Microsoft

Software Development Engineer Interview Experience

October 28, 2014

Neutral ExperienceGot Offer

Process

An hour-long telephonic interview was followed by an on-site full loop with five interviews. One interview, conducted by the recruiter, primarily focused on past experience and testing. The remaining interviews were technical, featuring coding problems.

Questions

You are provided with a rotating disk and an unlimited supply of binary color sensors. One half of the disk is colored black, and the other half is white.

The problem is to determine the rotational direction of the disk.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 634 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Development Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

29%

Pass Rate

Microsoft's interview process for their Software Development Engineer roles in the United States is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive57%

Neutral32%

Negative11%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Development Engineer interview process in United States.

Microsoft Work Experiences

A positive experience

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

January 23, 2012

Pros: Work with the latest technology. Work with smart people.

Cons: Can get lost in a big company.

A positive experience

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

January 23, 2012

Pros: Work with the latest technology. Work with smart people.

Cons: Can get lost in a big company.

Great City, Too Many People

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: Seattle is a great city. Salary People

Cons: Too many people in teams

Great City, Too Many People

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: Seattle is a great city. Salary People

Cons: Too many people in teams

Good Pay, Slow Impact

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Microsoft is a great deal, overall, for software engineers. The pay is quite decent, and the work/life balance is usually quite good. Sure, there are crunch times once in a while, but more or less, most of the year will be 40-50 hour weeks with decent perks.

Cons: The main problem as a dev is that it can often be very hard to see what impact you are having on the organization. Products can take 6 months to 3 years to ship, and a lot of the time is spent fixing bugs or in meetings.

Good Pay, Slow Impact

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Microsoft is a great deal, overall, for software engineers. The pay is quite decent, and the work/life balance is usually quite good. Sure, there are crunch times once in a while, but more or less, most of the year will be 40-50 hour weeks with decent perks.

Cons: The main problem as a dev is that it can often be very hard to see what impact you are having on the organization. Products can take 6 months to 3 years to ship, and a lot of the time is spent fixing bugs or in meetings.

A positive experience

Software Development Engineer • Current Employee

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

January 23, 2012

Pros: Work with the latest technology. Work with smart people.

Cons: Can get lost in a big company.

4.0
A positive experience
Software Development Engineer • Current Employee
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
January 23, 2012
Pros: Work with the latest technology. Work with smart people.
Cons: Can get lost in a big company.

Great City, Too Many People

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: Seattle is a great city. Salary People

Cons: Too many people in teams

5.0
Great City, Too Many People
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Seattle, Washington, United States
March 21, 2013
Pros: Seattle is a great city. Salary People
Cons: Too many people in teams

Good Pay, Slow Impact

Software Development Engineer • Former Employee

Redmond, Washington, United States

Pros: Microsoft is a great deal, overall, for software engineers. The pay is quite decent, and the work/life balance is usually quite good. Sure, there are crunch times once in a while, but more or less, most of the year will be 40-50 hour weeks with decent perks.

Cons: The main problem as a dev is that it can often be very hard to see what impact you are having on the organization. Products can take 6 months to 3 years to ship, and a lot of the time is spent fixing bugs or in meetings.

4.0
Good Pay, Slow Impact
Software Development Engineer • Former Employee
Redmond, Washington, United States
June 15, 2010
Pros: Microsoft is a great deal, overall, for software engineers. The pay is quite decent, and the work/life balance is usually quite good. Sure, there are crunch times once in a while, but more or less, most of the year will be 40-50 hour weeks with decent perks.
Cons: The main problem as a dev is that it can often be very hard to see what impact you are having on the organization. Products can take 6 months to 3 years to ship, and a lot of the time is spent fixing bugs or in meetings.

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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