Microsoft

Software Development Engineer Interview Experience - Redmond, Washington

November 11, 2012

Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

1-hour technical phone screen 8-hour on-site technical interview (including with hiring manager)

After this round, I was told by a recruiter that although the team generally thought I was competent, they didn't unanimously feel I was the right fit for this team. This was probably accurate since I didn't ask many insightful questions about the team during the on-site.

So, the recruiter forwarded my resume to a few other teams, and I began the entire process again:

2x 1-hour technical phone screens (with 2 different teams)
1-hour in-person technical screen
2x 6-hour on-site interviews

In all honesty, I found both of these teams to be more interesting. I asked more insightful questions, and I believe that contributed to getting an offer.

Questions

Phone screens seemed to like bit-twiddling questions.

On-site was all about data structures: hashes, linked lists, trees, sets, etc.

Was this helpful?

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

Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 24, 2013

Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.

Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 24, 2013

Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.

Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

Good Pay, Bad Management

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: 1. Compensation is relatively good. 2. Work-life balance. 3. Private office.

Cons: 1. Unhealthy manager-to-engineer proportion. 2. Many managers lack technical backgrounds. 3. Micromanagement. 4. Slow business processes. 5. Microsoft's technology stack, featuring many outdated approaches.

Good Pay, Bad Management

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: 1. Compensation is relatively good. 2. Work-life balance. 3. Private office.

Cons: 1. Unhealthy manager-to-engineer proportion. 2. Many managers lack technical backgrounds. 3. Micromanagement. 4. Slow business processes. 5. Microsoft's technology stack, featuring many outdated approaches.

Challenging and rewarding

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Lots of good things. As a lover of technology, you have lots of things to work on. Lots of different challenges to excite you. Excellent Pay

Cons: Politics is the biggest problem. Doing good work is rewarded less than making connections. There is too much hierarchy in management to prevent you from being visible.

Challenging and rewarding

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Lots of good things. As a lover of technology, you have lots of things to work on. Lots of different challenges to excite you. Excellent Pay

Cons: Politics is the biggest problem. Doing good work is rewarded less than making connections. There is too much hierarchy in management to prevent you from being visible.

Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

October 24, 2013

Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.

Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

2.0
Lumbering, 90% politics, little innovation, poor review process
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
October 24, 2013
Pros: I worked there for 4 years, and not once did the paycheck bounce or come late. Also, if you want the chance to write code that will be used by millions of people, this is one place you can do it. There are others, though.
Cons: I found it impossible to have much of an impact on anything as an IC at MS. Also, if you have unique skills that not every programmer has, like I do (PhD in theoretical physics), such skills are wasted at a place like MS. If you want to have an impact on things, I found much more success at a small company. It's the whole big fish/small pond thing, I suppose.

Good Pay, Bad Management

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: 1. Compensation is relatively good. 2. Work-life balance. 3. Private office.

Cons: 1. Unhealthy manager-to-engineer proportion. 2. Many managers lack technical backgrounds. 3. Micromanagement. 4. Slow business processes. 5. Microsoft's technology stack, featuring many outdated approaches.

2.0
Good Pay, Bad Management
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
June 23, 2015
Pros: 1. Compensation is relatively good. 2. Work-life balance. 3. Private office.
Cons: 1. Unhealthy manager-to-engineer proportion. 2. Many managers lack technical backgrounds. 3. Micromanagement. 4. Slow business processes. 5. Microsoft's technology stack, featuring many outdated approaches.

Challenging and rewarding

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Lots of good things. As a lover of technology, you have lots of things to work on. Lots of different challenges to excite you. Excellent Pay

Cons: Politics is the biggest problem. Doing good work is rewarded less than making connections. There is too much hierarchy in management to prevent you from being visible.

4.0
Challenging and rewarding
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
March 5, 2012
Pros: Lots of good things. As a lover of technology, you have lots of things to work on. Lots of different challenges to excite you. Excellent Pay
Cons: Politics is the biggest problem. Doing good work is rewarded less than making connections. There is too much hierarchy in management to prevent you from being visible.

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.

Copyright © Taro