Senior Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington
Process
There were a total of 3 interviews, as I am an internal candidate.
The first two interviews focused on data structures, and the third was about design.
This totaled 3 hours.
The data structure questions were related to graph theory and dynamic programming.
The design question involved building a scalable notification system.
Interviewers asked about recent experiences, challenges, and my reasons for seeking a change.
The questions were closely related to the problems the teams are working on.
Questions
The technical questions are:
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How do you find if a directed graph is a tree and code for it?
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Dynamic programming - 5 Painters to paint homes at the least cost. Given different costs for painting with three choice colors. Condition: No adjacent homes in the five houses in a row can have the same color.
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Design a scalable notification system.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 21 interview experiences for the Microsoft Senior Software Development Engineer role in Redmond, Washington.
Success Rate
Microsoft's interview process for their Senior Software Development Engineer roles in Redmond, Washington is on the easier side as most engineers get an offer after going through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Senior Software Development Engineer interview process in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft Work Experiences
- 3.0Good company with a lot of smart people, but difficult to make a differenceSenior Software Development Engineer • Former EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesMarch 9, 2015Pros: Benefits are great. There are a lot of smart people to learn from, and management is driven by opinion and personality.Cons: It was difficult to get meaningful work done.
- 5.0Highly competitive environmentSenior Software Development Engineer • Former EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesJanuary 6, 2013Pros: There will always be work to do that keeps you challenged and focused.Cons: Performance is very much dependent on constantly completing tasks above and beyond.
- 2.0Overall a great learning experience. However, lethargic career growth and lack of opportunitiesSenior Software Development Engineer • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesJanuary 16, 2011Pros: Difficult challenges. Learn to build large-scale software. Colleagues are pretty smart folks.Cons: Large and small scale politics. If you upset the wrong person for whatever reason, prepare to have your career derailed. The review process is a joke and widely considered a popularity contest. Being "calibrated" against others in your level band and requiring leadership to decide on the bottom 10% each year. You could have 10 great people on your team, but you have to single out one as a 10%er, which basically means they might as well be fired.
Microsoft Interview Questions
