Microsoft Software Engineer candidates commonly report live coding, system or low-level design, resume discussion, and behavioral follow-ups. Reported loops vary, so prepare for both algorithmic depth and clear technical communication.
$164K
Avg. Base Comp
$218K
Avg. Total Comp
3-5 rounds
Typical Rounds
3 weeks
Process Length
Microsoft Software Engineer interviews in these reports combine coding with conversations about design, projects, and behavior. The recurring technical theme is explaining the reasoning behind a solution, not simply arriving at working code. Candidates describe mostly medium-difficulty data-structures-and-algorithms problems, with some easier or harder questions depending on the round. Reported examples include an LRU cache, string manipulation, dynamic programming, and graph problems. Practice discussing complexity, edge cases, data-structure choices, and possible improvements while you work.
Design preparation should cover both high-level and low-level thinking because candidates report system-design and object-oriented-design rounds. Specific prompts include a ride service, a movie-ticket booking system, and multiplayer tic-tac-toe. Be ready to clarify requirements, identify important components, describe classes or interfaces when appropriate, and explain tradeoffs instead of reciting a fixed template.
Resume depth also matters. Candidates report hiring-manager or interviewer discussions about projects, implementation choices, distributed systems, databases, OOP, and technical stacks. Prepare concise examples involving conflict, ambiguity, failure, and difficult bugs, then expect follow-up questions about your individual decisions. The reported format varies from shorter three-round sequences to larger loops, so use this topic mix as preparation coverage rather than assuming one fixed sequence.
Synthesized from 162 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Given two sorted lists, write a function to merge them into one sorted list.
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Raining in Seattle | |
| Find the Missing Number | |
| Minimum Change | |
| Download Facts | |
| Scrambled Tickets | |
| Employee Salaries (ETL Error) | |
| Employee Project Budgets | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Find Bigrams | |
| Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String | |
| Lowest Paid | |
| P-value to a Layman | |
| The Brackets Problem | |
| Project Budget Error | |
| Google Maps Improvement | |
| Level Of Rain Water In 2D Terrain | |
| N-gram Dictionary | |
| Real-Time Transaction Streaming | |
| Cyclic Detection | |
| Longest Increasing Subsequence | |
| Binary Tree Conversion | |
| Find Duplicate Numbers in a List | |
| Target Indices | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Good Grades and Favorite Colors | |
| Swapping Nodes | |
| Production Model Monitoring | |
| Portfolio Platform Architecture |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates sometimes report an online coding assessment before live interviews, while others describe a recruiter or hiring-manager conversation first. Early discussions may include a resume walkthrough, behavioral questions, or a live medium-style coding problem.
Candidates report coding across arrays, strings, linked lists, trees, graphs, dynamic programming, and cache design. Expect interviewers to ask about edge cases, time and space complexity, and how you would improve or extend an initial solution.
Reported design conversations include URL shortening, ride service, booking systems, and multiplayer tic-tac-toe. Depending on the loop, candidates may discuss high-level requirements and APIs or lower-level classes, interfaces, and implementation decisions.
Candidates report behavioral questions throughout some rounds, often alongside technical work. Prepare to explain project ownership, technical choices, conflict, ambiguity, failure, and difficult bugs with enough detail to handle follow-up questions.
