Microsoft Corporation Software Development Engineer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Test
Experience: The test had 3 questions as follows :
Q1. Rainwater Collection - Dynamic programming
Q2. DP / Memoization question
Q3. BFS Matrix Question
Tips: Have strong hold over topics like Dynamic Programming. Graph Theory, specially BFS and DFS.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Questions: 3

Round: Test
Experience: Both questions were based on implementation of puzzles and problems.
Tips: AD-HOC questions should be known and good coding skills with data structures and algorithms.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interviewer asked me about my previous internships while in college and made me explain the work I did. Later on he asked me in detail about the projects I did in college.
Tips: Be prepared to explain your internship work and project work in details. You will be cross questioned. So be ready to answer everything related to them. Only enter those projects in your CV which you can explain confidently.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I was first asked a coding question related to finding similarity in two words and I had to define the terms of similarity on my own which I did by normalizing length of LCS by the total length of the string. Then I was faced with stress checking. They tried proving me wrong even though when I was right and checked my reaction under stress.
Tips: Be confident about your answers and act smart. Don't hesitate to explain and believe in your skills. Take criticism in a positive manner.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: A little coding questions were asked like binary trees, doubly linked lists etc. Then the usual HR questions like achievements, how would I be an asset to the company and all.
Tips: Think out loud. Communicate with the interviewer well. Clarify whatever you don't understand. Show them that you are passionate and excited to work with them. Show that you will give your best to help grow the company.

Skills: Coding Skills, Communication And Confidence, Ability To Cope Up With Stress, Logical And Structured Thinking
College Name: IIT Varanasi

Round: Test
Experience: It consisted of 20 questions primarily on C (What will be the output/error types). 3-4 of these questions were on basic logic, data structure, operating system etc.  30 minutes were given, which everyone found adequate. The test was not very difficult since I was thorough with books such as . Two codes were to be written, compulsorily in C. Both the questions were directly taken from the book Cracking. Question 1: A sorted array is given, but it is rotated an unknown number of times. Find an element in this array. Time complexity should be log(n).  Array example:  15, 17, 19, 50, 1, 2, 6, 8. I did not know how to do it. I tried a modified binary search but it did not work for all cases. So I just used a normal for-loop (Linear Search)Question 2: Find the in-order successor of a node in a binary tree.
Duration: 30 minutes minutes
Total Questions: 20 questions

College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 15

Round: coding
Experience: Write 2 functions(not entire programs) in C language on cocubes.com platform Q.1 Find an element in a rotated sorted array in O(log n) time. For ex. Find 4 in 7 8 9 1 2 4 5 A binary search technique could also do it in O(log n). They wanted an optimized binary sort and so I felt, the question wasn't clear enough. Didn't attempt it and told the interviewer the reason. Q.2  With a parent pointer in every node of a binary tree, find the in order successor of a given node. Solved only the second, but I ensured it could work on all boundary cases. Results of round 2 were declared on the day Microsoft visited the campus.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: How would you find least common ancestor of two nodes in a binary tree? I said you could use two stacks, push nodes as you traverse and then compare when you are popping. He asked me to explain on the whiteboard. I did, but realised there was a problem, I looked at him and he was there, smiling as wide as he could. I asked for 2 minutes, and then gave him a better approach with a stack and a hash table. He seemed satisfied
Tips: Keep talking while you are solving a problem/writing code. This keeps him informed of your progress and if you are lucky, you might receive some help. He repeatedly had been asking me stand up and sit to explain everything on the board. So eat adequately on any interview day.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Asked me to write a function for reversing characters in a string and left the room. I wrote  4 lines of code to swap characters from ends. A vague question it was, he returned and explained what he wanted later. It was his fault but I politely apologized for not understanding the question. Remember: The boss is always right!

He wanted the string to be reversed alphabetically. So if it was "adecb", it should become "edcba". I wrote code. He had a 2-second glance at it, and then asked for an explanation

Round: Other Interview
Experience: A happy two hour discussion-cum-interview on designing another Facebook, all data structures, algorithms that can be used and features, optimisations that could be added. I asked him a few conceptual questions related to his subjects of interest and he answered delightfully. He gave me his email ID to contact him for more knowledge and for a second I missed my heartbeat, coz that might mean he won’t meet again. But results were announced and there he was, shaking my hands with a gleaming smile.

