Microsoft GTSC Interview

This blog is on Microsoft GTSC group interview, not on Microsoft Development or Other Microsoft groups

Today 22 March, 2011. I got an opportunity to go through all rounds of Microsoft GTSC group placement process. But I could not make it to the final list of 3 candidates selected. Main reason I think of not getting selected was  - Sometimes there was conflict between my interest (development and research) and the work profile (support engineer) and they felt I would not stay in Support Engineer Team (That happened in final round of interview with 3 Lady HRs interviewing me, "I said what I would like to be, nothing else". I think those ladies didn't liked it).

• Personally, I feel now that I should have told them that -  "I would not be good in the development industry (Or Support is the only thing I would like to be in), so This GTSC is the best place for me". 
• And another thing I feel is somewhere they were giving preference to girls. ( I'm not blaming but looks like their work profile matched more)
• Their target was 2-3 candidates only, and I was "in top 5-6 but not in top 3"

Learned from Microsoft GTSC Interview - 

• Project yourself only what their work profile is. (Keep aside your interest)
• Do some homework on what other companies in industry are doing with similar Work profile. (I just checked GTSC work and didn't knew any other company offering similar things)
• Just project what their current need is, not the future need. (even if they lucrat you in PPT we have this that, Just don't go on PPT.) 
• Go on what homework you have done, and what you know about any company profile. Stick to that, prepare for that.
• Be specific in technical (Answer exact sentences, I lacked this sometimes) and talk as much as you can in HR (I Did this and they were pleased with this at least)

I gave my best and I would like to share my experience of getting through all 5 rounds. All interview rounds were looonnnnggg and same is this Post. :) . Please add your comments at the end.

So lets start
Headed towards FISAT college, where Microsoft called us for placements. We reached there at 8:30 AM and PPT  started at 9:30 AM Around. Long PPT.

• He showed that Its not a call center Job. They deal with 2-3 customers a day. Higher level of support. Technical complexity they deal with.
• You have options to go in development, testing, research, consultancy.
• Values at Microsoft - Honesty, Open and Respectful, Passion, self criticality, accountable and big challenges.
•  Package during training of 7-8 months was shown as 5.04 around and after training basic remains the same, but the extra benefits increases so CTC goes to 6.78

First Round (Written by Merittrac ) - 
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Total time was 100 minutes -  10 - 10 - 30 - 50 minutes divided in four sections. After each section they were taking back the questions and giving the new questions -

• First was 10 minutes, 10 verbal ability questions simple.
• Next 10 minutes, 10 questions based on two passages.
• Next 30 minutes, 30 questions aptitude . Aptitude had simple aptitude questions based of Figures, charts. 5 questions were from Data Solvency and another 5 were from Logical Reasoning.
• Next 25 "C" Programming questions, 50 minutes, we were asked to give output in each case. Each question was having long for loops like 1 to 2000 like that, inside again a for loop and there again a while loop. Every question was like that. 

Finally out of around 80-90 students I was one of the 20 students selected from CUSAT after written round, Another 16 students were selected from FISAT College. So total 36 out of 90 were shortlisted for GD.

Next GD Round - 
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Four groups were formed mixing students from FISAT and CUSAT each of 9 students for GD. Each of us was asked to introduce ourself. I was in the group with Rajesh Rai (IT), Apoorva Gaurava (CS), Awanish Vatsa (CS), Vinesh Balan (CS), Mulom from FISAT, 3 girls Tina, Sameera and Meenu from FISAT.

We were given option between two topics -
Pros and Cons of Open Source.
Pros and Cons of Social Networking.
Since FISAT students were reluctant to Open source topic final topic decided was "Pros and Cons for Social Networking".
We were given a minute to think and total time alloted from GD was 10 minutes.
Apoorva started saying merits of network formation with college friends and all. I said next in cons, saying abt its addiction and all. Like that it continued. People were fighting , no one was listening to each other. GD Panel was always stopping in between and asked one to speak. I kept my final point as - Social Networking is the most cost effective method to convey our message to a mass. Though there is a small pool which is suffering with its bad effects, but still a larger pool is getting benefited. And for that smaller pool even we can teach them about privacy settings, make them aware of the things. Then in coming years it would be also useful to them.
I believe I got points for this and I was shortlisted for interview round along with 3 others in my Group i.e. Vinesh Balan (CS) from CUSAT and Mulom and Tina from FISAT.

