Disappointing Interview Experience with Microsoft

I recently interviewed with Microsoft for an SSE role, and unfortunately, it wasn't the experience I had hoped for. The interview started smoothly with a discussion about my work experience at Google. However, the coding challenge took a turn for the worse.

I was presented with a problem involving connecting nodes that were dependent on each other, which ultimately simplified to implementing a topological sort for a graph. This is a problem I am very familiar with and confident in solving.

I explained my approach, and the interviewer initially agreed it was correct. Yet, as I began to implement the solution, the interviewer seemed to struggle significantly with understanding my code, despite my efforts to clarify it step by step. This led to a frustrating back-and-forth where the interviewer disagreed with my solution without providing clear reasoning. I patiently attempted to explain my logic, but the discussion felt more argumentative than constructive.

What was most disappointing was how the interview concluded. After the session, the interviewer's demeanor was unprofessional and dismissive, leaving me with a very negative impression of the process. I've since reached out to Microsoft, requesting a review of my performance by another panel or the opportunity for an additional round of interviews, as I strongly feel this experience may have unfairly impacted my candidacy. This wasn't just about solving a random problem; it was actually about addressing a real issue they were facing in their work. I have taught this exact question to many of my students and mentees, and I've even created a video on it for the YouTube community, so I was very confident in my understanding.