Microsoft

Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington

March 1, 2021

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The interview process involves four onsite rounds, with the initial round being an online coding assessment. Each round lasted 45 minutes and included two system design and two coding challenges, along with behavioral questions. The system design rounds were the toughest. All the best!

Questions

System Design: Design a messaging queue and implement its interfaces and response classes.
Find Predecessor of a BST: Implement the predecessor finding function for a Binary Search Tree (BST). Discuss recursive versus iterative approaches. The interviewer leaned towards an iterative implementation, but the choice was ultimately ours.
Link Right Nodes in a Binary Tree: Link all right nodes in a binary tree using constant space.
System Design: Design an online word/spreadsheet application where users can post content dynamically, and others can view it concurrently.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 24 interview experiences for the Microsoft Senior Software Engineer role in Redmond, Washington.

Success Rate

29%

Pass Rate

Microsoft's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in Redmond, Washington is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive63%

Neutral4%

Negative33%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Senior Software Engineer interview process in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft Work Experiences

Great place to work and learn

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: A great place to learn from very smart and experienced people. I sometimes hear from people at other employers complain about incompetent coworkers. While I do not agree with everyone (or may think they are arguing for a bad idea), I respect those around me a great deal and often find myself learning a great deal from them. Great opportunities for visibility both internally and externally. Internally, I find that for the most part, accomplishments are recognized and rewarded (either via advancement or individual awards). Externally, I can maybe name a handful of companies where your work will be seen and used by more people during the course of their day.

Cons: The size of the company, the anti-trust laws/rulings/settlements, and management make coordination sometimes difficult. It can be frustrating to have projects with similar goals running that are similar but not working together, or worse, to have projects that are pushing in different directions. It can sometimes feel like a few smaller companies under one masthead rather than one unified whole. The negative perception of the company externally can at times be annoying. The myths and misconceptions regarding Microsoft are many and varied, and it can take a little getting used to (especially to resist the urge to correct them, which is often futile).

Great place to work and learn

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: A great place to learn from very smart and experienced people. I sometimes hear from people at other employers complain about incompetent coworkers. While I do not agree with everyone (or may think they are arguing for a bad idea), I respect those around me a great deal and often find myself learning a great deal from them. Great opportunities for visibility both internally and externally. Internally, I find that for the most part, accomplishments are recognized and rewarded (either via advancement or individual awards). Externally, I can maybe name a handful of companies where your work will be seen and used by more people during the course of their day.

Cons: The size of the company, the anti-trust laws/rulings/settlements, and management make coordination sometimes difficult. It can be frustrating to have projects with similar goals running that are similar but not working together, or worse, to have projects that are pushing in different directions. It can sometimes feel like a few smaller companies under one masthead rather than one unified whole. The negative perception of the company externally can at times be annoying. The myths and misconceptions regarding Microsoft are many and varied, and it can take a little getting used to (especially to resist the urge to correct them, which is often futile).

Great Tech, Culture; Salary Lacks

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Culture, technology used, impact, benefits

Cons: Salary, less fun benefits than other big tech companies.

Great Tech, Culture; Salary Lacks

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Culture, technology used, impact, benefits

Cons: Salary, less fun benefits than other big tech companies.

Bad news, Microsoft

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

August 11, 2008

Pros: Nice benefits package. You can expect average payment if you perform average work. If you can find the "right group", if such exists, you can grow in the company.

Cons: Too political a place. Everything has to make everybody happy, which makes things not work after all. Usually, you get stuck with lousy explanations on why you can't get a raise, a promotion, or a bonus. Most of the time, the managers are "with their hands tied" to get you the rewards.

Bad news, Microsoft

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

August 11, 2008

Pros: Nice benefits package. You can expect average payment if you perform average work. If you can find the "right group", if such exists, you can grow in the company.

Cons: Too political a place. Everything has to make everybody happy, which makes things not work after all. Usually, you get stuck with lousy explanations on why you can't get a raise, a promotion, or a bonus. Most of the time, the managers are "with their hands tied" to get you the rewards.

Great place to work and learn

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: A great place to learn from very smart and experienced people. I sometimes hear from people at other employers complain about incompetent coworkers. While I do not agree with everyone (or may think they are arguing for a bad idea), I respect those around me a great deal and often find myself learning a great deal from them. Great opportunities for visibility both internally and externally. Internally, I find that for the most part, accomplishments are recognized and rewarded (either via advancement or individual awards). Externally, I can maybe name a handful of companies where your work will be seen and used by more people during the course of their day.

Cons: The size of the company, the anti-trust laws/rulings/settlements, and management make coordination sometimes difficult. It can be frustrating to have projects with similar goals running that are similar but not working together, or worse, to have projects that are pushing in different directions. It can sometimes feel like a few smaller companies under one masthead rather than one unified whole. The negative perception of the company externally can at times be annoying. The myths and misconceptions regarding Microsoft are many and varied, and it can take a little getting used to (especially to resist the urge to correct them, which is often futile).

4.0
Great place to work and learn
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
June 19, 2008
Pros: A great place to learn from very smart and experienced people. I sometimes hear from people at other employers complain about incompetent coworkers. While I do not agree with everyone (or may think they are arguing for a bad idea), I respect those around me a great deal and often find myself learning a great deal from them. Great opportunities for visibility both internally and externally. Internally, I find that for the most part, accomplishments are recognized and rewarded (either via advancement or individual awards). Externally, I can maybe name a handful of companies where your work will be seen and used by more people during the course of their day.
Cons: The size of the company, the anti-trust laws/rulings/settlements, and management make coordination sometimes difficult. It can be frustrating to have projects with similar goals running that are similar but not working together, or worse, to have projects that are pushing in different directions. It can sometimes feel like a few smaller companies under one masthead rather than one unified whole. The negative perception of the company externally can at times be annoying. The myths and misconceptions regarding Microsoft are many and varied, and it can take a little getting used to (especially to resist the urge to correct them, which is often futile).

Great Tech, Culture; Salary Lacks

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Culture, technology used, impact, benefits

Cons: Salary, less fun benefits than other big tech companies.

4.0
Great Tech, Culture; Salary Lacks
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
March 27, 2025
Pros: Culture, technology used, impact, benefits
Cons: Salary, less fun benefits than other big tech companies.

Bad news, Microsoft

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

August 11, 2008

Pros: Nice benefits package. You can expect average payment if you perform average work. If you can find the "right group", if such exists, you can grow in the company.

Cons: Too political a place. Everything has to make everybody happy, which makes things not work after all. Usually, you get stuck with lousy explanations on why you can't get a raise, a promotion, or a bonus. Most of the time, the managers are "with their hands tied" to get you the rewards.

2.0
Bad news, Microsoft
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
August 11, 2008
Pros: Nice benefits package. You can expect average payment if you perform average work. If you can find the "right group", if such exists, you can grow in the company.
Cons: Too political a place. Everything has to make everybody happy, which makes things not work after all. Usually, you get stuck with lousy explanations on why you can't get a raise, a promotion, or a bonus. Most of the time, the managers are "with their hands tied" to get you the rewards.

Microsoft Interview Questions

Minimum Edge Reversals So Every Node Is Reachable

You're given a directed graph. Determine the minimum number of edges you need to reverse so that every node becomes reachable from node 0.

GraphsDynamic Programming

Two Sum

Find two numbers in a given array that add up to a specific target value, and return their indices. Essentially, you need to efficiently locate the pair that satisfies the sum requirement.

Valid Word

Determine if a given word is considered valid based on a specific set of rules or constraints. The goal is to check if the input string adheres to the specified validation criteria.

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