In other GD groups they took 2, 5, 5 like that (Not sure). But finally total of 16 candidates were selected to go through interview rounds

So here comes Interview Rounds - Three rounds - Tech, Tech HR and HR

While I was waiting for my Tech round, one of the Microsoft Technical interview panel (He was their during the GD)  person saw me sitting lonely. So He came and started asking me questions about my final year project. What else I have done ? and all that.
I answered everything in a nice and short manner, as it was going in an informal way. It went about 10 minutes. 

Tech Interview for Microsoft GTSC  (Round 1) - Around 1/2 hr
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Interviewer aged around 40, had 7+ years of experience shake hands with me. I told Good Afternoon sir. Got seated.
He went through my resume for a minute
Interviewer - Anmol, Tell me something about yourself
Me - told

I showed him calligraphy, as my hobby.
Interviewer  - How you get time for this ?
Me - Told, I recently wrote it on farewell occasion, so made everyone look into my work....... (he was pleased)

Interviewer - You have done a lot of projects, what project are you working on ?
Me - Sir we recently finished our final year project on Online C Compiler.. explained him my project.

Interviewer - What did you do in these IIT projects ?
Me - explained how I got selected, what I did ...

Interviewer - How did you get these projects ?
Me - explained

This type of question answers from my resume went for around 5 minutes and then he kept aside his resume . He was having set of sections in his paper , where scores were to be given for each question asked.

Interviewer - Ok, Anmol I would ask you few questions in different fields and we would start with Operating systems, So you had operating systems in your course right. Define Operating systems ?
Me - Its an interface between user and machine

Interviewer - Can you explain me little bit dipper
Me - I told him application are managed, this that.. machine code conversion and all.

Interviewer -

• What are processes ? (I don't  remember the exact order of these questions)
• What are threads ?
• What is multiprocessing ?
• What is Memory Management ?
• How memory will be allocated if RAM is full ?
• What is Virtual Memory ?
• If hard disk is 10 GB and RAM is 1 GB, what would be the size of virtual memory ?
• Can we change the value of virtual memory allocated ?
• What is multi threading ?

I answered all, he told good enough, Lets move to next section.

Interviewer - Ok How much you rate yourself in networking out of 5, just be frank
Me - Sir I don't love reading networking and I don't like that much so I would rate myself as 2.

Interviewer - Ok, I would ask some very simple questions, I am sure you can answer them .

• Explain OSI Layers ?
• Where does the http protocol lies ?
• What is DNS Server ?
• In Layman language, you explain a person who don't know anything about all these high funda IT thing, What is DNS

Me - I answered, Like everyone can't remember IP addresses, but they can remember the names

Interviewer -

• What is sub netting ?
• What is subnet ?
• Why we need a subnet ?

I answered all not to the point, but satisfactorily.

Interviewer - You are good enough in networking, why you are saying that you are not good. He gave me a paper and pencil and told me that I would like to check you C Skills, Fine with C ?
Me - yes sir

Interviewer - Ok, write a program to print hello world without semicolon ? He insisted to write from the header itself from the beginning
Me - I wrote this -
#include
void main()
{
 while(printf("hello world"))
}
But I was not sure. I told him that sir, I think it is not possible because if the ; (semicolon ) is no there between the braces, compiler won't read a single line. I got confused....:(

Interviewer - Ok, sir no need to think more, fine enough. He wrote some code on his laptop and showed it to me
#include
void main()
{
char *p;
printf("%d %d",sizeof(*p), sizeof(p));
}
What output it would give ?
Me - It should give 1,2 on a 32 bit compiler . He repeated 1,2 or 1 space 2. I told again 1,2 . But I rectified 1 space 2.

Interviewer - Gave me another code from C on his laptop
#include
void main()
{
printf("%d", out);
}
int out = 100;
What will be the output or will it give an error ?
Me - First I told that it would print 100, but later i recognized its a c program so it couldn't identify "out" variable. So I changed my answer and told, Sir it would not give an output so surely it would give an error.

Interviewer - Ok, then lets move on to another section. You have read electronics in your first year. Just few basic questions.
Me - Yes sir, we read it in first year. ( I knew I would not be able to answer anything in this section)

Interviewer -

• What is Rectifier ?
• What is inverter ?
• What are multiplexers ?
• What is difference between a micro controller and a micro processor ?
• What are diodes ?
• What is .... (Some complex electronic equipment name, I don't remember )

Me - I didn't answered a single questions, I was blank. I told him that we read it long back. He was not satisfied.

