Microsoft Software Development Engineer Intern Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – I got my first interview by persistently approaching Microsoft at my university's career fairs. My first interview was a typical screening interview, but face-to-face on campus instead of the usual phone interview. I was asked open-ended questions, such as how I would design an alarm clock for a blind person and what my favorite computer application was and why.

The next stage of the interview process was a fly-out to Microsoft's headquarters for a full day's worth of interviewing. All the travel and lodging was paid for by Microsoft and was organized very well. I had a recruiter at Microsoft who was in charge of planning my interviews, talking with the interviewers and making the final hire decision. He was a bit pushy, but I can't say that's representative of all Microsoft recruiters. I got to the recruiting building in the morning and met my recruiter face-to-face with a few other students who were also interviewing for internships. We were given the name of our first interviewer and a description of their group and then shuttled off to different buildings to meet them.

All the interviews took place in the interviewer's day-to-day office, which was nice because I got a chance to see their normal work place and get a feel for the company culture. Microsoft is actually very laid back compared to what I had imagined. There are no cubicles, all of the full-time employees get their own office. The dress is very casual, and the normal dress seems to be a polo shirt or t-shirt and jeans. I decided to dress business casual that day (a collared shirt tucked into khakis) even though everyone had told me to wear a suit. Even then, two of my interviewers commented about how dressed up I was! The building I interviewed in had an XBox lounge (they bought a Wii too later that summer) and a kitchen stocked with free coffee and soda on each floor.

My first two interviews were about an hour each and were pretty standard technical interviews. My third interview went a bit longer because we went out for lunch and talked casually (although this was still considered part of the interview). When we came back from lunch, I still had to answer a technical question before I set off for my fourth interview. My first three interviews were all with the same team and took place in the same building, but my fourth interview was with a different team.

At the end of the day, I went back to the recruiting building and waited for the results of my last interview to come back to my recruiter. I did well enough that I got offers from both teams I had interviewed. Note that my recruiter said that it usually takes about a week to make a decision on hire or no-hire for an intern, so this was an exception. However, this actually wasn't all too helpful because they still only gave me one week to make a decision! My recruiter really pushed me to make a decision as soon as possible but didn't respond to my emails for the first half of the week (in his defense, he was sick), so I pushed my decision a bit longer than a week. I wish I had been given more time to interview with other companies, but I didn't push my decision any further and decided to accept the offer (after all, it was a pretty good offer).

Negotiation Details – The offer was non-negotiable.

Interview Details – I only made it to the first phone interview since they caught me on their typical questions. After asking about my motivation for the role they asked about my projects and experience.

Interview Details – First interview - technical test (C and C++)
Second interview - Group discussion - possibly trying to see how you'd communicate and listen in a group setting
Third interview - Technical panel interview (linked list and other data structures)

Interview Details – There were 2 fairly straightforward written tests on campus , then they took a few days for the result there a phone interview, after which they took some time for the result, then there were 2 rounds of on site interviews after which they chose 2 interns.
questions were pretty straightforward , like reversing the link list, zig zag in link list

Interview Details – First round on campus interview (30 min) - Asked a few questions about my resume and experience. Only 1 technical question which I knew was easy but was too nervous to convey my thoughts properly.

Interview Details – I applied online for an internship at Microsoft website, and got a email the following day. The interview was about 30 minutes over the phone.

Interview Details – First round of on-campus 1:1 interviews for prospective SDE interns. Nothing special, just a few behavioral questions and then one or two algorithm/technical questions on the board. The behavioral and technical questions are the same as would be expected of any other software company.

Interview Details – I gave my resume at my university's career fair. The initial 1:1 interview took place at my university and lasted 30 minutes. The interview took place in person (not over the phone) and was conducted by an engineering manager. A few weeks later Microsoft flew me out to Redmond for additional interviews. I had 1:1 interviews with four managers each of which consisted of both technical and behavioral questions. I also had a lunch interview with one of the managers.

Negotiation Details – Microsoft does not negotiate salary or benefits for the SDE internship. They make a generous offer that is as good or better than any in the industry.

Interview Details – it was all behavioral questions, no technical questions at all which was strange.