Microsoft

Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Canada

June 5, 2020

Neutral ExperienceGot Offer

Process

Two rounds of interviews.

The initial interview was an hour-long Skype call with HR. This was followed by an on-premise loop that lasted about half a day and included:

Development Manager for Bing
Test Manager for Skype
Senior Engineer for Skype
Two other leads

Questions

Whiteboard questions around data structures, programming, and system design.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 68 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Development Engineer role in Canada.

Success Rate

16%

Pass Rate

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

Experience Rating

Positive49%

Neutral34%

Negative18%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer interview process in Canada.

Microsoft Work Experiences

Overall Awesome, Needs Improvement

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

February 9, 2024

Pros: Good Excellent Wow Awesome Perfect

Cons: Ok, good. We can go join.

Overall Awesome, Needs Improvement

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

February 9, 2024

Pros: Good Excellent Wow Awesome Perfect

Cons: Ok, good. We can go join.

Good Office, Bad Balance

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Beijing, Beijing, China

Pros: Very good office, comprehensive HR support, humanitarian vacation policy, opportunity to work with global colleagues.

Cons: Many technologies Microsoft used were proprietary and not popular with other companies. The salary is not competitive. Microsoft is not the giant it once was. The work/life balance in my team is very bad.

Good Office, Bad Balance

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Beijing, Beijing, China

Pros: Very good office, comprehensive HR support, humanitarian vacation policy, opportunity to work with global colleagues.

Cons: Many technologies Microsoft used were proprietary and not popular with other companies. The salary is not competitive. Microsoft is not the giant it once was. The work/life balance in my team is very bad.

Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 24, 2013

Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.

Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 24, 2013

Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.

Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

Overall Awesome, Needs Improvement

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

February 9, 2024

Pros: Good Excellent Wow Awesome Perfect

Cons: Ok, good. We can go join.

5.0
Overall Awesome, Needs Improvement
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
February 9, 2024
Pros: Good Excellent Wow Awesome Perfect
Cons: Ok, good. We can go join.

Good Office, Bad Balance

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Beijing, Beijing, China

Pros: Very good office, comprehensive HR support, humanitarian vacation policy, opportunity to work with global colleagues.

Cons: Many technologies Microsoft used were proprietary and not popular with other companies. The salary is not competitive. Microsoft is not the giant it once was. The work/life balance in my team is very bad.

3.0
Good Office, Bad Balance
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Beijing, Beijing, China
April 24, 2015
Pros: Very good office, comprehensive HR support, humanitarian vacation policy, opportunity to work with global colleagues.
Cons: Many technologies Microsoft used were proprietary and not popular with other companies. The salary is not competitive. Microsoft is not the giant it once was. The work/life balance in my team is very bad.

Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 24, 2013

Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.

Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

2.0
Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
October 24, 2013
Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.
Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

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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