Hi guys, this is Gangothri, and in this post, I'm going to share my entire journey of Microsoft Engage 2022 (2nd year).
Verdict : Not Shortlisted after Technical Interview
Reason : The role for this application is closed on 11 Aug 2022.
What can you expect from this post
- My Experience
- Reference Images
- Exact Dates
- Resources to prepare for OA and Technical Rounds.
Remember, Luck is a factor too!
1. Registration
Registration started on April 11 and closed on the same day itself. You can follow YouTubers, people on LinkedIn who share these pieces of information. I’ve attached some reference Images. And the shortlisting criteria were based on Resumes, referrals are not applicable for Microsoft Engage. I registered in the month of April (Mid) and received the mail from ‘India University Recruiting’ that I am shortlisted for two challenges, basically, they’re OA rounds.
2. OA Rounds
The exact dates of the OA rounds were already mentioned. I got shortlisted for the OA challenges and went through the previous year's QNAs and experience, also I have my Mid examinations from the next day itself, balancing both is a bit tricky but I gave my best. This Round-1 is completely based on Core CS and DSA fundamentals
After completing my Round-1 which are completely based on core DSA, I received a mail that I was shortlisted for Round-2.
This round is completely based on algorithmic-puzzles and consists of 2 questions to solve in 30 minutes.
A few days later, I got a mail about getting shortlisted for the Microsoft Engage 2022 event. Around 3000 candidates were shortlisted for this event which has no restrictions on College Tier, unlike last year's criteria which, I don’t remember the exact number.
3. Microsoft Engage Intern Mentee
Verdict : I got shortlisted for Microsoft Intern Engage 2022 program I received this mail on 2nd May at 5 PM.
We were supposed to get our mentors assigned soon but it took longer than we thought. My mentor contacted me through email on 10th May in the morning.
We were invited to a Kick-off event initially and AMA (Ask me anything) Sessions during the entire event.
4. Project Design and Developement
There are basically 3 Categories for projects.
Out of these three I chose the 1st topic, i.e., Face Recognition implemented on the Smarter Advertising for my Microsoft Engage project.
Thanks to GitHub repositories and Udemy Courses. They helped me a lot to use Face Recognition project/implementation. I extracted the logic and reused it in my app whenever I needed and finally, I implemented it.
My Tech Stack:
- HTML, CSS, JS
- Django, Python
- Face Recognition Libraries (dlib)
I learnt Django from scratch and I'm glad I was able to pull of the prototype. I read a lot about face recognition algorithms and figured out an optimal, memory efficient and fast way to do it. I also practiced good code documentation and code base management techniques. Most importantly, I learnt how to resolve difficulties you face in any tasks :)
5. Results
We were supposed to get our results by June 10th as discussed in the AMA sessions. They sent us a mail regarding the issue, it makes sense because they had around 3000 candidates for this year so this is why it took so long. The results were finally out on 22nd June at Midnight. I got a mail that I was recommended for Interviews.
As you can see in the mail, 11th – 29th July is highlighted, I was allotted the 2nd Batch, and the 1st Batch’s Interview window was between 25th June to 13th July I guess, I’m not exactly sure.
Did anyone get Direct Internship Mail? : Yes
Did anyone get Rejection Mail? : Yes, but very few. I heard the number between 50-100.
What happened on LinkedIn and Twitter? Reason: The selection process of Microsoft was really unfair. People who didn’t start DSA, people who cloned the entire project, people with no DSA knowledge, people who don’t have any sort of Coding profile, and people who had no domain in any development fields got Direct internships.
Does that mean I’m jealous? No, but I’m disappointed.
I received my Technical Round mail on 22nd July evening, that it is scheduled on 26th July. My recruiter contacted me confirming my availability.
7. Tech Interview Experience
After receiving the mail from my recruiter I felt quite unprepared, and yeah, that’s normal obviously.
• I prepared LeetCode Patterns and Blind 75.
• I joined 5 minutes earlier before the meeting started, the interviewer was very chill and good.
• She didn’t introduce herself, she asked for my introduction first.
• After that she asked about the project that I made for Microsoft Engage 2022, I explained her.
• The first question she asked on Strings. Similar to Reverse the words of a sentence. But wait, it is not the question you thought. I started with the Edge case discussion and discussed whatever I knew. She was very supportive. I failed to code it out completely with all constraints but she asked me to discuss the edge cases which I did.
• The second questions was based on Bash command line and Non linear data structures which was kind of difficult to code with added constraints.I shared my approach and implemented from scratch which was difficult but I code it out and she satisfied with my code.
• She then asked me about Network Architecture and some questions based on networking in-depth.
• She then said, Do you have any questions? I asked some questions.
• She then said that "By 1 PM you may receive your 2nd round email and can't wait to see you in Microsoft" and ended the interview with "All the Best".
8. Rejection
It was 11th August, around 7:20 PM I received a mail where they stated The role for which you have applied is closed.
Everyone who gave their 1st or 2nd Interview or even those people whose next Interview was not even scheduled got rejected directly. I had this feeling a month ago before receiving this mail, but anyway, at least I got the opportunity to sit for a real Interview. I learned where am I lacking behind. I will work on it.
9. Conclusion
Lessons I learned:
- I made a project on a topic. (Face Recognition)
- I learned more about Django, Firebase
- I learned how to optimize code
- I learned to make proper documentation
- It helped me to network with more people
The thing is nobody concluded the verdict of my Interview, so I didn’t lose.
Right after sending rejection mail, MS opened updated new job roles for similar stuff. The Interview process for a few was not that fair, they asked System design questions to a 2nd Year student. I’m like wow. Am I ranting? No, I want you to know what exactly happened. Ranting about the selection process won’t change the past.
Practice, Explore and learn.