Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - New Zealand
August 1, 2014
Neutral ExperienceNo Offer
Process
I was recruited by a Microsoft university recruiter. A week later, I had the interview at the university.
There were two interviews, approximately 30 minutes each:
-
Technical Interview:
- Asked about my programming background.
- Asked about technologies I'm interested in that will impact the future, why, how, and who would use them. This was more about passion than technical skills.
- Included coding questions.
-
Personality Interview:
- Went through my resume and asked general HR questions.
- Discussed team and individual projects.
- Asked about why and when I would use different programming languages.
Questions
Reverse a linked list.
Should check for all corner cases and talk aloud about the approach.
Good idea to list all the different inputs and expected outputs:
- Input:
nullExpected Output:null - Input: A single node list Expected Output: The same single node list
- Input: A list with multiple nodes Expected Output: The reversed list with multiple nodes
Was this helpful?
Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Microsoft Software Development Engineer role in New Zealand.
Success Rate
0%
Pass Rate
Microsoft's interview process for their Software Development Engineer roles in New Zealand is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Positive0%
Neutral100%
Negative0%
Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer interview process in New Zealand.
Microsoft Work Experiences
4.0
A very good company to work with, with a lot of opportunities and top-notched engineers. They use cutting-edge technology
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Hyderābād, Telangana, India
September 20, 2014
Pros: Work Culture & Cutting-Edge Technology
Cons: Work-life balance & career growth
3.0
OK place to work. Would not recommend to a new grad unless you get a great group
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
May 10, 2014
Pros: Good pay, stable job, lots of technical resources. MSR has tons of cool stuff going on (but you need a PhD to join).
Cons: Slow-moving (though some groups are getting faster).
Hard for young, passionate people to make a true impact, stifling your desire to keep trying to change things.
Stuck in the MSFT tech stack (.NET).
Bad resume brand if you ever want to go to a smaller company.
Too many PMs often slow things down instead of helping.
Can develop a bad mentality as a dev since focusing on testing is "not your job".
Benefits aren't as good as companies in the Bay Area.
Management and teams are very hit and miss.
Culture just isn't that exciting. Lots of 10+ year vets (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it doesn't seem like many people are eager to shake things up.
Many teams don't seem all that necessary (their cost:output doesn't warrant existence) or don't have clear goals (think internal tool teams, etc).
As a young person, I think it's probably better to end up at a place like Microsoft later in your career.
4.0
Good Facilities, Slow Promotion
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
March 29, 2021
Pros: A good place to work with good facilities.
Cons: Promotion in a company is slow.
- 4.0A very good company to work with, with a lot of opportunities and top-notched engineers. They use cutting-edge technologySoftware Development Engineer • Current EmployeeHyderābād, Telangana, IndiaSeptember 20, 2014Pros: Work Culture & Cutting-Edge TechnologyCons: Work-life balance & career growth
- 3.0OK place to work. Would not recommend to a new grad unless you get a great groupSoftware Development Engineer • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesMay 10, 2014Pros: Good pay, stable job, lots of technical resources. MSR has tons of cool stuff going on (but you need a PhD to join).Cons: Slow-moving (though some groups are getting faster). Hard for young, passionate people to make a true impact, stifling your desire to keep trying to change things. Stuck in the MSFT tech stack (.NET). Bad resume brand if you ever want to go to a smaller company. Too many PMs often slow things down instead of helping. Can develop a bad mentality as a dev since focusing on testing is "not your job". Benefits aren't as good as companies in the Bay Area. Management and teams are very hit and miss. Culture just isn't that exciting. Lots of 10+ year vets (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it doesn't seem like many people are eager to shake things up. Many teams don't seem all that necessary (their cost:output doesn't warrant existence) or don't have clear goals (think internal tool teams, etc). As a young person, I think it's probably better to end up at a place like Microsoft later in your career.
- 4.0Good Facilities, Slow PromotionSoftware Development Engineer • Current EmployeeMarch 29, 2021Pros: A good place to work with good facilities.Cons: Promotion in a company is slow.
Microsoft Interview Questions
Explore Interview QuestionsTaro 75Google Interview QuestionsMeta Interview QuestionsAmazon Interview QuestionsApple Interview QuestionsNetflix Interview Questions
Explore Interview ExperiencesOpenAI Interview ExperiencesAnthropic Interview ExperiencesPerplexity Interview ExperiencesWindsurf Interview ExperiencesMistral AI Interview Experiences
