The person interviewed in this issue is Zhang Anyu, who is in charge of the #Swift community official account. He recently changed his job and accepted the Offer from Microsoft (Suzhou). He started his job at the end of November and is now on a vacation. Let’s bring him in to talk about interviewing with Microsoft.

Zhangferry: Tell me a little about yourself.

Hello everyone, I’m Zhang Anyu, the person in charge of #Swift community account. I’m very glad to be invited to participate in this interview by Fish Weekly. I am a reader of Fish Weekly and often read its articles.

I am a person who changes jobs very frequently. On average, I work for 1-2 years or even less in each company, such as Sohu and Iread Technology. My brothers often make fun of me for this. I don’t have many opinions on this issue, and I haven’t been hurt or hindered by this in the process of job hunting. On the contrary, every time I changed jobs, I was quite smooth, and in most cases I was respected by employers.

I worked in Ele. me for a long time. I led the hummingbird team of Ele. me and the front end team in Beijing to complete the first project of Ele. me called Hummingbird Mall.

I like playing games, reading books, watching movies, doing sports occasionally, and making friends. At ordinary times, I maintain our public account together with Exhibition fei, and some technical groups. We regularly share some Swift community news and related information, welcome to follow.

Zhangferry: Can you tell me briefly how you prepare for the interview with Microsoft? What are some important things to remember during the actual interview? What is the difference between iOS interview with other large domestic factories?

Microsoft’s interview process is very long, there are six rounds, each one about an hour, all technical. I have never been in contact with this kind of interview before, so I prepare for this interview mainly by relying on the interview research points provided by HR and some information learned by myself.

Here’s a catch. Normally, the interval between each round of interviews should be about a week. At that time, several other companies were interviewing at the same time, and I told HR that I wanted to speed up the progress. As a result, the remaining five rounds of interviews were arranged in the next two days.

Microsoft HR will explain in detail the main steps of each round of interview. I think the most important thing is to prepare for the interview. The core of Microsoft interview is coding. The algorithm is included in every interview. If you don’t have enough code knowledge, you are advised to brush the questions before applying. In general, on the premise of white board programming + bug free, and based on my years of work experience, I communicated with the interviewer about some general iOS technologies.

In the actual interview, THE main reason why I was able to handle the interview with ease was proficiency + confidence. I have NOIP and ACM competition experience, and I have carefully scanned Leetcode for half a month before the interview, so I will not panic when I meet questions. Due to the haste of preparation, the number of questions I brushed was limited, and I did not come across the original questions I had brushed recently in the actual interview. Fortunately, Microsoft’s questions are not too difficult, after all, the interview time is only about an hour, basically mid difficulty questions. In the field writing, I have basically accomplished the compilation pass, the result is correct, and can analyze the time complexity and space complexity of the algorithm. I think my performance is the minimum requirement for Microsoft. If I do not pass coding, I will probably get the no hire of the interviewer.

I want to make it clear that the interview requirements of Microsoft are not low. I did not pass the interview by brushing the questions for two weeks (about 60 questions). The whole interview process is very thorough, and the algorithm is only one part of it. I hope you don’t misunderstand this and don’t hack Microsoft. Thank you.

Zhangferry: You’ve met a lot of big companies in China, what’s the difference between Microsoft and them in your opinion?

After working for so many years, I have almost participated in the interview of all companies. Indeed, the interview requirements, process and focus of enterprises like Microsoft are different from those of many Domestic Internet enterprises.

According to my observation, the head of the Internet enterprises, the interview is mainly based on the interview questions, the end of the interviewer may test the algorithm before, may not. Like bytes, it is more important to algorithmic questions, which I believe everyone knows better than I do.

Microsoft pays more attention to algorithmic ability, and the whole interview process focuses on candidates’ algorithmic and coding ability. Coding corresponds to the need to write code in the field, such as handwritten GCD code, to implement a multithreading requirement. There will also be more open questions, such as have you followed the latest WWDC and what are some of apple’s latest features? If the implementation of a word cloud function what ideas, how to Chinese and English word segmentation and so on.

Zhangferry: You should have been interviewed by many Internet companies. Why did you choose Microsoft and move from Beijing to Suzhou?

This is not too much. I decided to quit after receiving the interview invitation from Microsoft, because it takes a lot of energy and time to brush the questions. I joked that I had never been so serious in preparing for the college entrance examination, haha.

Indeed, in addition to Microsoft, there are other companies also in contact, basically very pleasant and smooth talk, but not many. I didn’t take the initiative to send out my resume or even update my resume. It took about two weeks from resignation to Offer, which was very short for such an intensive interview process, so I couldn’t say it was not difficult.

I didn’t have time for six rounds of interviews. I turned down some companies. I turned down one company twice… I suspect I’ve been blocked by these companies, but I can’t help it haha.

