Microsoft

Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington

December 1, 2016

Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

On-Campus and On-Site Interviews at Redmond

Contacted by a recruiter for an on-campus interview opportunity. This was a short screening interview with some behavioral questions and a coding question, for which pseudocode was sufficient.

The on-site interview consisted of four 45-minute rounds. Both behavioral and coding questions were asked in each round. It was a great experience.

Questions

behavior questions and coding questions

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 214 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Development Engineer role in Redmond, Washington.

Success Rate

45%

Pass Rate

Microsoft's interview process for their Software Development Engineer roles in Redmond, Washington is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive75%

Neutral17%

Negative8%

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

Microsoft Work Experiences

Worked on archaic legacy code with really awesome, incredibly smart, passionate, and dedicated people

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

February 22, 2014

Pros: The people: smart, passionate, interesting. The perks: events, fitness benefit, Prime Card, Orca Card, pay. The location: close to Seattle, beautiful campus. The company: cool new things, also industry staples, tons of opportunities and niches.

Cons: Many older products involve tackling a lot of legacy code and trying to read the minds of developers past. This is conducive to developing highly specialized skills, but not necessarily to more widely applicable technical growth.

Worked on archaic legacy code with really awesome, incredibly smart, passionate, and dedicated people

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

February 22, 2014

Pros: The people: smart, passionate, interesting. The perks: events, fitness benefit, Prime Card, Orca Card, pay. The location: close to Seattle, beautiful campus. The company: cool new things, also industry staples, tons of opportunities and niches.

Cons: Many older products involve tackling a lot of legacy code and trying to read the minds of developers past. This is conducive to developing highly specialized skills, but not necessarily to more widely applicable technical growth.

Refusal to Change: Microsoft Tries the Same Tactics 30 Years Later

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Stability. Microsoft isn't going anywhere for a quite a while, and as long as you don't totally screw up, if they do close down your division or restructure, they are good about placing you somewhere else within the company. Working conditions are generally good. It's really hard to get fired from Microsoft, which is great for the employee.

Cons: Microsoft is made up of so much bureaucracy and red tape that it's difficult to really feel like you make a difference until you're higher up the chain. There are so many layers of management and so many silos that it's very difficult to get anything beyond trivial tasks done in a decent length of time. This leads to huge investments of time and money that probably aren't truly necessary.

Refusal to Change: Microsoft Tries the Same Tactics 30 Years Later

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Stability. Microsoft isn't going anywhere for a quite a while, and as long as you don't totally screw up, if they do close down your division or restructure, they are good about placing you somewhere else within the company. Working conditions are generally good. It's really hard to get fired from Microsoft, which is great for the employee.

Cons: Microsoft is made up of so much bureaucracy and red tape that it's difficult to really feel like you make a difference until you're higher up the chain. There are so many layers of management and so many silos that it's very difficult to get anything beyond trivial tasks done in a decent length of time. This leads to huge investments of time and money that probably aren't truly necessary.

Solid coding in a varied but siloed environment

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 31, 2012

Pros: Tons of within-company opportunities, lots of data to work with. You can find great people, and your work affects millions and millions of people.

Cons: Bureaucratic engineering practices lag industry standards in many teams. The organization is anything but lean; there are plenty of leeches.

Solid coding in a varied but siloed environment

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 31, 2012

Pros: Tons of within-company opportunities, lots of data to work with. You can find great people, and your work affects millions and millions of people.

Cons: Bureaucratic engineering practices lag industry standards in many teams. The organization is anything but lean; there are plenty of leeches.

Worked on archaic legacy code with really awesome, incredibly smart, passionate, and dedicated people

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

February 22, 2014

Pros: The people: smart, passionate, interesting. The perks: events, fitness benefit, Prime Card, Orca Card, pay. The location: close to Seattle, beautiful campus. The company: cool new things, also industry staples, tons of opportunities and niches.

Cons: Many older products involve tackling a lot of legacy code and trying to read the minds of developers past. This is conducive to developing highly specialized skills, but not necessarily to more widely applicable technical growth.

4.0
Worked on archaic legacy code with really awesome, incredibly smart, passionate, and dedicated people
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
February 22, 2014
Pros: The people: smart, passionate, interesting. The perks: events, fitness benefit, Prime Card, Orca Card, pay. The location: close to Seattle, beautiful campus. The company: cool new things, also industry staples, tons of opportunities and niches.
Cons: Many older products involve tackling a lot of legacy code and trying to read the minds of developers past. This is conducive to developing highly specialized skills, but not necessarily to more widely applicable technical growth.

Refusal to Change: Microsoft Tries the Same Tactics 30 Years Later

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Stability. Microsoft isn't going anywhere for a quite a while, and as long as you don't totally screw up, if they do close down your division or restructure, they are good about placing you somewhere else within the company. Working conditions are generally good. It's really hard to get fired from Microsoft, which is great for the employee.

Cons: Microsoft is made up of so much bureaucracy and red tape that it's difficult to really feel like you make a difference until you're higher up the chain. There are so many layers of management and so many silos that it's very difficult to get anything beyond trivial tasks done in a decent length of time. This leads to huge investments of time and money that probably aren't truly necessary.

2.0
Refusal to Change: Microsoft Tries the Same Tactics 30 Years Later
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
April 24, 2008
Pros: Stability. Microsoft isn't going anywhere for a quite a while, and as long as you don't totally screw up, if they do close down your division or restructure, they are good about placing you somewhere else within the company. Working conditions are generally good. It's really hard to get fired from Microsoft, which is great for the employee.
Cons: Microsoft is made up of so much bureaucracy and red tape that it's difficult to really feel like you make a difference until you're higher up the chain. There are so many layers of management and so many silos that it's very difficult to get anything beyond trivial tasks done in a decent length of time. This leads to huge investments of time and money that probably aren't truly necessary.

Solid coding in a varied but siloed environment

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 31, 2012

Pros: Tons of within-company opportunities, lots of data to work with. You can find great people, and your work affects millions and millions of people.

Cons: Bureaucratic engineering practices lag industry standards in many teams. The organization is anything but lean; there are plenty of leeches.

4.0
Solid coding in a varied but siloed environment
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
October 31, 2012
Pros: Tons of within-company opportunities, lots of data to work with. You can find great people, and your work affects millions and millions of people.
Cons: Bureaucratic engineering practices lag industry standards in many teams. The organization is anything but lean; there are plenty of leeches.

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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