I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed online for a position in Power Automate team in Athens.
First step was an online coding test with three questions. Topics tested were: string manipulations, arrays, trees, recursion.
After submitting this test, a recruiter from Estonia contacted me via email and informed me that the process would have three interview steps with technical director and team members from Greece.
First interview was a kind of theoretical (not so technical) with the tech director and the hiring manager.
Second one was with the Engineering Manager and asked me questions about the online test I submitted in the beggining. We also discussed alternative implementations.
Third interview was the most interesting with a member of the team during which we had a broad tehnical discussion and coded online on some tasks (async programming, linq issues etc).
After the three interview cycle was terminated, after almost two months from the first contact, and having no information about whether there would be a next step, I tried to contact the recruiting manager in Estonia with no luck(no answer to my emails).
A week later, Ireceived a call from another recruiter, asking me to schedule a 4th (final) interview with the tech director (again) and another team member. During this interview, the tech director announced me that they would like to move on with an offer but they thought that I would be a good fit for another team (not the initial one for which I had applied). The team leader of the new team asked me some technical questions and everything seemed smooth. We concluded that the recruiters would contact me for the next steps.
After two weeks of shadowing, I received an email from the recruiter informing me that my candidacy was rejected because they would like to see more theoretical knowledge (totally incosistent feedback).
To sum up, although Microsoft is considered a tech giant, its mentality towards the candidates is the worst I have ever seen.
It is a fact that it is considered an employer of preference for lots of candidates, that's why they do not show any respect during the procedure.