Interviewer - Electronics pura gol hai (You know nothing in electronics) .

Interviewer - What does CE means written on the back of electronic equipments, you have seen that ? in calculators..

Me - Sorry sir, I don't know. But if I would guess, is it something related to environment .

Interviewer - No, ok leave. Go and check at your home.

Interviewer - Ok lets move on to another section - Data Structures . Fine enough, you should be able to answer ?
Me - Yes sir

Interviewer - Define data structure ?
Me - structured data ... array, link list

Interviewer - Just recollect and define it in a nice manner, elaborate it ?
Me - told something....

Interviewer - You told array, what is array ?
How array is stored ?
Me  -answered.

Interviewer - What is an algorithm ?
Me - I told him steps to do a work.

Interviewer - Elaborate more? Can you give an example ?
Me - Then I explained him with a example of motor fitting process. How machine would be brought first, then screws, then screw driver.. this that....blah blah

Interviewer - I would like to know, how well suited you are for support engineer. I would give you a case to troubleshoot. Just explain me how you troubleshoot ?
Case was - You are suddenly unable to connect to internet. So what you would do ?
Me - I explained him what all we do when Tata Indicom connection goes. I was using the friend word again and again. Like I would ask my friend. Check my friend connection...

Interviewer - Everything friend is doing, friend friend ..
Me - No sir, Of course I am doing the things, I am asking him. As he is able to connect and I'm not

Interviewer - Ok, Anmol , I am done with this. You have anything to ask to me ?
Me - Sir, I would like to know, how long you have been in Microsoft ?
Interviewer - he told abt his profile and work culture ...

Interviewer - Ok, so Anmol, I am sending you to HR Round, See you know things, You need to be more confident, So thats what I would like to see in the next round.
Me - Yes sir . Thank you (Then I left and waited outside)

Tech HR Interview round for Microsoft GTSC  (Round 2) -  Around 15 minutes
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In this round the person, who gave the PPT, was the HR. Aged around 45 with 7+ years of experience at Microsoft. Really cool person. He was pleased with me in this round. He remembered me due to the "answer I gave in PPT that I would like to be support engineer for whole my life" :) . Later I changed it to I would like to live with Microsoft whole life.

Interviewer - Hello Anmol
Me - Good evening sir
Interviewer - Good Evening

Interviewer - Tell me about yourself ..
Me - :)

Interviewer - What business it is (my family business) ?
Me - told

Interviewer - What companies you are placed ?

Me - TCS and Wipro.

Interviewer - How is that everyone out there is placed in TCS ?
Me - Told him 50000 need is there, if anyone is good enough, he will get in that 50k list.

Interviewer - Would you like to join those companies ?

Me - No sir, I would not join consultancy at all. I explained him that I would like to work at product based company, develop products, support for the products what the company is developing rather than supporting products of others. (Tried to maintain what they needed)

Interviewer - So, how did you get selected in all these projects ?
Me - Explained.

Interviewer - Anmol, looking at your profile, I would like to suggest you one thing. My Job is not just taking interviews, but also to help....... you should go for higher studies, your parents can support you as you told its a good business, your profile is really good. We need today engineers like you who should go for higher studies and come back and serve for development. You should create Jobs, be entrepreneur.
Me - I told him, that I agree with you sir, but at this stage, I would like to join the industry first. Then I told him that I already have a lot of experience with IITs, I know what good profs are, what is an IIT. I have only 95 %le in GATE, not fair enough to get into a IIT. Blah...Blah...So I would like to know what the industry is. Of course if an industry would sponsor me, I would like to go for higher studies ( Talk with this interviewer was going in more of conversational way, rather than just questioning. I am presenting it just to make my friends understand the scene)

Interviewer - Ok, Why you chose IT ? Why you came to CUSAT ? How you came CUSAT ?
Me - I explained him that here I was getting IT branch so I came, that when I entered class XI, I never knew a IIT exists and my younger brother is an IITian now. Then I told him that I use to perform better than the topper girl of my class in class Xth in IT subject always. So I loved this IT from there itself. Blah Blah...Simply crap
Me - I love this IT. I use windows and other Microsoft products and I love working on it. I use windows server that is free for 180 days, My PC never get a virus from last 3 years. This that. I am happy that I can troubleshoot the problems of others PCs.

