Microsoft Interview Questions & Reviews in Mountain View, CA
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Updated Feb 11, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 14 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 14 ratings
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| 1–10 of 14 Microsoft Interviews | Sort by |
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) at Microsoft
Posted Feb 11, 2012
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Mountain View, CA (took 2 months)
Got in contact with the campus recruiter and scheduled an interview.
On-Campus interview: 30 minutes, open-ended design question
Got in contact a week later and scheduled a meeting next month.
On campus interview, 2 90 minute interviews and a 2 hour lunch interview. Everything went well and I left Microsoft felt extremely confident I got the position, but I didnt.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
More Microsoft Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Human Resources at Microsoft
Posted Nov 22, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 2+ weeks)
I was contacted by the recruiter initially, followed by HM's phone interview and an all-day interview with the team. The decision they made was immediate and I was offered within 3 weeks (from first contact to offer). Great overall experience interviewing with the team...they really made me think beyond.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Xbox Silicon Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Nov 18, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took a day)
Had an initial phone round after i had submitted my resume in the career fair . Just two questions .
i) setup and hold time conditions
ii) two ways to convert a NAND to a NOT gate
got a mail a week later stating that they will fly me out to Mountainview. Had 4 1 on 1 interviews with architecture team ,system verification team , silicon development team and the manager of the xbox hardware development .
architecture :- was asked to write verilog code for a 12x8 RAM with synchronous reset and write enable (did well )
system verification :- VLIW implementation of a data dependent ADD - MULTIPLY operation (Screwed)
silicon development :- clock gating, charge sharing , setup and hold time ,sleep transistor design (did well)
manager : Talked about my internship and my skills and why i would like to join microsoft ...
quiz them as much as possible . i talked to them a lot about how each business unit plays a role in xbox and what are their key drivers ... quizzed them on microsoft as a major player in hardware and consumer electronics and their recent move to release Windows 8 on several SoC vendor chips ..
good luck !!!
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
User Experience Lead at Microsoft
Posted Oct 4, 2011
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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 Jan 2009 in Mountain View, CA (took 2 weeks)
A phone interview with hiring manager, was followed by onsite presentation and 5-6 1:1 interviews
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
yes. I had 2 rounds of negotiations
Other Details
I applied In-Person and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Presentation and a Background Check.
More Microsoft User Experience Lead Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior PM at Microsoft
Posted Jun 2, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2009 in Mountain View, CA (took 6+ weeks)
Some behavior based interviewing, going over background
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Straightforward and some flexibility
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Skills Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
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Inappropriate?
Program Manager Internship at Microsoft
Posted Mar 10, 2011
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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 Feb 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took a day)
The interview was short -- about 30 minutes -- and seemed to be judged on two main things:
1) Basic Java skills. The question I got was about taking out duplicate characters in a string of lowercase letters. Then, once I gave an answer, the followup question was how I would make it more efficient. Then, I was asked about 6 different test cases I would use to see if the code was correct, and the outcome of those test cases based on my code.
2) In-depth questions I asked about Microsoft.
For 1), you really do need to talk out your thought process. I'm not excellent at coding, but by talking about my code and showing that I understand the concepts/coding paradigms/security risks, I was able to show that I have a solid understanding.
For 2), really research Microsoft's lesser known products...beyond Microsoft Office Suite. Look at Photosynth, their web security Sandbox technology, etc etc. Try looking around TechCrunch and find some current info to bring up with your interviewer, too. They really like to see that you have a wide range of knowledge about all the cool things Microsoft is doing.
In the end, I got a final round interview...but they took an extremely long time to schedule it (we're talking over a month) despite my emails in between. I ended up taking an internship position elsewhere.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
More Microsoft Program Manager Internship Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) at Microsoft
Posted Feb 4, 2011
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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 2011 in Mountain View, CA (took a day)
The interview consisted of 2 written tests, 2 telephonic interviews and 1 face to face interview where I met 6 people. I was very much interested in the development position, but somehow they pushed me to take SDET interview. The team was friendly. Was asked couple of standard puzzles, technical questions related to linked list, dictionary, doubly linked list, binary tree, reversing words in a string, etc. They also asked whether I am passionate about testing and I was not. Although all the rounds went fine, probably they felt I was not at all interested or passionate about testing and they made the right decision of not giving me offer :-)).
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Skills Test and a Personality Test.
More Microsoft Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Nov 22, 2010
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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 Feb 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took a day)
The interview was for a software developer postion for Mac software department in MS. They're hiring for C++ developers to work on Outlook on Mac since Entourage would be discontinued. The interviewer was very kind and mentioned that he would start with basic OO questions such as polymorphism, virtual function, etc.
- asked me to provide an example of polymorphism
- How to handle exceptions without using try and catch?
- Hashing
- asked me to explain wow virtual function works at low level
- Linked List vs. Array
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
More Microsoft Software Development Engineer Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Architect at Microsoft
Posted Sep 1, 2010 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed May 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 1 week)
Phone screen, 1 one 1, then panel
Interview Questions
Reason for Declining
Got a better offer
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Intern for Test at Microsoft
Posted Mar 30, 2010
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2010 in Mountain View, CA (took 1+ week)
Microsoft has the best interviewing perks, for sure. I felt like I was being wined and dined the whole time. For onsite interviews, if you get there, they basically give you the financial resources to really explore the area, at no cost to you. That was really nice.
Unfortunately, once I got to the actual onsite interview, it didn't go as well. They were asking me questions that it was fairly obvious they didn't really know how to solve themselves. I was interviewing for a test position, so I can forgive some syntax errors, but two times during the day, I had to defend my code as correct, when they told me it wasn't. That could have just been an interview tactic to see how I dealt with a superior giving me incorrect feedback, but unfortunately, it just made them look uninformed.
I didn't get the job, mostly because I wasn't a personality match for the company. The people there were nice, but we just didn't click.
Interview Questions
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
View Comments (1)
Inappropriate?
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