General Tips: Overall, it was a great experience interacting with them. Seemed to be a nice bunch of interesting people, looking for intellectual conversations with students.
Skills: C, C++, Data structures, Algorithms
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: Some companies don’t make any strict regulations regarding the language in question, but Microsoft always goes with C/C++. The questions are similar to what you would find in books like “Let us C”. Questions regarding pointer manipulation, predicting the output, pre-order postorder increment decrement, structures, arrays formed the majority. · These are their favourite areas of computer science that they choose to focus on. That being said the questions asked in this section were quite few. Maybe 5 or less than that. Questions regarding like memory allocation in OS, preferred data structure for a particular application, properties of database management systems made it in.
Tips: 1.   While preparing for the aptitude, sharpen your C skills. Give second preference to OS, DBMS and DSA. 2.   Get extensive practice in the most common types of C aptitude questions and give regular online tests. 3.   Cover what you can in OS, DBMS and DSA in the time that remains.
Total Questions: 30 MCQs

Round: programming round
Experience: Once you clear the aptitude you become eligible for the programming round. This round has two questions meant to be solved in C. The focus is on the following aspects and in this particular order:CorrectnessOutput is correct for the given test cases Completeness Output is correct for all the test cases Time Complexity The program has the specified time complexity or less Space Complexity The program does not occupy too much excess space
You don’t have to write the entire programs just the necessary functions to perform the tasks given. The results were declared after a few days when Microsoft visited.
Question1 - Find an element in a rotated sorted array in O(log n) time. For ex. Find 4 in 7 8 9 1 2 4 5 
Question2 - With a parent pointer in every node of a binary tree, find the in order successor of a given node. I solved both of these questions, yet my solution for the first one used some amortized amount of time (amortized time is time that is not significant enough to affect the order, that is log n, but it is not too insignificant to be ignored as constant) more than the required time constraint which had me worried a little
Tips: Work on getting at least the right answer, worry about the run time and space complexity later. Even people who could get just the right answer made it to the wildcard round

Round: case study round
Experience: People who barely managed to get their output right in the last round were eligible for this round. I don’t have details about how this round was conducted since I wasn’t part of it but it is pretty standard procedure, the same kind of GD or case study that happens in most companies

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Keep it real. Say stuff that is good about you AND makes you a good candidate for the job. You never have more than 3-4 minutes for such questions so focus on conveying what is most important. After general introductions, I talked about how passionate I am about programming and technology in general, how I didn’t just see it as a subject or a career option but something that I enjoyed doing and have successfully used in my daily life. Talk about what values and work ethics you believe in. End it with what qualities you have as a person or as a possible employee. Please note that you should not leave the interviewer on just your words to believe on. Give short descriptive examples to support what you are saying but don’t go on telling long boring stories I gave the required answers. I am not elaborating on this part since this is something that you can answer just by knowing your stuff. It was nothing out of the ordinary but it wasn’t all that easy. DSA and DBMS were among my favourite subjects so I did pretty well.  I wrote the code since I had actually made the application. This is an important question where he was testing whether I told the truth or not earlier. So whatever happens do not lie or make up even a single detail while explaining something, you never know what might come back to haunt you Write code for designing the ADT (Abstract Data Type) for all the classes that might be required to represent the game of chess Me: This was the kind of question that I wasn’t expecting. Also the reason I got this question was that I had mentioned chess in my hobbies. So keep in mind every small thing you put in your resume matters a lot. He allowed me to choose my language of choice so I began with Java and then I did the important part.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Why Microsoft?- Give some answer that is well thought and prepared beforehand.
You left Barclays for Microsoft? -Basically what they wanted to know here is that I don’t have the same plans for Microsoft. I told them Barclays was an investment bank and while I was fortunate to get a chance to work in that great environment I want to start my career in a product based company so Microsoft (Microsoft is becoming a service based company now BTW) Note: If you have done internship somewhere else and have rejected an offer from there, say only good things about your previous employer. Anything else will reflect badly on you.   
What makes you better than you colleagues? - Whatever nice things you can say about yourself, everything comes here. Don’t, however mention the negative points of your colleagues, in hopes of making yourself look good. It will only make you look bad. 
Write the artificial intelligence logic in code for your Chess representation- Now the fact that this question was asked in HR rather than Tech should give you an idea about the real purpose of this question. When this question was asked we didn’t even have AI as a subject yet. The interviewer knew beforehand that I could not code this. He wanted to see how I would handle it. So after thinking for a few minutes I decided to draw flow charts and map out scenarios

College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: Iterate it as many times as possible. get it reviewed by as many seniors as possible. Be precise in stating your works and achievements.

Round: Test
Experience: Aptitude material on the SPO website was sufficient. Shortlisting was done from a full fledged online test

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I didn't prepare for any GD neither did face any.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Faced an online technical test. The company who hosted the test goofed up with the interface, so a lot of people wasted time over coding questions that could not be solved because of faulty interface. No request for retest was entertained. Shortlist was fixed on studying compile attempts, time devoted to various sections and other performance measures insensitive to the flaw.

Round: Interview 1
Experience: Ques 1: Given a compact data structures to store string sequentially: one byte stores length, l of the string; next l bytes contains the string characters.
Ques 2: Write a code to insert a given string in the ith place, making sure the DS is still compact.
Ques 3: Write tests to verify correctness.
Ques 4:How will you correct the parse tree for ((a+b)*c)/d? What all dat structures can you use.

