Process
A recruiter reached out by email late in August, after which I had a phone screen.
In October, I interviewed at Microsoft Redmond. Microsoft provided generous travel arrangements.
On the day of the interview, all college candidates for the week (100+) gathered at Microsoft in either the morning or afternoon. The company served lunch, after which we were each interviewed in four forty-five minute, one-on-one rounds.
The rounds typically consisted of a brief soft question period (e.g., "Tell me about your experience with X," or "Describe a time you handled conflict") followed by a technical question period of whiteboard coding.
Questions
Questions focused on basic computer science fundamentals, including:
- Linked lists
- Stacks
- Arrays
- String manipulation
- Binary trees
None required advanced problem-solving techniques, such as dynamic programming.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 11 interview experiences for the Microsoft SWE role in Redmond, Washington.
Success Rate
Microsoft's interview process for their SWE roles in Redmond, Washington is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Microsoft's SWE interview process in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft Work Experiences
- 5.0Nice People, Low PaySWE • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesNovember 22, 2020Pros: Nice people. Laid back. Rest and vest.Cons: Low pay. On call. Not a lot of young people.
- 5.0Purely Great ExperienceSWE • Current EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesJanuary 13, 2021Pros: Great, great, great, great, great.Cons: nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing
- 2.0Good Benefits, But Politics HinderSWE • Former EmployeeRedmond, Washington, United StatesApril 12, 2017Pros: Good benefits. A large company usually means a lot of places to transfer without having to leave.Cons: A lot of politics internally means a lot of time spent working on things that get axed at the last minute. Many managers spend most of their time working outside their teams for political reasons and promotions, and often aren't there for their team.
Microsoft Interview Questions
