I had a longer review written but glassdoor would not process my request so this one will be shorter.
Submitted by resume to a recruiter who came to my school, had a phone interview, and received an email three days later to fly to Seattle, three weeks after receipt of the email. The recruiter was very helpful in ensuring I had the exact flight I wanted.
The recruits are put into a medium-sized room, with some distracting things (the original MS Surface, the new MS Surface, Xbox 360, etc.). There are four 45 minute interviews with 15 minute breaks in between. The interviewers come out at the same time, call your name, and take you to their interrogation rooms. After the interview, you go back to the room with the other recruits and sit there nervously playing Xbox for 15 minutes until the next interview.
The interview questions weren't particularly difficult, certainly easy enough to do in a proper setting for a programming project. Even though I don't get nervous during interviews, however, it is still difficult to do these questions in front of a whiteboard to the interviewer. It was hard to properly articulate my entire thought process, especially if I noticed I made an error or a broad assumption earlier on.
Overall it was a very good experience. The recruiters were professional, very helpful with travel arrangements, and microsoft pays for the flight, taxi, hotel, and food (submit reimbursement for food later on). I was happy to get to go to Seattle as I had never been out west before, and most importantly I know I can ace the FT interview next year.
