Microsoft

Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington

November 1, 2017

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I was contacted by a recruiter for a hiring event organized by one of the groups at Microsoft. Overall, it was a very smooth interview experience. First, I was asked to complete a 1-hour online test, and following that, I attended an onsite event.

Questions

Two system design interviews, two coding interviews.

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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

Interesting Problems, Bureaucratic Blocks

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Great benefits. Redmond campus has some great places to work. Always a ton of interesting problems to solve. Impact on computing, software development, and most anyone who uses a computer is hard to overstate.

Cons: Huge company, not even a company really, but a ton of smaller companies that don't always work well together. Huge products like Windows, Office, etc., can stifle innovation that might lead to competition. Many larger groups are run top-down, and giving feedback can be difficult, especially around arbitrary technical decisions.

Interesting Problems, Bureaucratic Blocks

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Great benefits. Redmond campus has some great places to work. Always a ton of interesting problems to solve. Impact on computing, software development, and most anyone who uses a computer is hard to overstate.

Cons: Huge company, not even a company really, but a ton of smaller companies that don't always work well together. Huge products like Windows, Office, etc., can stifle innovation that might lead to competition. Many larger groups are run top-down, and giving feedback can be difficult, especially around arbitrary technical decisions.

Innovative Projects, Low Referral Bonus

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Very dedicated, knowledgeable, energetic, and nice colleagues around every team I met here. We try to seek solutions from both our internal codebase as well as open-source projects out there. This is definitely different from what I've heard about MSFT before joining.

Cons: The referral program has some constraints that may pull the company's leg. For example, we can't refer college graduates, while almost all those SV startups can (they even do internal referrals for interns). The referral bonus is lower than the competitors'.

Innovative Projects, Low Referral Bonus

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Very dedicated, knowledgeable, energetic, and nice colleagues around every team I met here. We try to seek solutions from both our internal codebase as well as open-source projects out there. This is definitely different from what I've heard about MSFT before joining.

Cons: The referral program has some constraints that may pull the company's leg. For example, we can't refer college graduates, while almost all those SV startups can (they even do internal referrals for interns). The referral bonus is lower than the competitors'.

Work-life balance

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: You manage your own time (with some limitations), but pretty much, if you are not in a very important phase of a milestone, you can manage your own time while you still deliver. They will never ask you to work on weekends or stay late. If needed, they'll pay for food or other treats.

Cons: Not much negative that I could say here, as I haven't experienced any. This might vary from team to team, though.

Work-life balance

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: You manage your own time (with some limitations), but pretty much, if you are not in a very important phase of a milestone, you can manage your own time while you still deliver. They will never ask you to work on weekends or stay late. If needed, they'll pay for food or other treats.

Cons: Not much negative that I could say here, as I haven't experienced any. This might vary from team to team, though.

Interesting Problems, Bureaucratic Blocks

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Great benefits. Redmond campus has some great places to work. Always a ton of interesting problems to solve. Impact on computing, software development, and most anyone who uses a computer is hard to overstate.

Cons: Huge company, not even a company really, but a ton of smaller companies that don't always work well together. Huge products like Windows, Office, etc., can stifle innovation that might lead to competition. Many larger groups are run top-down, and giving feedback can be difficult, especially around arbitrary technical decisions.

3.0
Interesting Problems, Bureaucratic Blocks
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
June 11, 2014
Pros: Great benefits. Redmond campus has some great places to work. Always a ton of interesting problems to solve. Impact on computing, software development, and most anyone who uses a computer is hard to overstate.
Cons: Huge company, not even a company really, but a ton of smaller companies that don't always work well together. Huge products like Windows, Office, etc., can stifle innovation that might lead to competition. Many larger groups are run top-down, and giving feedback can be difficult, especially around arbitrary technical decisions.

Innovative Projects, Low Referral Bonus

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Very dedicated, knowledgeable, energetic, and nice colleagues around every team I met here. We try to seek solutions from both our internal codebase as well as open-source projects out there. This is definitely different from what I've heard about MSFT before joining.

Cons: The referral program has some constraints that may pull the company's leg. For example, we can't refer college graduates, while almost all those SV startups can (they even do internal referrals for interns). The referral bonus is lower than the competitors'.

5.0
Innovative Projects, Low Referral Bonus
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
May 3, 2016
Pros: Very dedicated, knowledgeable, energetic, and nice colleagues around every team I met here. We try to seek solutions from both our internal codebase as well as open-source projects out there. This is definitely different from what I've heard about MSFT before joining.
Cons: The referral program has some constraints that may pull the company's leg. For example, we can't refer college graduates, while almost all those SV startups can (they even do internal referrals for interns). The referral bonus is lower than the competitors'.

Work-life balance

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: You manage your own time (with some limitations), but pretty much, if you are not in a very important phase of a milestone, you can manage your own time while you still deliver. They will never ask you to work on weekends or stay late. If needed, they'll pay for food or other treats.

Cons: Not much negative that I could say here, as I haven't experienced any. This might vary from team to team, though.

5.0
Work-life balance
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
May 17, 2014
Pros: You manage your own time (with some limitations), but pretty much, if you are not in a very important phase of a milestone, you can manage your own time while you still deliver. They will never ask you to work on weekends or stay late. If needed, they'll pay for food or other treats.
Cons: Not much negative that I could say here, as I haven't experienced any. This might vary from team to team, though.

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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