I think I chose Microsoft because of the high degree of match for the target position and the generous salary package. I joined the Edge department. I have said that I like front-end technology and the field related to browser kernel research and development. I hope this job can enable me to continue to grow and make breakthroughs in myself.

In the process of accepting the Offer, I admitted that I could accept the gap, because I had never been to Microsoft, so all the knowledge about Microsoft could only come from imagination and hearsay. I hope my trip to Suzhou can really let me know more about this company, and I would like to continue to share my growth journey and experience with my friends in wechat moments.

Why are you willing to go to Suzhou? This topic is heavy. I am particularly reluctant to leave Beijing. At the beginning, I turned down an interview invitation from Microsoft because there were no iOS positions in Beijing. Finally, I am willing to go to Suzhou. To be honest, I am not satisfied with many parts of Beijing.

Beijing is good, but during these years in Beijing, I really don’t have much sense of belonging. I always regard myself as an inferior outsider in my heart. So moving to Suzhou is not so uncomfortable for me, after all, I have no roots in Beijing, I laugh at myself this kind of rootless people, is also very free and easy, I want to go where I go. It is worth mentioning that Microsoft gave me moving expenses because of this, but also a lot, so I am very touched. I am so glad that the HR staff of Microsoft were very generous and did not take my previous rejection of the interview at heart. They rescheduled the interview for me soon and kindly provided me with a lot of materials.

Zhangferry: Can you briefly introduce the known working environment and department of Microsoft? Is there any special requirement for English? Is there any interview in English? What kind of people do you think Microsoft prefers to hire?

As far as I know, the working environment of Microsoft is very good, whether it is the R&D center in Suzhou or the headquarters in Beijing. The department I joined is Edge team. I heard that Bing App is going to merge with Edge App. I hope this will not affect my Offer.

Edge is a browser developed by Microsoft. As I’m sure many of you know, Edge has Mac and iOS applications in addition to Windows clients, as well as Android applications. As far as I know, I should be able to learn some in-depth browser kernel technology and some C++ technology in this team. I hope I can become a master in this field in the future, haha.

English, of course, is to be able to daily communication, at least reading, email can do without obstacles, I think. During the interview, I didn’t meet an English speaking interviewer, but I can’t rule out that others won’t, because Microsoft is a multinational enterprise after all.

What kind of people do I think Microsoft likes to hire? That’s a big question, but if you know me and I know I’m crazy and I have nothing to say, I think Microsoft likes to hire geniuses, real geniuses. I don’t call myself a genius, but I think it’s a good idea for Microsoft to attract geniuses to come and work on world-changing ideas, really.

Zhangferry: What good advice do you have for people who are interviewing or going to be interviewing?

As far as I know, I have a junior student who is also interviewing for Microsoft. He is much better than me, and I think he has no problem. He should have just finished his master’s degree in Chinese Academy of Sciences.

If there is any advice for those who are going to be interviewed, I think it is really simple. That is to adjust your attitude and review algorithms and data structures carefully and diligently, which is a particularly targeted field.

When you interview with other companies, you may need to review the principles of compilation and so on, but for Microsoft’s interview process, for coding, I don’t think you need to pay extra time and effort to review these. It’s very target-oriented, so it’s very easy to succeed. Wish and hope more excellent talents join Microsoft and I do colleagues, haha.

Zhangferry: What do you want to publicize with the help of fish weekly?

Hiring for Microsoft, of course. Although I am not employed yet, I still want to take this opportunity to publicize Microsoft HR. Microsoft Suzhou R&D Center, a large number of HC is looking forward to your joining. Front-end, back-end, full stack, algorithm, Data Scientist, if you are interested, send your resume to [email protected].

I also hope that if you haven’t followed #Swift, you can click on it and support my cause. Thank you.

Zhangferry: You often post a lot of long articles on your wechat moments. You must have some thoughts about your life and work recently, can you share with us?

Of course, there are a lot of brothers recently said that I was moved by my spirit, said that HOW I do what I say, brush the topic brush, said to change the job will change the job, every day also brush after midnight, so inspirational.

I thought about it, maybe there is a little inspirational bar, ha ha. Life needs goals, ideals and role models. You can be inspired and infected by watching others struggle. I think this is power, the power to make life more wonderful.

I made up a chicken soup in my moments. I said, “I like light, I pursue light, and I also want to be light.” I think this is probably the meaning, good temperament, mutual attraction and mutual encouragement, this is a very valuable thing. However, chicken soup will be tired of drinking too much, in the side to find a real example, look up to him, down-to-earth forward, a long time you may find that has been side by side with him.

I have many tech idols and role models, and I am honored that most of them have been approved by my friend application, which is very happy. I hope you can find your own role model.

If you don’t want to know me, you can find me through flying brother, I really love to make friends, ha ha, brothers say I have social cow force disease…

Thank you again for inviting me to participate in this interview of Fish Weekly. Thank you.