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Software Engineer II Interview Experience

May 14, 2026
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I applied online. The process took 4 weeks.

  • Recruiter screen: The recruiter was friendly but had their camera off. They asked me about my recent work experience, my strongest programming language, and salary expectations.
  • Technical Screen: It was a live HackerRank coding challenge with a member of the team hiring for the role, over Microsoft Teams. The interviewer had their camera off but was easy to talk to. The coding challenge was a LeetCode-style challenge that required the backtracking algorithm. The interviewer spent extra time afterwards to take questions from me and share information about the team and employer.
  • 3x Full Loop Interview Technical: The interviewers did not show up to these interviews. I emailed the recruiter, who told me that interviewing for the role had been cancelled.

My overall impression based on their hiring practices is that the company is dysfunctional, employees are disengaged, their hiring practices are disconnected from the actual job, and they don't care about candidate experience.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 133 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Engineer II role.

Success Rate

36%
Pass Rate

Microsoft's interview process for their Software Engineer II roles is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive57%
Neutral20%
Negative23%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Engineer II interview process.

Microsoft Work Experiences