Microsoft interview guide
Microsoft software engineer interview: process, questions and prep
Microsoft loops mix coding, design and questions about how you learn and work with others. Its culture is built on a growth mindset, so expect to talk about mistakes and what you changed after them.
The process
The Microsoft interview process
What candidates commonly report. Teams and levels differ, so ask your recruiter what your loop looks like.
- Recruiter screen
A short call about your background and the team.
- Technical screen
A coding interview by phone or an online test.
- The loop
Four or five interviews. Each one usually has coding or design plus a few questions about past work. Design rounds can be high-level systems or class-based object design.
- Final interview
Many loops end with a senior manager, often called the “as appropriate” interview. It weighs fit and level.
Questions
Microsoft behavioral interview questions
Questions candidates report from Microsoft behavioral rounds, and what a strong answer shows.
Why Microsoft, and why this kind of work? Be specific.
A strong answer shows a specific product, team or problem that draws them.
Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn, and how have you applied it since?
A strong answer shows owning the failure without excuses.
Tell me about a project that went off plan. What would you do differently?
A strong answer shows seeing what went wrong early or late, honestly.
Tell me about a time you had to ramp up on a domain you knew nothing about.
A strong answer shows a named method for learning, like building a prototype early.
Tell me about a time you saw a way to improve how your team worked, and acted on it.
A strong answer shows noticing the gap and why nobody else had fixed it.
Tell me about a trade-off you made that affected the user experience. How did you decide?
A strong answer shows understanding how users would feel the trade-off.
Tell me about a time you influenced another team to change direction, without any authority over them.
A strong answer shows understanding the other team's goals.
Tell me about someone you coached. What did you do, and how did they grow?
A strong answer shows understanding what the person needed.
Tell me about a time you built on another team's work instead of building your own version.
A strong answer shows choosing shared work over their own.
Questions
Microsoft coding interview questions
Coding problems candidates report from Microsoft interviews.
Contains Duplicate
Sets for constant-time lookups
LRU Cache
Caching model responses, eviction order
Valid Palindrome
Pointers from both ends, skipping noise
Two Sum II - Input Array Is Sorted
Using sorted order instead of a hash map
Valid Parentheses
Matching pairs with a stack
Daily Temperatures
Monotonic stack in one pass
Binary Search
Loop bounds and off-by-one errors
Search Insert Position
Lower bound on a sorted log
Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
Growing and shrinking a window
Maximum Depth of Binary Tree
Recursion on a binary tree
Binary Tree Level Order Traversal
Breadth-first search with a queue
Merge K Sorted Lists
k-way merge with a heap
How to prepare
How to prepare for Microsoft
- Ask questions before you code. Interviewers expect you to clear up the problem first.
- Practice class design as well as system design.
- Prepare a failure story that ends with what you changed and whether it worked.
- Think about large business customers: permissions, reliability and older versions.
Questions.
What is the Microsoft “as appropriate” interview?
It is a last interview, often with a senior manager, that happens when the earlier rounds went well. It looks at fit, level and how you think.
What is a growth mindset question?
A question about learning, like “Tell me about a time you got hard feedback.” A strong answer ends with what you changed afterward.
Does Microsoft ask system design?
Yes. Reported prompts include team chat, file sync, shared docs, email and calendars, plus class-based design.
Can I practice a Microsoft mock interview?
Yes. Orin runs Microsoft-style mock interviews by voice, with Microsoft’s reported questions asked first and follow-ups in its style. Company interviews are on the Pro and Max plans. Your first interview is free.
How does an Orin mock interview work?
You talk with Orin by voice, like a video call. It asks questions, listens and asks follow-ups based on what you said. Coding happens in a live editor and design on a live whiteboard. After the interview you get a report with quotes from your answers, what cost you points and what to practice next.
Practice your Microsoft interview.
Talk through Microsoft-style questions with follow-ups, then see exactly what to fix. First interview free.
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