Screening Interview (1 Round) A telephonic interview might be conducted to see if the candidate is a good fit for Microsoft. It could even be a coding test instead of an interview. It can last 30-45 minutes and cover 2-3 DS/Algo problems.

Onsite Interviews (4-5 Rounds) A series of interviews is conducted. The first few are DS/Algo-based rounds, while the later ones are system design rounds. Microsoft often asks Array/Strings/LinkedList problems, so candidates are advised to prepare these topics especially. Arriving at the most optimized solution is key here. The design rounds test a candidate’s ability to design complex systems like Gmail, YouTube, or Uber.

There are N children standing in a line. Each child is assigned a rating value.

You are giving candies to these children, subjected to the following requirements:

• Each child must have at least one candy.
• Children with a higher rating get more candies than their neighbors.

What is the minimum number of candies you must give?