Perspiration required, inspiration rewarded - sometimes
Perspiration required, inspiration rewarded - sometimes
Some products are used by literally everybody in the whole world (Windows, Office, and to a lesser extent Visual Studio).
Excellent benefits package, competent middle management, at least in Office.
Very professional and diverse environment.
Big products, big teams mean major time spent on communication.
Market-leading products face regulatory pains, for example, documentation for Office Server includes every single stored procedure that's part of the product.
Long-lived products have major backward compatibility issues.
In big teams, career advancement comes more from being risk-averse and having good communication with management than from innovation and technical prowess. To some extent, that's reasonable, but the focus is too much on the former, in my humble opinion.
We need to balance the legacy of existing products and customer base with mid-to-long term innovation. We have to minimize the amount of drag from legacy to get more innovation, but also not get stuck in the "strategy of the month" mode that Mobile appears to be in.
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Microsoft Interview Questions
Microsoft Interview Experiences
Lead Software Engineer
There was an initial phone interview, followed by an in-person day on campus. I was flown to Redmond and put up in a reasonable hotel by Microsoft. The process consisted of a tough day with about six individual Q&A sessions and usually some kind of p
Lead Software Engineer
A recruiter contacted me and arranged the hotel, rental car, and flight. I met with an HR representative in the morning, then had interviews with managers and engineers. I was questioned on programming skills, algorithm design, programming language k
Software Engineer Intern
Very straightforward, two back-to-back thirty-minute technical interviews that had a combination of LeetCode easy and medium questions, along with some behavioral questions that were sprinkled in there.
Lead Software Engineer
Redmond, Washington, United StatesAugust 1, 2013There was an initial phone interview, followed by an in-person day on campus. I was flown to Redmond and put up in a reasonable hotel by Microsoft. The process consisted of a tough day with about six individual Q&A sessions and usually some kind of p
Lead Software Engineer
Redmond, Washington, United StatesAugust 1, 2008A recruiter contacted me and arranged the hotel, rental car, and flight. I met with an HR representative in the morning, then had interviews with managers and engineers. I was questioned on programming skills, algorithm design, programming language k
Software Engineer Intern
Redmond, Washington, United StatesNovember 21, 2025Very straightforward, two back-to-back thirty-minute technical interviews that had a combination of LeetCode easy and medium questions, along with some behavioral questions that were sprinkled in there.
