← Interview experiences
Got the offer

SDE at Microsoft

Difficulty
Process took
3-4 Weeks
Rounds
4
Format
Remote
Applied via
Company Website

How it went

  • Be ready for situational questions
  • I gave mock interviews, which help me a lot

What they would tell you

  • Be ready for situational questions
  • I gave mock interviews, which help me a lot

How to prepare

  • Sorting, backtracking, two pointers, dp and medium-to-hard problems

Their background

I applied online, got an online assessment (OA), and then, more than a month later, received an interview invite

Round by round

  1. 1

    DSA Round60 min

    This was an online live coding session with the interviewer watching I got two problems, involved sorting and backtracking topic For first problem, I went for a brute-force approach, It worked on some test cases but failed few hidden ones, those tricky edge cases second problem, this one I cracked with optimized solution, passed all test cases

  2. 2

    System Design 160 min

    The problem was to design a news feed system, but with some custom requirements, not just your basic like, comment, share.

    • How to handle millions of users.
    • Personalized feeds and ranking algorithms.
    • Caching and database sharding for speed.
    • Handling real-time updates.
    • Privacy and access control The interviewer was friendly and interactive, he listened to my ideas, asked probing questions
  3. 3

    System Design 260 min

    This round had two parts: First, continued with the same HLD problem, going deeper into design and implementation details Second, I was given hard two-pointers DSA problem, which I managed to solve completely. All test cases passed, which felt really good By the end of this round, I felt confident about my performance

  4. 4

    Hiring Manager Round60 min

    Questions: My projects what I built, what challenges I faced, what I’d do differently. Past experiences how I work in a team, how I handle conflicts. Situational questions what I’d do if a project fell behind, how I communicate with leadership, how I stay motivated. Technical discussions how I approach new problems, what tech excites me.

What came up

MediumRemote1 2 years

A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.

Sources