Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 64% positive. To compare, the company-average is 66.3% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 29 days to get hired, when considering 1,705 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 30 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Software Engineer according to 1,705 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 27%
Phone interview: 23%
Skills test: 15%
Presentation: 11%
Background check: 6%
Personality test: 5%
Group panel interview: 5%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Drug test: 3%
Other: 2%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bengaluru) in Mar 2019
Interview
Round 1: online coding round (3 Qns)
Round 2: pen paper coding round (main thing is they see your approach and you need to write only the required function and their helpers)
then further 3 rounds were technical interviews
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Round 1:- 3 coding questions covering queues , trees and other simple data structures
Round 2:-
1) Print the boundary nodes in a tree in anticlockwise manner
2) Expansion of a string
Technical interview:-
Round 1:- Most things were asked from my resume. Then one coding question to "find the smallest non negative number which is not present in the array(unsorted) "
Round 2:- He asked tell me about yourself. Then asked to write code to add two polynomials.
Next round was HR round....sadly i was not selected for HR.
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Melbourne)
Interview
After submitting an online application, I received a HackerRank assessment after passing the resume screening stage, then I was rejected after completing the assessment and did not proceed to further interview rounds.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The assessment consisted of two LeetCode-medium-level coding questions to be completed within 75 minutes.
45 mins technical interview with a member of their San fran team. Very relaxed and informal but questions were focused and lots of follow ups. Easy to schedule as was over video conferencing platform
Straightforward technical loop overall, with strong interviewers at every stage. I genuinely enjoyed the in-depth conversations around technical challenges and algorithmic problem-solving — the entire process felt well-structured and genuinely engaging.