Microsoft Corporation Software Engineer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips for Freshers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Leetcode practoce

Round: Test
Experience: Output questions
Tips: focus on basics
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 15

Round: Test
Experience: Two coding problems in one hour,on Cocobues.com

1. Given two arrays of numbers. The numbers are from 0-9 you have two maximize the first array by using the elements from the second array.
the elements can be used only once.
e.g. arr1[]={5,2,3,6,7};
arr2[]={9,2,8,4,5};
You should output the modified arr1 as {9,8,5,6,7}

2.Given a matrix of characters and a word.
you have to count the number of occurences of that word in that matrix. you can move to any of the eight valid directions from current position.
e.g. word="HELLO";
matrix[][5]={ {'H','E','L','L','O'},
{'E','H','E','A','B'},
{'L','L','O','C','D'}};
output should be : 5

Tips: DO AS MUCH AS PRACTICE
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Test
Experience: One Coding question was given to all the students ,You have to code and explain it.
You are given an string as input which represents a path. You have to normalize that path inplace(NO EXTRA SPACE).
e.g.
input : "\a\b\c\..\..\file.txt"
output: "\a\file.txt"
Hint: Double dot(..) means you have to skip the previous parent.
It was on paper.
Duration: 40 minutes
Total Questions: 1

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interviewer was very nice that was an amazing experience.
Tips: Be confident and relaxed.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Again the interviewer was very nice. Firstly he asked me what i have done in technical till that time.
After the interview was over he looks impressed.
Tips: Don't see what others are doing . Take your time and try to short out the correct solution.

General Tips: Do coding as much as you can
Skills: Algorithm, Coding Skills And Knowledge On Data Structures
Duration: 2
College Name: NIT Bhopal
Motivation: It comes to our institute, and the name Microsoft is sufficient for motivation.
Funny Moments: The journey to Microsoft IDC Hydrabad was very beautiful.

Round: Test
Experience: All types of C/C++ Aptitude and I/O questions were asked.
Was not a very easy round.
Tips: Prepare from -----/ and -----/
I had done everything in these 2 links.
Other than that, you can prepare from "Test your C Skills" by Yeshwant Kanetkar. PDF available online.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 40-50

Round: Test
Experience: Two coding questions were asked. It was hosted on CoCubes website.
Questions were pretty basic.
First one was ad-hoc, requiring to count the number of set bits of a number.
Second one was the standard, minimum cost path DP problem.
Tips: Prepare from geeksforgeeks, careercup and ambitionbox.
If you know competitive programming, you should not have much of a problem.
Duration: 90 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Test
Experience: Had to write code on paper. 2 questions.
First one was to rotate a matrix by 90 degrees. Pretty standard question.
Second one was to remove all negative elements in an array to the right end. Do it without extra memory.
Tips: Apart from correctness of solution, they check for code quality. Code written must be clean, indented and with properly named variables and functions.
Keep communicating your ideas to the people who will be supervising the test. They will understand your thought process that way.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Wrote the class in JAVA. Explained the methods, and optimized them. Variables were named properly.
Also generalized the class for an nxn matrix tic-tac-toe game.
Interviewer was very friendly. Wrote the code on paper.
Tips: Prepare on class design beforehand. They are quite likely to ask you questions on OOP.
Write clean code.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Just had to write the functions. Wrote code in C++.
The interviewer tested me on edge cases. Asked me to prepare test cases.
Tips: Make sure your code is ready to tackle those dirty edge cases.
Knowing standard library functions is beneficial. Make sure you learn some important ones. They can come in handy.
Write clean code. You can choose any language you are comfortable in.

General Tips: Stay calm. Prepare well.
Focus on the data structures that Microsoft usually asks about.
Skill Tips: A good internship helps in the process. I had interned at Google, so I got selected relatively easily as compared to other candidates. Make sure your resume is as impressive as you can make it.
Stay calm in the rounds. That way you can think better.
Communicate with the company officials. They will know you and your thought process that way.
Don't stay quiet in the interview rounds. If you have doubts, ask them. I had made this mistake when they came for internships and did not get selected because I didn't clear my doubts. The interview should be ideally like a discussion, where you present your thoughts and ideas, clear your doubts, and come up with a solution.
Skills: Resume, Communication, Analytical Skills, Algorithmic Approach To Problem Solving, Coding Skills And Knowledge On Data Structures
College Name: NIT Surathkal
Motivation: It is one of the biggest tech giants in the world. I definitely wanted to be a part of it.
Funny Moments: Since I had only 2 interviews, while others had 5, I came out so early that they thought I was rejected.
They later discovered, they were wrong.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: They checked my CGPA and my projects worked on. They also looked at previous internship I have done
Tips: Focus on CGPA and projects done. Also mention internship experience.

Round: Test
Experience: Easier questions and good amount of time to think.
Tips: Careful with IDE.
Duration: 60min minutes
Total Questions: 2

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Enough time to think,solve. Questions were easy and only tested basic understanding of ds and algos.
Tips: Think well. They do not expect complete optimal solution. Discuss your ideas with members there

Round: Technical Interview
Tips: They do not expect optimal solution. they want to know thought process

General Tips: Be thorough in course work being done at present.
Revise the projects you have done in your semester
Skills: Data Structures, Algorithms, Probability theory, Basics of Machine Learning
Duration: 2 months
College Name: IIT Madras
Motivation: Microsoft !