is sick or on leave, for all you know.
New-pe Is it Charlotte office?
Not sure why NetApp is answering for me. My org is 90% in Redmond. I think most of DelBene’s wider org is in Redmond.
Would love to know, I want to reach out to a recruiter for MS again