Microsoft

Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington

March 1, 2011

Neutral ExperienceGot Offer

Process

The phone interview lasted about 30 minutes. I felt like I underperformed but still got called back.

Scheduling the real interview was a pain but very flexible.

The interview consisted of 5 individual interviews with different employees within the group, one being a phone interview.

Three focused on programming challenges.
One focused on personal motivations/experiences/etc.
The final was a casual interview where I mostly asked questions.

The programming interviews were all on a whiteboard, which was the largest difficulty for me personally.

Questions

Write a non-recursive traversal of a Binary Search Tree using constant space and O(n) run time.

Find a duplicate integer in a list of length K with integers 1...K-1 and one duplicate. Do so in O(n) time with constant space.

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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

First impression of a newbie at MSFT

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: As Bill Gates says: "This is the place where you can change the world." It is quite true. That is probably the single most reason for me to work. Compensation package is at par with industry. Tremendous opportunities for professional and career growth. Clear-cut defined roles and expectations. Best in the nation medical coverage.

Cons: Reviews can be bureaucratic. Very hierarchical levels. There is some lack of direction in terms of technical strategy. Groups are pretty independent and hence, at times, often compete with each other. Some people can lose track with too much job security.

First impression of a newbie at MSFT

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: As Bill Gates says: "This is the place where you can change the world." It is quite true. That is probably the single most reason for me to work. Compensation package is at par with industry. Tremendous opportunities for professional and career growth. Clear-cut defined roles and expectations. Best in the nation medical coverage.

Cons: Reviews can be bureaucratic. Very hierarchical levels. There is some lack of direction in terms of technical strategy. Groups are pretty independent and hence, at times, often compete with each other. Some people can lose track with too much job security.

Great if you have a good lead

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Great benefits including good insurance coverage, a prime card, and company store products.

Cons: The old review system is awful. Maybe the new system is better.

Great if you have a good lead

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Great benefits including good insurance coverage, a prime card, and company store products.

Cons: The old review system is awful. Maybe the new system is better.

Good Balance, Build System Needs Work

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Good work-life balance. Supportive culture.

Cons: Application Build system could use improvement.

Good Balance, Build System Needs Work

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Good work-life balance. Supportive culture.

Cons: Application Build system could use improvement.

First impression of a newbie at MSFT

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: As Bill Gates says: "This is the place where you can change the world." It is quite true. That is probably the single most reason for me to work. Compensation package is at par with industry. Tremendous opportunities for professional and career growth. Clear-cut defined roles and expectations. Best in the nation medical coverage.

Cons: Reviews can be bureaucratic. Very hierarchical levels. There is some lack of direction in terms of technical strategy. Groups are pretty independent and hence, at times, often compete with each other. Some people can lose track with too much job security.

5.0
First impression of a newbie at MSFT
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
June 13, 2008
Pros: As Bill Gates says: "This is the place where you can change the world." It is quite true. That is probably the single most reason for me to work. Compensation package is at par with industry. Tremendous opportunities for professional and career growth. Clear-cut defined roles and expectations. Best in the nation medical coverage.
Cons: Reviews can be bureaucratic. Very hierarchical levels. There is some lack of direction in terms of technical strategy. Groups are pretty independent and hence, at times, often compete with each other. Some people can lose track with too much job security.

Great if you have a good lead

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Great benefits including good insurance coverage, a prime card, and company store products.

Cons: The old review system is awful. Maybe the new system is better.

3.0
Great if you have a good lead
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
April 28, 2014
Pros: Great benefits including good insurance coverage, a prime card, and company store products.
Cons: The old review system is awful. Maybe the new system is better.

Good Balance, Build System Needs Work

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Good work-life balance. Supportive culture.

Cons: Application Build system could use improvement.

4.0
Good Balance, Build System Needs Work
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
April 16, 2020
Pros: Good work-life balance. Supportive culture.
Cons: Application Build system could use improvement.

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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