A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. From there, we scheduled a technical phone interview.
There were three questions that increased in difficulty. There was no virtual whiteboard, so I had to explain how I would approach the problem and speak to time/space trade-offs.
At the end of the phone interview, the interviewer informed me that they would like to fly me out for an on-site interview.
The on-site process was straightforward. There were a total of 5 interviews (I'm told if you don't do well in the first few, they dismiss you after lunch).
The first 4 interviews began with a coding problem, and if there was time left over, I had the opportunity to ask the interviewer any questions.
The lunch interview involved some casual conversation to get to know me a little better, followed by a short coding problem.
The final interview was a system design question, followed by some behavioral questions.
After the on-site interview, I was contacted within a week with news that they were moving forward with an offer.
Study your basic data structures: how to implement a few of the main ones, and consider their performance and size.
Practice interview questions (e.g., LeetCode) on a whiteboard or piece of paper, and practice speaking aloud. Talk about how you're approaching the problem and the pros and cons of your approach.
When studying interview questions, focus on the techniques associated with solving general problems (greedy, two pointers, etc.). It's highly unlikely you'll see a question you've seen before, as interview questions are designed to be novel. Prepare by knowing how to solve problems, not memorizing solutions.
The following metrics were computed from 207 interview experiences for the Microsoft Software Engineer role in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Redmond, Washington is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's Software Engineer interview process in Redmond, Washington.