Interviewer - Would you like to prepare well for GATE again dropping one year, or join the Post graduate courses after going in industry.. like that
Me - I would not like to drop a year, as we need to keep moving. (Told my experience at engineering entrance exams preparation, when I dropped 1 year). I would like to join PG if industry sponsors me.

(I tried to use the word troubleshoot and support wherever possible)

Interviewer - Ok, I would like to give you a simple puzzle. I would like to see how well you suit in support industry
He gave me a case - I am connecting to my TV, but everything is gone, no picture is coming, its blurred dots only..  My TV is connected to a DVD Player and a cable connection. I call you the support engineer, what you would do. How you would troubleshoot ?
Me - I explained him with basic steps

Interviewer - Are you satisfied with this troubleshooting ? Not quite enough no. Because I called you to rectify and help me watch my favorite channel, but you didn't helped me
Me - ( I was also not happy, as i felt i could have gave more details like a call center :), you understand )

Interviewer - There was a little conversation, few more questions then he told me if I would like to ask any question to him ?
Me - Sir in silicon valley a lot new companies are formed by Microsoft employees, but in India we don't have that trend ?
( he was reluctant to answer, he just told in India also we have same thing, but later kept quite). Anyway he was happy with me and told me to wait outside. He told that lets see your tech, tried to find out who took my tech round.
He called me once again, when I was sitting outside and told, not to tell questions of the interview to others.

Managerial HR Interview round for Microsoft GTSC  (Round 3) -  Around 45 minutes
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One of the lady HR came to me and asked if I was Anmol, while I was waiting outside. This was the round that I personally think didn't went the way it should have. Three Lady HRs were there to interview me. ( They just wanted to know how well I'm suited to their work profile and thats why they digged all the time during the interview).This round was really tough for me, all  time questions and questions and questions and nothing else. 3 persons were creating questions for a single "Anmol" :( , as I was the first person to enter into the third round out of 16 students selected for interview round. First 6-7 were asked to leave for the day in between itself after round 1 or round 2 or after both.
I entered the room and they greeted, I told good evening to everyone.


Itvw1 - We would like to know about Anmol from Anmol .
Me - :)

Itvw2 - What kind of business is of your family ?
Me - told

They asked unlimited no of questions here both Itvw1 and Itvw2 together, meanwhile Itvw3 always kept quite as she was entering in the HR industry, so I think she was undergoing her training with these two senior HRs. But yes, in between she was also suggesting them the questions to ask in their ear :).

Invw1 - How you did these projects at IITs ?
Me - explained

Invw2  - How you get into CUSAT ? What was your rank ?
Me -explained

Invw1 - You didn't get any other college ?
Invw2 - What was your rank at CUSAT ?
Me - explained them that I couldn't get a IIT JEE rank and AIEEE rank was not close enough to give  me a IT branch or CS branch any other college ... blah blah

Questions were asked one after other by both interviewers -
Invw1 - Which companies you are placed ?
Me - Wipro and TCS

Invw1 - What is the work profile ?
Me - I told him ASE, but no such profile is there, we may end up working on mainframe or development. I tried to show TCS and Wipro as poor company. We don't have freedom, I have asked my seniors

Invw2 - What would you choose between TCS and Wipro ?
Me - Based on what I have discussed with my friends and seniors, I would join TCS, told why and all.....

Invw1 - You like this Job ? (Referring to above TCS job)
Me - No Ma'am, I don't like consulting industry.  I would like to join a company which makes its own product, I would love to support it and work on it.

Invw - If you not join any company what would you do ?
Me - Ma'am, I believe I would be selected in Microsoft and would like to work on the products company develops and all like that......

Invw2 - If you don't like TCS, why you got placement in it ?
Intw1 - If you are sure that you would not join TCS, why you went for its interview ?
Me - told first job, this that.....

Invw - Why don't you go for higher studies ?
Me - told

Invw - What companies you would join if you couldn't get into Microsoft ?
Me - I told I'm confident that I will be selected in MS.

Invw1 - You didn't answered my question, if you are not selected in MS, which companies you would join ?
Me - I would prefer to stay with my higher studies, if I couldn't get into Microsoft, I have applied for CDAC and ISRO, I would join those

Invw1 - Other than Microsoft what other companies you have applied for ?
Me - Ma'am no other companies, I have applied .

