After applying via their careers page, I was contacted by one of the recruiters, and we scheduled a screening call. It went well, and he also scheduled the first round of the technical interview. The communication was smooth and clear. We also had some follow-ups directly via LinkedIn. After that, it was taken over by somebody else, and it just got too complex and not transparent for me. There was one person who was just scheduling the next round of interviews, another person who was supposed to be my dedicated recruiter, and, in the end, yet another interested person (wait for it). When I was asked to provide my availability times, I did, and I also asked some clarifying questions about the interview, etc., but she never answered them.
Altogether, I had four technical interviews, and all were basically the same apart from the technical task itself: talking about myself, my achievements, and so on. I didn't get much information about the job itself; I just had a very basic idea from the job description. I had to ask several questions to get an idea of what it was about. Honestly, I was a bit tired of talking about the same things over and over, and I just wanted it to be over.
I somehow thought that the hiring manager was my possible future manager, but I found out during the 3rd interview with him that he was just a hiring manager, and the person from my 2nd round was the actual manager looking for someone to join his team. I wish someone had told me that earlier so I could ask some management-related questions.
Asking questions was a topic in itself. In the 1st round, I had time to ask them only after the time was up, but at least the interviewer was willing to stay longer and answer anything for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay longer as I had something else. In the 3rd round with that hiring manager, I felt that my questions were actually bothering him. He wasn't very pleasant, and from his tone, I felt that he was not willing to continue the interview and seemed like he had something better to do. At least, I think I got most of the crucial questions about the job answered in the last round.
It all took around 1.5 months. After a week without any response, I thought I had been ghosted, as others have pointed out here, but then, after 11 days, I got an automatic rejection email. I was not bothered about not being accepted (as I also was not very convinced that I wanted to join them), but I was bothered that I didn't get any feedback. BTW, the next day, I received another automated email asking me to provide feedback about my experience with them. I replied to that email, added my recruiter, and asked for it. I got a reply that yet another person could give me that, and they cc'd her. A few days passed, and I heard nothing from her, so I asked a second time, and then she finally replied but wanted to meet. So, we agreed on a date and met.
At first, it looked like she wanted to make me apply for other jobs, but after that, she read feedback from all four interviewers. After hearing all that feedback, I was like: I'd hire myself. Really, there was so much positive information—how they liked me, my attitude, my way of thinking, how I approached the tasks, and so on—with only a few small things that could have been better. I actually got 3 "yes" votes and 1 "no" from that not-so-pleasant hiring manager. The very reason I didn't get an offer was that I apparently don't meet their Senior level standards, which is at Microsoft level 63, but rather, they rated me as level 62, which doesn't have any title but is something between SDE II and Senior. I'm not mad nor dissapointed, I am happy that I got that feedback eventually.