I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft in Jul 2015
Interview
It was described to me to be split into three parts. First of all there was a quick chat with the recruiter who basically digested the CV with me as reference so that he could then present it to the hiring manager. The hiring manager was interested and then there was a telephone interview organised. This was mostly just a general chat about experience and then a very small technical element. Unfortunately I was super super prepared for a problem solving question but he simply asked "How does the internet work?", which took me completely by surprised and I answered terribly. Still I personally am not sure about asking that question for someone who is all about problem solving. Also its a question that could be answered after about 5 minutes of Google-ing!
With regards to the recruiter though, he was excellent, super responsive and eager to help!
Online interview round.
There would be 4 interview rounds total. Each one evaluate various skills about you. They will give you hints as well at time required, you need to capture those and rethink on your solution.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design worker thread library where each task will be executed in parallel. Design a system to handle a huge workload.
HR screening, one technical interview with the hiring manager then three interview loop which covered two system design and one dsa round.
System design was intensive and challenging.
It took them 5 weeks to come back with an offer. Background check was completed in a week, got joining date after 3 days.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a system for a startup company that let users post various types of content and get a unique url which can be shared with others to access the content