Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington
Process
A couple of recruiters came to our school last winter looking for a few candidates. They conducted an initial screen that was easy as hell, basically all HR questions. This kind of dodged the phone screens.
I was called for an on-site interview after a month and flew to Seattle, WA, to interview at their Redmond HQ.
The on-site interview consisted of four interviews, each one hour long. They were technically taxing from start to end.
Most of the questions (which I don't really remember now) were new to me. Most involved coding on the whiteboard. I took the algorithm-first, code-later approach. Most topics dealt with data structures, algorithms, and some logical thinking (I got to design and code the initial moves in Checkers).
Questions
The last question:
Given some hardware, design and code a file system (of course, very high level).
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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
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
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer interview process in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft Work Experiences
- 5.0Great place to workSoftware Development Engineer • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesJanuary 8, 2015Pros: The company is very forward-looking with the new leadership (Satya). The culture is rapidly evolving to be caught up with, or ahead of, the competition. It has a wide reach, with lots of opportunities to make an impact on the world. Time-off is very flexible. Work-life balance is well managed on most teams.Cons: Lots of legacy/historical processes are slowing down the company, making work frustrating at times. Currently, there is a lot of churn to reach the "ideal state" as quickly as possible (as mentioned in the pros). Company culture is still not very in-tune with the rest of the market and how competitors do their business at a tactical level, but this is improving in the last year.
- 2.0Basking in its former glorySoftware Development Engineer • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesAugust 19, 2016Pros: - Benefits - Discounts and perks - Shuttles and connector bus serviceCons: - Employees are not considered 'first' as they once were. - Motivational events are much smaller than they used to be, if held at all. - Too many egos create an annoying work environment. - The company is moving toward open offices, which are worse than cubicles. - Reviews tend to rank employees against one another, which creates a culture of non-collaboration. - Expectations have risen so high (since Satya took over) that only the 'heroes' who work 70 hours a week and on vacation actually have a chance of meeting them.
- 4.0Great experience working with mission-critical projectsSoftware Development Engineer • Former EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesMarch 9, 2015Pros: Great internship program! Real-world projects.Cons: None to highlight from my experience.
Microsoft Interview Questions
