To start with, the first challenge is getting your resume shortlisted and your first
call
from the recruiter. I am pretty frank here and the toughest part of getting into big
techs is getting a call from them, but let me tell you this that shouldn't stop
you
from applying. I have more than thirty job applications on amazon that are in the
archived state before I got a call from them.
In the case of Microsoft, I was approached by a Microsoft employee who had a strong
feeling about my LinkedIn profile, he had a gut feeling about me eventually he
approached me to check if I was looking for a job in SDET and willing to work for
Microsoft. Trust me, I wasn't looking for a change at that time it's
because I
had recently switched from SAS to JIO and it was only three months since the switch
but
at the same time I couldn't say no to the opportunity. So that's how it
all
started but little did I know all of the fun was about to be two months long,
So as soon as I nodded yes the employee from Microsoft referred me and my job
application
was processed, I was excited to start the interview process and started my
preparations
for it. I had always heard of Microsoft interviews and I was scared by reading all
the
leet code reviews. Trust me reading those interview experiences I was only getting
demotivated, but also in the back of my mind, I kept my spirits high and was praying
for
luck to favor me. It's true that no matter how much genius you are and how well
you
are prepared if luck doesn't favor you then you are eventually gonna fail but
it's also true that luck favors only those who do honest hard work and trust me
I
worked really hard for the interview.
So the good part about luck favoring me was the time I had for preparations was about
a
month-long. It started with an initial intimation from the recruiter where I was
required to put in my preferred dates of interview, this was the first communication
after my referral was processed and this took around a week after the referral
happened.
After this, I was pretty sure that my resume was shortlisted and the next thing will
be
the scary interviews. So I waited for about a week, then I received an online
assessment
link.
Online Assessment
The online assessment was full of ISQTB questions of foundation level and it had one
coding question it was a simple array question.
Once done with the online assessment, I was confident about my answers and I
started preparing for the next round which was technical. So I figured out
that
the waiting period must be one week within the interviews, but I was wrong, I kept
waiting weeks after weeks but there was no revert from the recruiter. I got puzzled,
confused, anxious, I mailed the recruitment team, I went back to the referrer, I
tried
contacting every way possible but I was not getting a satisfactory reply and I
couldn't gulp the fact that I was rejected in the online assessment, by the
third
week I lost all the hope but through these days I never stopped preparing, and
eventually, by the end of the third week I got a call from one of the recruiters and
I
got my first round scheduled.
Techincal Round -1
In technical round 1, I was interviewed by a Consultant where he gave me some
three-four
coding questions revolving around strings, arrays, hashmaps, etc. The
questions
are mostly from GFG, its related to building magic arrays out of a pre-existing
array,
subarray out of a given array with criteria, sub sequenced string out of the given
string with criteria, some sliding window techniques, etc. There were no graphs,
trees,
etc. Then he asked me questions related to testing fundamentals, like how to design
a
document for exit criteria, entry criteria, bug lifecycle, etc. Then came the core
part,
he asked me to design ten end-to-end test cases for youtube which was a good method
to
evaluate testing skills. In the end, all questions were related to automation tools
like
API testing, Selenium, Frameworks, etc.
Once done with the tech 1 round, I was pretty confident that I would be clearing it
because I was happy with my performance. So again I resumed my preparations and
after a
week I received a call from the recruiter and got the technical 2 round scheduled.
Techincal Round -2
It's similar to the technical 1 round, as usual, he was asking me some series of
coding questions which were easy not too tough but yes you have to put your mind
through
it to solve it at the place. Then he asked me some testing fundamentals, and then he
gave me a scenario and wanted to me write 100% testing coverage test cases for it
with a
testing technique. I couldn't do it, so he asked me what are testing
techniques? I
followed with boundary testing and then he suggested using decision testing. I
couldn't do it so he explained what is decision testing and how to approach it,
I
understood it and was able to come up with some satisfactory test cases. Then in the
end
he asked me to write some complex xpaths and selenium tool related questions.
Trust me, I was not sure about this round since my performance was kind of okayish.
So I
was scared but still expecting a positive result, and it happened so my luck was by
my
side and after a week I got a call and was able to schedule my Technical Handson
Round.
Technical Hands-on Round
In this round, I was asked to keep a pre-setup ready with all the tools required for
automation. It was 2 hour-long interview, I was scared to death because automating
UI is
kind of a risky job because you are confident that it will run but it doesn't
run
smooth. I hate UI automation, I was praying if I get an API automation scenario but
just
as so the opposite happened, I was given 3-4 test cases of one scenario to automate
from
UI for a Microsoft web product and a medium level coding question which was related
to
finding the combination of strings. I tried automating the scenario and solved the
coding question but guess what the automation was partially executing and most of
the
test cases for the coding question were failing. So nothing was working fine within
that
2hours span, but I had a hell of a lot of robust good quality code which I was proud
of.
Eventually in the end when there was code pairing with the interviewer, he asked me
to
solve some problems and change some logic and some exceptions to handle which I was
able
to come up with. Then he asked me to send the code to him.
I was devastated after it was over. I couldn't believe that my dream was getting
faded. None of the things worked as I expected it to work. Eventually that day
afternoon
I couldn't wait for revert and I made the call to the recruiter and I
couldn't
believe what she had to say. She said 'Yes'. Trust me I couldn't stop
crying after I dropped the call, I cried out loud because it happened and I had a
final
round with the Hiring manager scheduled that day evening.
Hiring Manager Round
This is the easiest one, just management questions. All though there was one question
which I had to speak about a little longer I still remember the question "Is
Kubernetes similar to listeners interface?" I gave a lot of theories and
possibilities and was diplomatic throughout but in the end, I went for No. I still
don't know what should have been the correct answer but doesn't matter,
its
because I knew the intent of the question was to evaluate if my concepts about
Kubernetes is strong and I knew I was strong in Kubernetes its because whenever I
read
about or learn a new skill I try to read the architecture diagram because
that's
how you can have your fundamentals clear.
After two weeks I got a call from the recruiter to send me the documents. So this how
it
all happened.
