Microsoft Corporation Software Developer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Find the nth element in a tribonacci series.

• Use recursion to solve the problem.

• Handle base cases for n=0, n=1, and n=2.

• For n>2, use the formula t(n)=t(n-1)+t(n-2)+t(n-3).

• Return the value of t(n) for the given n.

Given three sides of a triangle, determine its nature.

• Check if any two sides are equal to determine if it's isosceles

• Check if all three sides are equal to determine if it's equilateral

• Use Pythagoras theorem to check if it's right angled

• If none of the above, it's a scalene triangle

I have used Microsoft Office, Windows OS, Visual Studio, and Azure. I want to join Microsoft because of its innovative culture and impact on the tech industry.

• I have used Microsoft Office for word processing, spreadsheet management, and presentation creation.

• I have used Windows OS for personal and professional use.

• I have used Visual Studio for software development.

• I have used Azure for cloud computing and hosting.

• I wan...read more

Code a run length encoding algorithm to compress a text string in place.

• Use a loop to iterate through the string and count consecutive characters

• Create a new string to store the compressed version of the original string

• Add the character and its count to the new string

• Compare the length of the new string to the original string to determine if compression was successful

Print the leftmost node at the same level as a given node in a binary search tree.

• Traverse the tree level by level using BFS

• Keep track of the leftmost node at each level

• Return the leftmost node at the level of the given node

• If the given node is not found, return null

Search for an element in a rotated sorted array in sublinear time.

• Use binary search to find the pivot point where the array is rotated.

• Determine which half of the array the target element is in.

• Perform binary search on the appropriate half of the array to find the target element.

• Time complexity is O(log n).

Given an amount and coin denominations, find the smallest no of coins to form the amount.

• Use dynamic programming to solve the problem

• Create a table to store the minimum number of coins required for each amount

• Iterate through the denominations and update the table accordingly

• Return the minimum number of coins required for the given amount

Move all distinct elements of an array to the top in any order.

• Create a new array to store distinct elements

• Loop through the original array and check if element is already in new array

• If not, add it to the new array and remove it from the original array

• Concatenate the new array with the remaining elements of the original array

There can be multiple such elements in the matrix.

• Multiple elements can be max in their row and min in their col

• The function should return all such elements

• The elements can be in different rows and columns

The question asks to add two numbers represented as linked lists and return the sum as a linked list.

• Traverse both linked lists simultaneously, adding the corresponding digits and carrying over the carry.

• Create a new linked list to store the sum digits.

• Handle cases where one linked list is longer than the other.

• Consider cases where the sum has an additional carry digit at the end.

Count the number of times a substring appears in a string.

• Use a loop to iterate through the string and check for the substring at each index.

• Use the count() method to count the number of occurrences of the substring.

• Consider using regular expressions to find all occurrences of the substring.

• Handle edge cases such as empty strings or substrings.

The task is to compress a given string by replacing consecutive repeated characters with the character followed by the count of repetitions.

• Iterate through the string and keep track of the current character and its count.

• If the next character is the same as the current character, increment the count.

• If the next character is different, append the current character and its count to the result string.

• Return the compressed

Find the leftmost node in the same level as a given node in a binary tree.

• Traverse the tree level by level using BFS

• For each level, keep track of the leftmost node encountered

• Return the leftmost node in the level of the given node

Find the nth largest number in a binary tree

• Traverse the tree in-order and store the values in an array

• Return the (n-1)th index of the sorted array in descending order

• Use a max heap to keep track of the largest n elements

Insert an element into a sorted circular linked list.

• Find the correct position to insert the element based on its value

• Update the pointers of the previous and next nodes to include the new node

• Handle special cases such as inserting at the beginning or end of the list

• Example: Inserting 5 into a list with values 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 would result in 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Prove that given 5 points in a plane, there will be at least two points such that their midpoint is an integer.

• Consider the x and y coordinates of the 5 points.

• If any two points have the same x and y coordinates, their midpoint will be an integer.

• If not, consider the differences between the x and y coordinates of each pair of points.

• If any two pairs have differences that are both even or both odd, their midpoints will ...read more

Use exponentiation by squaring algorithm to find nth power of a number in shortest computational time.

• Use recursion to divide the power by 2 and multiply the base accordingly

• If power is odd, multiply the base with the result of recursive call

• If power is negative, take reciprocal of base and make power positive

• Handle edge cases like power=0 and base=0 or 1

• Time complexity is O(log n)

The function ring() calculates the number of blocks of both types based on sensor state changes.

• Create a variable to keep track of the number of 49 cm blocks

• Create another variable to keep track of the number of 50 cm blocks

• Initialize both variables to 0

• Whenever the sensor changes state, increment the corresponding block variable

• Return the count of both block types as an array of strings

The given linked list needs to be inverted in pairs of two nodes.

• Iterate through the linked list, swapping every two adjacent nodes.

• Keep track of the previous node to update the next pointers correctly.

• Handle the edge cases of odd number of nodes or empty list.