Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 4 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 50% positive. To compare, the company-average is 68.2% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through college or university. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
First round was an on campus technical interview. This was followed by an on site interview in Seattle consisting of 4/5 interview rounds. The interviews were technical and included concepts on computer engineering/database/security.
I contacted a recruiter on LinkedIn and an interview was set up. It was for a specific team at Microsoft.
Had one phone interview wherein the interviewer asked me 4 coding questions in the span of one hour. I don't remember all the questions but they were all in the domain of binary tree traversals. It went great. I could solve every question posed to me.
I was surprised that they did not select me for further rounds despite the interview going well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Binary tree traversal questions. Most of them from Leetcode.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in May 2019
Interview
I was contacted by a Microsoft recruiter via LinkedIn who was hiring for Core Cleared positions (requires a Top Secret/SCI clearance) based in Seattle, WA and Herndon, VA. I did an initial phone screen with the recruiter who messaged me asking me generic background questions and telling me more about Microsoft's role in government cloud architecture. They give you a phone screen with a DS/Algo question in which I passed and was invited to go on-site in Seattle. The process of scheduling the on-site interview was fairly slow and tedious which was the most frustrating part. My on-site interview was scheduled for nearly 4 weeks after my phone screening. The on-site interview was 5 technical interviews (all DS/Algo, no System Design) plus lunch (which is still considered an interview, so do not let your guard down). This was also my first time interviewing on-site for a Big 4 company so I was extremely nervous and wasn't able to perform to the best of my ability on some of the questions I was given. Despite this, the interviewers were all very nice and tried their best to help me through some parts where I got stuck. Overall, it was a great learning experience interviewing for Microsoft and I enjoyed talking with everyone who was involved in the process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Phone Screen: easy DS question
On-site: 5 Technical Interviews on typical DS/Algo questions that you can find most on Leetcode with some variations to the problem