Microsoft Software Engineer Interview Experiences & Questions
18 candidates share their Microsoft Software Engineer interviews: each round, the questions asked and the outcome. Latest: Aug 2026.
What to expect · Microsoft Software Engineer
Based on 18 real interviews
The Microsoft Software Engineer interview process
Most common round types: Behavioral (9), Coding (9), System Design (9), Technical (7), Data Structures & Algorithms (3), Code Review (2).
Real Microsoft Software Engineer interview questions
- Implement a method to convert an integer to a string of bytes without using built-in helper functions.
- Build a TTL cache.
- Why do you want to work at Microsoft?
- Given three C++ function headers, implement the underlying cache or buffer behavior they describe.
- Design a system for sending software updates to cars, like an over-the-air update system for an automotive company.
- Solve a graph problem around connected components using a union-set style approach and graph traversal.
- Design LFU cache.
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a colleague.
- Implement a simple text editor supporting insert, delete, and cursor movement.
- Given a binary tree, find the shortest path from the root to a leaf.
- Accounts Merge
- Tell me about your current role.
- How do you stay up-to-date with the latest developments in AI?
- Find the median from a data stream.
- Check if word exists in the string.
- Tell me about yourself.
- Implement @ tagging like Teams/Slack.
- Letter Combinations of a Phone Number
- Tell me about your biggest failure.
- Calculator with brackets.
- Find next greater element
- What timeline do you have in the interview process?
- Solve this string manipulation problem.
- Design add and search data structure.
- Implement a method to crawl webpages given a utility function that reads HTTP/HTTPS web pages.
- Solve this hashmap or map-based coding problem.
- Design a distributed system.
- Design a system that receives notifications from multiple producer services, processes them and then publishes notifications to downstream users.
- Design a file system.
- Basic question about experience
- What timeline are you in the interview process?
- Implement a graph solution using BFS.
- 3 questions, Leetcode Easy to Medium level difficulty
- Code review round with high focus on security bugs.
- Solve this array-based coding problem.
- LLD Design with Data Modeling
- Discuss about the most challenging project that you worked on and some of the key challenges in that project.
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a teammate. How did you resolve it, and what did you learn?
- Another LLD design of a popular problem
- Tell me about a project where you had to do something you did not know before. How did you ramp yourself up?
Showing 40 of 58 questions. Open any experience for every question and how the candidate answered.
All 18 Microsoft Software Engineer interview experiences
“still in progress but just leetcode prep. Studied some dsa and system design. Also dynamic programming helps.”
“The round was easy - I had to go over my current responsibilities and my work. I was asked a coding question as well so prepare DSA well”
“The engineer was good, worked with you to solve the problem. I confused between LRU and LFU which I think was the major problem.”
“Directly applied on their portal, Recruiter reached out to me directly on LinkedIn as well and I got interviewed by Microsoft or a Senior Software engineer role in March end and here's the experience”
“Directly applied on their portal, Recruiter reached out to me directly on LinkedIn as well and I got interviewed by Microsoft for a senior software engineer role in April.”
“In my binary tree round, I was not even leaning on BFS or DFS terminology, and they still liked my solution because I kept reasoning it out. That was the moment where Microsoft felt more about…”
“It didn't go as expected. I did not have as many interviews as expected, and overall, the process wasn't great as the recruiter changed midway.”
“The process was quick with all interview rounds initially scheduled in the same week. The technical interviews were adapted to real world code implementations and didn't directly relate to Leetcode…”
“Screen plus three loop rounds, all four back to back in one day. Coding problems were standard stuff, nothing exotic. What got me was that every single one had a follow-up that killed my first…”
“assessment went well, two medium LC questions, loop had 3 rounds, two rounds were medium LC, one round was CS fundamentals.”
“The so-called system design round totally threw me off. He was like, "let's code it out," and wanted me to build a file system with four use cases in 45 minutes, and then the recruiter just ghosted…”
“The process was smooth, the interviewers were helpful. I messed implmenting LRU cache as I had never seen that question before.”
“The overall interview process was well-structured and organized. The interviewers were professional, friendly, and gave me sufficient time to think through problems and discuss my approach. I…”
“Good process, hard Leetcode, I struggled a little, but managed to get through it. Graph questions. Debugging questions.”
“My onsite interview went very well was able to solve all 4 rounds questions. Communication was the key. Finally two teams were interested to hire me”
“Everything went well and my second interview of my final round was just a conversation. First interview was more technical just to see if I could talk about and execute technical concepts.”
“Intro and Most critically challanging past project (around 10-15 minutes) Design a configuration service which is responsible for updating configurations existing on n number of microservices…”
“The process was quick with all interview rounds initially scheduled in the same week. The technical interviews were adapted to real world code implementations and didn't directly relate to Leetcode…”
More: all Microsoft interviews · Software Engineer interviews at every company
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are in the Microsoft Software Engineer interview?
Candidates report a typical 2 rounds, usually including a recruiter screen, online assessment, phone screen, technical round.
How hard is the Microsoft Software Engineer interview?
Candidates rate it 3.0/5 on average (medium), across 18 interviews.
How long does the Microsoft Software Engineer hiring process take?
About 3 weeks from first contact to decision, based on reported timelines.
What percentage of Microsoft Software Engineer candidates get an offer?
55% of candidates with a final result got an offer (6 of 11).
What does the Microsoft Software Engineer interview focus on?
The most common round types are Behavioral, Coding, System Design, Technical.