Invw1 - What kind of Job profile you would like to join ?
Me - Of course, since I have done a lot of research projects, I would like to go for research projects, next I would like to go for developer. I gave the example of slide they showed in the PPT 

This was the answer they were not happy with, because they don't want to hear that developers want to join GTSC 


Invw1 - What companies you would apply for if not selected ?
Me - Google, Oracle, Motorola 


This was again a mistake, I should have known some names in the industry who they work on this kind of Support center as of GTSC


Intvw2 - Why you would like to join Microsoft ?
Me - explained referencing the slide that multiple options, one can work as support engineers, developer, move to testing phase, like that.... blah blah..

Intrw - Where do you see yourself after 5 years ?
Intrw2 - How many years would you like to stay as support engineer, what would you do in future ?
Me - explained him that I would like to become a project leader after 5-10 years, I don't know why they made faces on this. I told them - I had conversation with industry people, they say 3-4 years in fair enough to move on. Explained what I would like to be. Gave Gave reference to PPT that I can be support engineer, researcher, developer, testing.
But one thing was clear they do not wanted developers in GTSC

Intvw - Why would you like to start your career with GTSC,  We would like to introduce your name to Microsoft Hyderabad development section ?
Me - (Totally confused ) I told No Ma'am, I know customer is the key, I gave example of my family  business, that customers come, we sell. We need to understand our customers. like that blah blah

Then these questions -

• What product based company visited your campus ?
• What other companies visited ?
• Why you would not go for higher studies ?
• What are your values in life ?
• Have you ever been dishonest ?
• Have you ever felt that you should have been honest on that occasion ?
• Have you been dishonest in saying that, you would not join either TCS or Wipro ? - Tough

Intvw - What are the qualities you should have to handle customers ?
me - We need to be polite, Understand needs of the customer. We need to think the customer way rather than thinking Technical way.

• What you think one needs when he wants to satisfy a customer ?
• What you would do being a support engineer ?

Then these all questions ......

• What is your passion ?
• Your strengths ?
• Your weaknesses ?
• What is a good team player ?
• How you are a good team player ?

Intrw - What friends would tell about Anmol, if we ask them ?

Me - They would say I am good at studies, I then I have been cooperative. I helped them alot of times

Intrw2 - What your friends suggest you to improve ?

Me - Explained them with my weakness, that I should not be arrogant. I get angry with people when I don't find they are performing well. So I would not like to ... blah blah

Intrw - Are you just perfect ? You have already come over your weakness also ?
Intrw - You already said, you are good for Microsoft ?

Me - No then explained blah blah... 

The again they started ....

• Do you have many friends ?  - I told I have few, not many
• What kind of life you live ? - told more of virtual life
• What was the toughest decision in your life ? - told something related to my personal life
• Other than the personal aspect, what mistakes you have done in your life ? She asked in the context that, If I made any mistakes in my Work sometime (I couldn't get this context at that moment during the interview So   -  I told them that I don't remember any such thing.
• You are saying that you don't make mistakes ? - (They digged too much on this)
• Again you are projecting that you are the perfect guy, you are good at everything ?
• You have any problem with night shifts ?

Interv - You are passionate about your work , what other than technology you are passionate ?
Me - Explained him about the way I did projects and then Dhishna Fest online Event. We need to find out puzzles for the event, this that.... blah blah

• You work in technology, IT Industry, what you understand with this ?
• Where you see yourself in this IT Industry ?

Me - Again the same thing , this that... (Again conflict, developer or support engineer) . Now to convince them, I told in PPT itself there was, you would not like to be  support engineer for your whole life, so you can move on to this that) 


My resume and I projected that I love development and research, that was my strong point. But I don't know like they were not at all interested in this

List is more, just think of any other HR interview question and she must have asked that, I only remember this much of this round. I kept cool during whole round, smiling and just giving answers whatever came in my mind.

At the end they asked me, if I would like to ask anything to them. I asked them how many years they are in Microsoft and which all colleges they are coming. Itw2 from Bombay University with MBA from Symbiosis with 3-4 years industry experience and Intw1 Btech from nagpur university and then going for MBA and then as a HR 1 year of experience.

Itw3 was not a engineer at all, she did her MBA a year ago and joined Microsoft..

Lastly I was asked to leave and they told me that results would be conveyed to your placement officer today or tomorrow.

Finally result came around 7 PM on 22 march itself, I am Not Selected. 
1 Girl and Boy from FISAT and 1 Girl (Aishwarya) from EC at CUSAT was selected
Please add your comments ! Would help me to improve