Microsoft

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington

November 1, 2013

Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

I was contacted through school recruiting and scheduled a university campus interview. It lasted 30 minutes and I was asked several behavioral questions and one coding question at the end.

I was asked things like:

Which software layer you want to impact the most (UI, application, etc.).
What is the most technical problem you have faced and how did you overcome it?

The interviewer was very helpful and clarified any of my questions during the coding part.

Questions

The coding question was how to detect if a singly linked list is cyclic. Also, discuss optimization of the solution and code it in any language of your choice.

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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

49%

Pass 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

Positive66%

Neutral23%

Negative12%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) interview process in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft Work Experiences

At some points, it's a challenge, but it gets flat after some time

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

January 27, 2014

Pros: Good work-life balance. People always willing to help.

Cons: Company not moving fast enough, most of the time doing catch-up. New teams are usually good; old ones are mostly for code maintenance and debugging, with no new work. Intra-company job changes require a full interview process, which decreases workforce mobility inside the company.

At some points, it's a challenge, but it gets flat after some time

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

January 27, 2014

Pros: Good work-life balance. People always willing to help.

Cons: Company not moving fast enough, most of the time doing catch-up. New teams are usually good; old ones are mostly for code maintenance and debugging, with no new work. Intra-company job changes require a full interview process, which decreases workforce mobility inside the company.

Great diverse, high-tech company to work for

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: - Company tries hard to provide a career path to engineers based on their needs. - Very diverse set of technologies that the company is working on, allowing engineers to move to different positions as they desire (after a certain time of contribution). - Great campus environment with great facilities. - Excellent café and kitchen. - Rich set of internal communities folks can join based on interest.

Cons: - Too often, organization realignment in the company, if impacted, makes people distracted. - Very rigid review system.

Great diverse, high-tech company to work for

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: - Company tries hard to provide a career path to engineers based on their needs. - Very diverse set of technologies that the company is working on, allowing engineers to move to different positions as they desire (after a certain time of contribution). - Great campus environment with great facilities. - Excellent café and kitchen. - Rich set of internal communities folks can join based on interest.

Cons: - Too often, organization realignment in the company, if impacted, makes people distracted. - Very rigid review system.

Not such a bad place

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

February 20, 2009

Pros: The technical people here are exceptional. I've worked with leaders and pioneers in my field much earlier in my career than I could have hoped to. I also like the breadth of products that Microsoft builds, so the freedom to move from product to product as my career grows is valuable to me. My coworkers across the company are also a great resource. I've learned a lot about several Microsoft products in great depth thanks to help from my coworkers. The perks are also great: * Free health care * A great gym membership * Lots of paid time off * And of course living in the Pacific Northwest.

Cons: The work-life balance is totally random. Some weeks/months I'll be able to do whatever I want, but some months I'll work 80+ hour weeks a few weeks in a row. Management attempts to fix this, but I've seen the pattern of poor planning saved by last-minute heroics a few times now. We also have a tendency to get out of touch with reality. Not everyone in the real world has a quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM and fast internet at home, but we get lulled into making that assumption because everyone we know here has all that stuff.

Not such a bad place

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

February 20, 2009

Pros: The technical people here are exceptional. I've worked with leaders and pioneers in my field much earlier in my career than I could have hoped to. I also like the breadth of products that Microsoft builds, so the freedom to move from product to product as my career grows is valuable to me. My coworkers across the company are also a great resource. I've learned a lot about several Microsoft products in great depth thanks to help from my coworkers. The perks are also great: * Free health care * A great gym membership * Lots of paid time off * And of course living in the Pacific Northwest.

Cons: The work-life balance is totally random. Some weeks/months I'll be able to do whatever I want, but some months I'll work 80+ hour weeks a few weeks in a row. Management attempts to fix this, but I've seen the pattern of poor planning saved by last-minute heroics a few times now. We also have a tendency to get out of touch with reality. Not everyone in the real world has a quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM and fast internet at home, but we get lulled into making that assumption because everyone we know here has all that stuff.

At some points, it's a challenge, but it gets flat after some time

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

January 27, 2014

Pros: Good work-life balance. People always willing to help.

Cons: Company not moving fast enough, most of the time doing catch-up. New teams are usually good; old ones are mostly for code maintenance and debugging, with no new work. Intra-company job changes require a full interview process, which decreases workforce mobility inside the company.

3.0
At some points, it's a challenge, but it gets flat after some time
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
January 27, 2014
Pros: Good work-life balance. People always willing to help.
Cons: Company not moving fast enough, most of the time doing catch-up. New teams are usually good; old ones are mostly for code maintenance and debugging, with no new work. Intra-company job changes require a full interview process, which decreases workforce mobility inside the company.

Great diverse, high-tech company to work for

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: - Company tries hard to provide a career path to engineers based on their needs. - Very diverse set of technologies that the company is working on, allowing engineers to move to different positions as they desire (after a certain time of contribution). - Great campus environment with great facilities. - Excellent café and kitchen. - Rich set of internal communities folks can join based on interest.

Cons: - Too often, organization realignment in the company, if impacted, makes people distracted. - Very rigid review system.

4.0
Great diverse, high-tech company to work for
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
March 28, 2013
Pros: - Company tries hard to provide a career path to engineers based on their needs. - Very diverse set of technologies that the company is working on, allowing engineers to move to different positions as they desire (after a certain time of contribution). - Great campus environment with great facilities. - Excellent café and kitchen. - Rich set of internal communities folks can join based on interest.
Cons: - Too often, organization realignment in the company, if impacted, makes people distracted. - Very rigid review system.

Not such a bad place

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

February 20, 2009

Pros: The technical people here are exceptional. I've worked with leaders and pioneers in my field much earlier in my career than I could have hoped to. I also like the breadth of products that Microsoft builds, so the freedom to move from product to product as my career grows is valuable to me. My coworkers across the company are also a great resource. I've learned a lot about several Microsoft products in great depth thanks to help from my coworkers. The perks are also great: * Free health care * A great gym membership * Lots of paid time off * And of course living in the Pacific Northwest.

Cons: The work-life balance is totally random. Some weeks/months I'll be able to do whatever I want, but some months I'll work 80+ hour weeks a few weeks in a row. Management attempts to fix this, but I've seen the pattern of poor planning saved by last-minute heroics a few times now. We also have a tendency to get out of touch with reality. Not everyone in the real world has a quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM and fast internet at home, but we get lulled into making that assumption because everyone we know here has all that stuff.

4.0
Not such a bad place
Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET) • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
February 20, 2009
Pros: The technical people here are exceptional. I've worked with leaders and pioneers in my field much earlier in my career than I could have hoped to. I also like the breadth of products that Microsoft builds, so the freedom to move from product to product as my career grows is valuable to me. My coworkers across the company are also a great resource. I've learned a lot about several Microsoft products in great depth thanks to help from my coworkers. The perks are also great: * Free health care * A great gym membership * Lots of paid time off * And of course living in the Pacific Northwest.
Cons: The work-life balance is totally random. Some weeks/months I'll be able to do whatever I want, but some months I'll work 80+ hour weeks a few weeks in a row. Management attempts to fix this, but I've seen the pattern of poor planning saved by last-minute heroics a few times now. We also have a tendency to get out of touch with reality. Not everyone in the real world has a quad-core computer with 8GB of RAM and fast internet at home, but we get lulled into making that assumption because everyone we know here has all that stuff.

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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