Round: Interview 2
Experience: Ques 1: Given a function f that returns true/false based on whether the input string satisfies some criterion in C.
Ques 2: Write a function that verifies that all substrings of a given string satisfy the criterion in C.
Ques 3: You hand over n identical linked lists to n salesperson. After the day's work, these salesperson return back the lists. Merge these lists such that all insertions, deletions, updates are taken care of so that you can repeat this process for the next day.

Round: Interview 3
Experience: Told about myself, my interests, my work so far, my internship projects. Followed by a quick coding question.
int *p;p++
printf("%d", p);
int *f(){int q[12];return q;}
int *p= f();*p=23;
Whats the problem here?
Each interview ended with 'do you have any questions for us?'.

General Tips: Know about your course projects. Be clear with basic CS concepts like OS, compilers and databases Have sophistication in algorithms. Try to cooperate with SPO and make good use of their efforts. Start preparing as soon as possible. Try not to eat anything that might deteriorate your health during the placement. season. Develop priorities both sector and company wise.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: Easy questions on aptitude and output for C/C++.
Tips: Try out questions from GeeksQuiz or -----/
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 15

Round: Test
Experience: Questions were easy and implementable within the time given. One was on linked list and the other on array/bit-wise arithmetic.
Tips: 2-3 Days of GeeksforGeeks would give you an edge in this round. Make sure you document your code with proper comments and write mnemonic variable names. Also if time permits write the logic or algorithm you've used in comments.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The overall experience was wonderful. It was my first interview and i was able to answer most of them. On the behavioral questions your opinion should be clear and you should be able to convince the interviewer properly.
Tips: Just be yourself, try to bring topics on which you've worked on earlier into the discussion so that the interviewer takes more time to analyze what you've accomplished. Don't hurry, if you don't know any answer, politely say you don't know it, but you would like to take a try.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: My interview lasted for 1 hr 15 mins and I started well with my Introduction and hobbies. It was behavioral initially. Be open  and honest  to your interviewer. Don't speak random stuffs you haven't done as your interviewer can instantly browse on the internet about what you are saying and verify them. Have a good understanding of DS/Algo and know at least one OOP. you should at least master one language, its not a huge bonus if you know a lot of them.
Tips: Be clear about what you say and write and instantly correct yourself if you've made a mistake. It shows that you are self-critical and you constantly improve yourself. It is good to accept any mistake you've done. Any code you write on paper should properly highlight your logic used. Its better to write a wrong code and debug/modify it on spot to make it correct rather than writing a code with zero error at first shot. It shows how you learn from your mistakes.
The interviewer wants to see how you adapt yourself and learn, he/she is not interested in how much you know.

Round: Behavioural Interview
Experience: This round was the final round for Microsoft Internship. It was an AA( As Appropriate ) Round, where you can expect technical as well as HR questions.
Tips: Feel confident about yourself and the game plan is again just to be yourself. Do some Research on the company you are sitting for and about their products/services, so that you can show that you are as much interested in joining the company as they want to take you in after clearing all these rounds. Always ask your interviewer some relevant questions, whichever round it may be. This is where you can ask about the company's policies, culture etc.

General Tips: Keep yourself motivated and build your resume. Have good working knowledge and make your fundamental concepts clear. Try to work on projects/internship or summer/winter training courses.
Skill Tips: Just give your best if you are willing for the company and never underestimate your abilities. Have some internships/projects/apps on your resume which you've made. Mention all the relevant work you've done, just don't brag about it. Prepare well for the behavioral questions. Be prepared to admit your mistakes and accept others' solutions.
Skills: Debugging, Openness, Technical, Honesty, Attitude
College Name: National Institute of Technology Durgapur
Motivation: Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen with an objective of "A Computer in every Home", since then Microsoft has carried on its effort and changed the way we do things and interact with others. It has achieved more than its primary objective and its one of the leading software companies in the world. Its exciting to be a part of it and take joy in developing solutions which affect billions of people worldwide.

General Tips: Those who want to prepare for Top MNC's like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon etc., Be prepared with Dynamic Programming, Greedy Methods etc., all algorithmic concepts are important.
College Name: IIT-ROORKEE

Round: Test
Experience: 10 objective questions followed by 3 subjective questions. Subjective questions included coding (like reversing linked list), designing a software and testing a software. Also, Level order traversal, String manipulation, etc.
Total Questions: 13

Round: Interview
Experience: 3-6 rounds of interviews. I was selected just in 3 rounds of interview.
Tips: Practice writing codes on a piece of paper.

Skills: Programming skills
College Name: IIT-Kharagpur

Round: Test
Tips: Mostly they will give the same paper for all the IITs, so if some other IIT had conducted the written test before try to get that.
Total Questions: Written

General Tips: In the interview, they will ask the questions regarding the Volume based problems for example: There is an uneven shaped swimming pool ; What will be the quantity or volume of water that will be accomodated.
Skill Tips: """"
College Name: IIT ROORKEE