Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington
Process
This was a college campus interview process. Microsoft makes it a point to hire bigtime from colleges.
They had a booth at the career fair, and I submitted my resume there. I was shortlisted for an interview on campus.
This was just a screening interview, and the interviewer asked about some of the interesting problems I had solved. We dived into some technical details, and at the end of this 40-minute interview, he told me to wait for further communication.
It was all very quick, and they called me for an onsite interview in Redmond. It consisted of meeting with five people on the day of the main interview, and each meeting was around one hour. It involved coding, algorithms, and analytical questions.
Overall, the interview process was a positive one. Great treatment and a very professional process.
Questions
One of the difficult questions was about solving a puzzle with a good algorithm and coding it up as well. I don't recall the puzzle's name now, but the solution involved using a linked list (circular) and writing some classes and methods. In the end, testing was also required for this solution.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 128 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) role in Redmond, Washington.
Success Rate
Microsoft's interview process for their Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) roles in Redmond, Washington is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) interview process in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft Work Experiences
- 2.0Good stable jobSoftware Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesFebruary 8, 2011Pros: Good benefits. Stable job. Lots of teams and opportunities to work on different technologies. Great developers. Respected by other people.Cons: Very slow career growth. Some of the teams have become too big and lethargic. Not a lot of room for innovation on the job.
- 5.0Great company, good benefitsSoftware Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesSeptember 21, 2014Pros: It's a nice working environment.Cons: Often feels like advancement is difficult.
- 3.0Good if you are a real fan, not for you otherwiseSoftware Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Former EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesSeptember 2, 2014Pros: The company really cares about its employees. They offer great benefits, perks, and a great campus. The work-life balance is really good too. You get to work on products millions use, and if you love MS technologies... well, you are using/creating them.Cons: If you are not a real fan of Microsoft technologies, consider yourself tied up; you won't work on anything else other than MS-specific technologies/environments. This makes sense from the "protect your own brand" point of view, but I found it really annoying to be closed off to great technologies you have access to in all other companies. (Let's say, to use Ruby/Python for a side team stats project, you will probably be looked at like a weird being.) That for sure makes you fall behind other engineers in the market, limiting your scope of development. The so-known calibration at the yearly performance review creates a working environment of "I won't help you because I don't want you to be above me," and I really felt that. I was even criticized for helping other teams in my organization because I should have given total priority to my team (it's not that I was not doing anything for my team, but I was the one that could help the other teams, and that also benefited us).
Microsoft Interview Questions
