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.
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I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
Interview
A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. From there, we scheduled a technical phone interview. There were three questions that were increasing in difficulty. There was no virtual whiteboard so I had to explain how I would approach the problem and speak to time/space trade offs. At the end of the phone interview, the interviewer informed me that they would like to fly me out for an on-site interview.
The on-site process was straight forward. There were a total of 5 interviews (I'm told if you don't do well in the first few, they dismiss you after lunch). The first 4 interviews begin with a coding problem, and if there's time left over, you have the opportunity to ask the interviewer any questions you want. The lunch interview involves some casual conversation to get to know you a little better followed by a short coding problem. The final interview was a system design question followed by some behavioral questions.
After the on-site interview, I was contacted within a week with news that they were moving forward with an offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Study your basic data structures: how to implement a few of the main ones, performance/size considerations.
Practice some interview questions (e.g. leetcode) on a white board or piece of paper and practice speaking aloud. Speak about how you're approaching the problem, some pros/cons of your approach. When studying interview questions, really focus on the techniques associated with solving general problems (greedy, two pointer, etc.) as it's highly unlikely that you'll see a question you've seen before. The interview questions are designed to be novel. Prepare by knowing how to solve problems, not memorizing solutions.
I applied through college or university. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Tucson, AZ) in Oct 2017
Interview
Met a recruiter at a career fair. Was invited to an on-campus interview a couple of weeks later.
The interview was straightforward - 5-10 minutes of introduction and solving a coding problem on whiteboard. At the end, I got to ask a few questions.
I was told I did well in the interview but was placed on a waitlist for the next round as all the on-site interview slots were filled for some time.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
Got phone call from HR, then another person arranged a skype interview. The first time interviewer was busy, so canceled. Then arranged another one. The phone interview was 1 hour. interviewer self introduction, then talked about myself in cv