Microsoft Software Development Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated May 26, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 228 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 228 ratings
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Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Feb 2, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2011 (took a day)
two teams - 5-6 ppl will interview you on the campus. If you have made it till the campus, make sure you enjoy the local cusines, etc etc.
OK, to the interview - confidence is the name of the game. easier said huh??
Well, though it might seem intimidating, you should keep your cool and solve the problems they throw at you or code they ask you to write. Show your willingness to work on the problem instead of saying "I dont know!"
Food is on Microsoft - so Enjoy!!
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 31, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 (took a day)
Applied online to the company's site for college grads.
Was selected by recruiter and scheduled for a 45 min interview on campus with a Microsoft Developer.
This first interview went well so they scheduled interviews at the company headquarters in Seattle.
The recruiter asked me what my preferences were for the teams I'd like to work with, along with how I felt about relocating to Seattle.
The company takes care of travel and lodging, they put you in a hotel and you get up to $75 a day for meals at the hotel. $75 is more than plenty for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The company also reimburses costs for rentals or taxis, after the day long onsite interviews they gave out 3 taxi vouchers to go visit downtown Seattle.
On the interview day, you first meet with your recruiter, they will then direct you to the first person you interview with. At Microsoft, each developer has an office, so you meet with them at their office, and the interview is conducted there. Each interviewer then takes you to the next interviewer, and *they talk to each other* before your interview begins. Any weaknesses or flaws are exchanged I believe. I went through 5 interviews. I also had lunch with one of my interviewer.
Interview Questions
eg "Hello World" --> "eHllo dlorW"
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 25, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 (took 5 days)
The interviewer has very severe accent and for an international student, it was hard to understand him. We didn't talk much about my resume, but at first he gave me a hard problem - how many 0s are there in 100 ! - (he himself said it was quite difficult) and his reason was that I said in my resume that I had won an award in math in my high school. And i failed to solve it. He gave me another one - write a function to provide all the permutations of an array - which should be easy to solve, but I failed, maybe because I wasn't recovered from the first failure. Anyway, I screwed up.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 22, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 in Redmond, WA (took a day)
The interview was 30 mins at the career center of our University. I was first to asked to describe things that appear on my resume and was given a basic data structure question afterwards.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 24, 2012 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Redmond, WA (took a day)
I was contacted by a Recruiter. She lead me to believe that she worked at Microsoft. That was not true. I came to find out that a v- infront of the email address means VENDOR.
I was asked standard technical questions and some problem solving questions. I spoke about my experience and education. I did not answer the weird problem solving questions. I WOULD ENCOURAGE others to do the same.
I spoke with many non native English speakers. The inperson interviews were fine. Once again, I did not do the mind game questions. As potential employees, you can set the stage, you have power. I told one person that I was not going down that road, he did not understand. Microsoft complains that it can't find people but treats people poorly.
Interview Questions
Reason for Declining
I declined to continue because I was treated poorly. Companies need to learn to value potential employees and not have them jump through hoops. I was told during the interview process by one interviewer that he PREFERS H1-B visa applicants.
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
View Comments (2)
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 14, 2012 — 2 of 2 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 2 months)
Met with the collage recruiter in career fair. Then had a 1.1 interview on the campus. After a few weeks on-site is offered. Then it is rescheduled for the next month. On site consisted of 5 1.1 interviews. First you meet with your recruiter chat about your hobbies or your plans for your career. Then, she directs you to the first interviewer. Each interviewer escorts you to the next one. The third one is most of the time lunch interviewer. During the lunch he may ask about your projects or some technology related questions. Then, I had two more interviews. The forth one was with a lead dev and the last one was with a manager. Don't think that you will get the job if you made to the manager. At least that's not happened in my case. I got the nearly all the questions right during the day. Asked a lot of questions about company, technologies they are using or about the products. However, in the end since a lot of people are applying they have the chance to very picky. Overall, everything was really smooth and professional. Probably I'll apply again in the future. Good luck to all of you.
Interview Questions
Given HTML file <foo> encode it as <foo>. Improve complexity from O(n) to O(logn) to constant time (5th interview)
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 21, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 in Redmond, WA (took a day)
I dropped my resume at the Microsoft booth at a career fair. I got an email that had me indicate what timeslots they listed were possible for me, for a phone interview. I also filled out a form to show what position, what development layer, etc I was interested in working in most. I provided my number and my skype name, and said that skype was the most convenient for me. On time, a woman called me on skype (no video) and the interview went right along. She seemed very good at interviewing. It felt very comfortable talking to her, and she made you feel justified in your thinking, and prompted you if you ran out of ideas. The "fun questions" as she called it seemed like brainstorming ideas, anything and everything you think of, you should mention. Get the corner cases, remember safety checks. I got an email 30 minutes after the phone interview ended saying I didn't make the cut. It said I was close, and offered to consider me for a support position, or interview for the developer position again in 2 months. In total, I communicated with 3 different women--the one that scheduled the interview, the interviewer, and the one that followed up on the interview. I asked for feedback/advice from the last woman in my thank-you reply, but she was somewhat dismissive. Otherwise, the vibe I got was okay. Everyone was courteous.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 16, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 (took a day)
The interview was an on campus interview for undergraduates and recent graduates. The setup of the interview was well organized and communication was clear. This interview was an initial screening, which would have been followed by a full round of interviews in Washington if it went well.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 15, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 (took 2 weeks)
Resume sent through career fair in school. I was sent information to sign up for a phone interview slot. The phone interview lasted for about one hour asking me for some background information and my past coding experience (what is the longest program you've written). As I was also interviewing for the google APM position, they asked my organizational skills as well.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 7, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 in Hyderabad (India) (took 3 days)
One written and three round of interviews. The last one was HR.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
The pay was fixed. No negotiation.
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview, an IQ/Intelligence Test, a Skills Test and a Personality Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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