Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Interview Experience - Mountain View, California
January 1, 2011
Neutral ExperienceNo Offer
Process
The interview consisted of two written tests, two telephonic interviews, and one face-to-face interview where I met six people.
I was very interested in the development position, but somehow they pushed me to take the SDET interview.
The team was friendly.
I was asked a couple of standard puzzles and technical questions related to:
- Linked lists
- Dictionaries
- Doubly linked lists
- Binary trees
- Reversing words in a string, etc.
They also asked whether I was passionate about testing, and I was not.
Although all the rounds went fine, they probably felt I was not at all interested or passionate about testing, and they made the right decision of not giving me an offer :-)).
Questions
Reverse words in a string.
Write the data structure for a dictionary.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 7 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) role in Mountain View, California.
Success Rate
43%
Pass Rate
Microsoft's interview process for their Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) roles in Mountain View, California is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive71%
Neutral29%
Negative0%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) interview process in Mountain View, California.
Microsoft Work Experiences
3.0
yet another big company
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
September 17, 2014
Pros: Microsoft has a good brand in both enterprise and customer markets. There are a lot of smart people around.
Cons: Micromanagement. Managers were really mean. Some old-timers were rude. Very poor work-life balance.
5.0
A great place to end up working, after you've had your fill of startups
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
May 25, 2008
Pros: Reasonable work hours ("crunch" weeks are far and few between), excellent benefits (all-inclusive - no copayments even required), regional pay adjustments for cost-of-living differences (Bay Area pay was 15% higher than "standard" salaries for comparable job levels when I first joined).
I've also had very good experiences with being rewarded for doing good work, in the form of stock awards, cash bonuses, and time off.
Products being developed are very diverse, so there's a great opportunity to move between different technologies, markets, and even project scales (hundred-man projects down to teams of just a handful of people).
The company is very stable (having been around a while).
Cons: Big company mentality - it often feels like there isn't much innovation going on. Sometimes it seems like the cards are stacked against trying to do something too new or creative.
It's also a bit frustrating at times to be under the restraints of all of the antitrust suits which have been going on. Cross-product integration is very tightly examined to ensure there will be no legal ramifications, down to one case where a partner team couldn't explain the format of data they were consuming to our team, because doing so would require them to document/explain it to the general public.
3.0
Good Benefits, Bad Management
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former Employee
Mountain View, California, United States
September 8, 2008
Pros: Lots of resources and career development benefits, a cushy job, and you can't get fired. Decent benefits and great health insurance.
Cons: Away from the mothership in Redmond, you won't get rich. There's a limited number of groups to move into. You're shackled by upper management decisions in Redmond. Integration is a problem.
- 3.0yet another big companySoftware Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesSeptember 17, 2014Pros: Microsoft has a good brand in both enterprise and customer markets. There are a lot of smart people around.Cons: Micromanagement. Managers were really mean. Some old-timers were rude. Very poor work-life balance.
- 5.0A great place to end up working, after you've had your fill of startupsSoftware Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesMay 25, 2008Pros: Reasonable work hours ("crunch" weeks are far and few between), excellent benefits (all-inclusive - no copayments even required), regional pay adjustments for cost-of-living differences (Bay Area pay was 15% higher than "standard" salaries for comparable job levels when I first joined). I've also had very good experiences with being rewarded for doing good work, in the form of stock awards, cash bonuses, and time off. Products being developed are very diverse, so there's a great opportunity to move between different technologies, markets, and even project scales (hundred-man projects down to teams of just a handful of people). The company is very stable (having been around a while).Cons: Big company mentality - it often feels like there isn't much innovation going on. Sometimes it seems like the cards are stacked against trying to do something too new or creative. It's also a bit frustrating at times to be under the restraints of all of the antitrust suits which have been going on. Cross-product integration is very tightly examined to ensure there will be no legal ramifications, down to one case where a partner team couldn't explain the format of data they were consuming to our team, because doing so would require them to document/explain it to the general public.
- 3.0Good Benefits, Bad ManagementSoftware Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesSeptember 8, 2008Pros: Lots of resources and career development benefits, a cushy job, and you can't get fired. Decent benefits and great health insurance.Cons: Away from the mothership in Redmond, you won't get rich. There's a limited number of groups to move into. You're shackled by upper management decisions in Redmond. Integration is a problem.
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