Microsoft Senior Software Development Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated Feb 20, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 10 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 10 ratings
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Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Feb 20, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2012 in Hyderabad (India) (took a day)
I had a one-on-one interview last week. The interview started on time and a very senior engineer spoke with me. We started with my experience and then he asked me to code this problem:
Find the probability of legal moves made by a knight in a NxN matrix in m steps.
I had heard this problem for the first time and I decided to give my best shot at it. I started thinking aloud and was exploring if I can use combinatorial maths to solve the problem. Later on I tried to find a pattern but that didnt succeed either. Then I moved on to applying dynamic programming technique by which time interviewer interrupted and told me to use something simpler and start from a specific point in matrix (btw, I have figured out a generic algo using dynamic programming now). Then I took a step back and modeled the problem using a tree (and coordinate geometry) where each node specifies a position in matrix . Also, each node would know if its a "legal" node or not based on its coordinates. Using DFS, we can calculate the number of legal moves and divide by the total number of legal moves. The complexity of this algo was exponential but it worked :-)
After figuring out the algo, I was asked to write a working code and I was already running out of time. I quickly wrote the classes and the main method. For brevity of time, I cut out the input validations and just wrote the meat of the logic. Interviewer asked me if I can think of any optimizations. I had many ideas floating in my head but they were very fluid. After all, it wasn't an easy problem and as far as I am concerned, it could be a Master's thesis problem as I was hearing this problem for the first time :-)
Interviewer was very polite and I enjoyed speaking with him. But I got a decline from Microsoft :-( I am not sure what the reason could be but I am just wondering that are there no marks for original thinking on the feet, even if the solution wasn't the most optimal? I can bet that if someone even in microsoft is asked to work on complex problems, it might take a few hours, if not days. And even if he is given the most optimal solution on a paper, implementing that in code within an hour would be a challenge. Maybe its sour grapes, but I think there is something lacking in interview process -shouldn't original thinking be given more weightage than getting the right solution? And how can one guage in interview that a person has R&D mindset or not? For the last 2 days I have been thinking about the problem and yesterday I discovered a technique using dynamic programming which is more generic and very optimal. Can the interview process which runs for a few hours capture this? If Microsoft expects people (who are hearing about a problem the first time) to do R&D, design and code in one hour, without any bugs, then all the professors in MIT should be churning out research papers at the rate of one paper per hour :-)
Thanks for going through my rant....
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Sep 7, 2011 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed May 2009 (took 2 days)
It was informational technical interview with my hiring manager
Interview Questions
Other Details
I applied In-Person and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Sep 2, 2011
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Jun 2009 in Redmond, WA (took a day)
The interview was mostly centered around designing a system, algorithms and also some puzzles. The interview was not too difficult for me. One of the puzzles was the "aha" type that I could not solve without hints from the interviewer. I would say the interviews were just like typical Microsoft or any other major tech company interviews
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Apr 26, 2011 — 0 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 Mar 2009 (took a day)
Pretty good interview process, consists panel of people with good questions
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Feb 2, 2011 — 1 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 Jul 2010 in Redmond, WA (took a day)
Interview took the whole day. 5 guys interrogating for 1 hour each. Plus hiring manager at the end.
Interview Questions
Reason for Declining
Got better one.
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jan 11, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2010 in Andover, MA (took a day)
Phone interview with recruiter - high level + coding assignment to be submitted with application (write a linked list class with tests, show how to get 5th from the last item of a singly linked list in one iteration).
Full day interviews with managers, developers - whiteboard coding - Binary Search Trees, Thread safety, Design Patterns, discussions on web service/general networking protocols, etc.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Salary was fixed - Signing bonus was negotiable
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Dec 8, 2010 — 1 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 Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2010 in Redmond, WA (took 4 weeks)
I was initially contacted by a third-party recruiter working for Microsoft about a position in the xbox team. Not expecting much I went along with the process and spoke the recruiter and then another one. Finally I was setup with a phone-screen by the hiring manager which was pretty straightforward with a few questions about basic algorithms etc. After which I was asked to fly in to Redmond at Microsoft's expense which seemed like a sin to turn down. Flew upto Seattle from California the day before and was put up in a pretty nice 4-star place in Redmond. Microsoft goes all out in taking care of its candidates, very professional indeed. The whole next day was spent in the Microsoft campus with various 1-on-1 meetings starting with a new Recruiter and then every one else was either an engineer or a Manager. Each interview seemed to focus on a different type of questioning including Algorithms, coding, white-boarding, transactions, process, deployment etc. It was a very well rounded interview process and did not focus on just 1 kind of questioning like other companies. Finished the day feeling pretty confident about my performance and to my surprise got a call from the recruiter the very same night with a verbal offer !
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
The main consideration in my case was the move from California to Seattle. After a long but mainly cordial back and forth with the recruiter settled on the number involving relocation. They were inflexible on the base-pay but were open to negotiate on everything else. Microsoft offers a sweet relo package to almost everyone and I was just shuffling numbers within their package. But in the end agreed on a number for the temp-housing and cash payout to cover expenses. We had to also rent out a house in CA as a result so had to account for that too. But in the end given the fact that Washington has no state income tax and the lower cost of living I believe I got a decent bump in my overall compensation compared to what I was making in the Bay Area.
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Sep 1, 2010
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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 Jul 2010 in Redmond, WA (took 1+ week)
I was originally interviewed for a team where afterthe full loop of 6 interviews, the hiring manager ran into a headcount problem. She talked to another team in the same org and they contacted me. The hiring manager gave me general overview and invited me to come over to Redmond. I had another full loop of five interviews - the last one with the General Manager who told me he will make me an offer. When I returned to the hotel, the reruiter called me and told me everything was good.
Questions were all about problem solving and writing code on the white board. There were also questions on past work experiences, challenges faced, etc.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
I was offered a level lesser than what I expected. I was able to negotiate it with the hiring manager.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Jun 8, 2010
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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 Apr 2008 (took a day)
The HR coordinator was full of enthusiasm and made the experience enjoyable. There were 5 back to back interviews lasting 6 hours in total. Interviews were mostly technical questions, testing ability to think, write code, and less of a knowledge test.
Advice: go with a free mind and enjoy the experience. Do not pressure yourself too much on getting the job - if you get the jo that is bonus, but focus on giving your best and learning from the discussions.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft
Posted Dec 18, 2009
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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 Dec 2009 in Redmond, WA (took a day)
They plan 3 interviews. If they go well, another three may be scheduled. Else, the candidate is rejected.
I got stumped on a coding question to write all possible string combinations that can be generated by pressing a variable number of cell phone keys. My head is still reeling. Th rest of the questions were on experience and were fairly easy. The coding question was the deal breaker.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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