Skip to contentSkip to footer
  • Community
  • Jobs
  • Companies
  • Salaries
  • For Employers
      Notifications

      Loading...

      Elevate your career

      Discover your earning potential, land dream jobs, and share work-life insights anonymously.

      employer cover photo
      employer logo
      employer logo

      Microsoft

      Engaged Employer

      About
      Reviews
      Pay & benefits
      Jobs
      Interviews
      Interviews
      Related searches: Microsoft reviews | Microsoft jobs | Microsoft salaries | Microsoft benefits | Microsoft conversations
      Microsoft interviewsMicrosoft Program Manager interviewsMicrosoft interview
      Company Bowl sample

      Want the inside scoop on your own company?

      Check out your Company Bowl for anonymous work chats.

      Bowls

      Get actionable career advice tailored to you by joining more bowls.

      Followed companies

      Stay ahead in opportunities and insider tips by following your dream companies.

      Job searches

      Get personalized job recommendations and updates by starting your searches.

      Program Manager Interview

      Feb 10, 2011
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Seattle, WA
      No offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied through college or university. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Jan 2011

      Interview

      I attended a first round interview at my university in Seattle, WA, and then visited the Redmond, WA campus for an all-day interview for my second round. The first interview took a half hour, and was a one-on-one interview between me and an interviewer. He started by asking me a few questions about my resume, like what my favorite class was, and the project I was working on. We also talked about what kind of development I liked, why I wanted to work at Microsoft, why I wanted to be a PM. Then he asked me a technical question (see questions). He was very nice, and did a great job of giving me feedback about the type of answers he was looking for. I was actually the last interview of the day, so at the end he asked if I would like to stay and answer a quick logic problem while he packed up. I agreed and he asked me a problem about 3 prisoners wearing either black or white hats. The recruiter actually took a very long time to get back to me about scheduling my second interview (this time period also fell over winter vacation, so I think that was part of the problem). I arrived at the Redmond campus for my second round interview. I briefly met with a recruiter to talk about the day, and then I took a (single-person Prius) shuttle to one of the MS buildings in Redmond, where I interviewed with 4 people. The first 2 were PMs on the team I was interviewing for a position with, the third worked to supply data to the team, and the fourth was the first two PMs' boss on the team. The first PM asked me about my resume again. Then we talked about a project I was working on and what features I was thinking about adding to it (I drew some pictures on the white board for this). Then he asked me a coding problem: given a palindrome, ex "A man, a canal, panama" and a list of punctuation to ignore when processing the string, ex ", " return true/false if the string is a palindrome. I wrote this in the language of my choice (Java, which he let me use even though he worked in C). Then we discussed the answer to, but not coded, a question: given a strictly-increasing list that has been shifted, return the number of shifts Original list:, 1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 Shift of 1: 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 1 Shift of 2: 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 1, 3 Shift of 3: 4, 5, 6, 6, 1, 3, 3 The second interviewer asked me a bunch of PM type questions: if you were designing a web music store, what would you do? What things do you need to consider? What actions might a user make (buying music, searching music, creating an account) that need to be considered, etc). The third interview was over lunch, so it was more relaxed. We talked about why I like technology, why I want to be a PM, why I think Microsoft is cool, etc. The fourth interviewer was terrible, he asked me a ridiculously vague PM question about designing a mobile application to drive traffic to Bing.com. The question was really unclear; I had absolutely no idea what he wanted me to say, and when I asked him to clarify he basically looked at me like I was stupid because it was CLEARLY obvious, and said exactly the same thing he had before. I guessed what he wanted and made something up, and I don't think it was the direction he wanted me to go, but it was hard to tell because he didn't give me any kind of leading questions or statements. I think since he was the boss he rarely interviewed candidates. I finally took a shuttle back to my first building of the day, touched base with the recruiter I had talked to that morning, and went home. Overall (with the exception of the last guy) I felt like the interview went well, except that I realized somewhere during the day that I really wanted to do Software Development, not PM. I think my interviewer also realized I would be a terrible PM, so I did not receive an offer.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Given a linked list, remove the maximum element(s) from the list. For example: 1, 7, 4, 9, 2, 9, 1, you would remove both instances of 9.
      Answer question
      1

      Other Program Manager Interview Reviews for Microsoft

      Program Manager Interview

      Mar 17, 2026
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Hyderābād
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Easy interview

      Application

      I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Hyderābād) in Jan 2026

      Interview

      Not a great experience with interviews taking 1 month to complete. Despite ongoing communication, the role did not move forward, reportedly due to approval constraints. The overall experience highlights a gap in aligning internal approvals before progressing candidates to advanced stages. Clearer communication and better alignment internally would improve the candidate experience

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Questions on Project Experience and Thought process
      Answer question

      Program Manager Interview

      Sep 8, 2025
      Anonymous employee
      Redmond, WA
      Accepted offer
      Neutral experience
      Difficult interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)

      Interview

      The interview process is grueling and I get why people do it but its more awareness, know that you'll spend an entire day and meet several people, so it's important to be mentally and physically prepared. Eat a good breakfast but not heavy stay hydrated. This was just for a PM role it's their standard process I imagine executive level is another thing altogether

      Interview questions [2]

      Question 1

      Tell me about a time you didn't agree with someone who was a stakeholder on your project and how did you handle that?
      Answer question

      Question 2

      Tell me about a time that your project was not going to launch on it's timeline.
      Answer question

      Program Manager Interview

      Jul 31, 2025
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Declined offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Microsoft

      Interview

      Very smooth, thoughtful interview process. It showed the recruiter really cared what I had to contribute and asked great followup clarifying questions. Would definitely recommend everyone try an interview with them even if it doesn't pan out.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Name one project that you have worked on and tell us the outcomes?
      Answer question

      Microsoft interviews FAQs

      • Program Manager applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 3.3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 68% positive. To compare, the company-average is 66.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
      • Candidates applying for Program Manager roles take an average of 28 days to get hired, when considering 553 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 Program Manager according to 553 Glassdoor interviews include:

        One on one interview:  39%

        Phone interview:  22%

        Skills test:  9%

        Background check:  7%

        Group panel interview:  7%

        Personality test:  4%

        Presentation:  4%

        IQ intelligence test:  3%

        Drug test:  2%

        Other:  1%

      • Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -

        1. Software Engineer(6664) ;
        2. Senior Software Engineer(1760) ;
        3. Program Manager(1400) ;
        4. Software Engineer II(1051) ;
        5. Software Development Engineer(888) ;
        6. Senior Program Manager(861) ;
        7. Product Manager(727) ;
        8. Intern(689) ;
        9. Technical Support Engineer(688) ;
        10. Software Developer(669) ;
        11. Software Development Engineer (SDE)(631) ;
        12. Consultant(548) ;
        13. Software Engineer(Internship)(535) ;
        14. Director(533) ;
        15. Project Manager(480) .


      Glassdoor

      • About / Press
      • Awards
      • Blog
      • Research
      • Contact Us
      • Guides

      Employers

      • Free Employer Account
      • Employer Center
      • Employers Blog

      Information

      • Help
      • Guidelines
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy & Ad Choices
      • Do Not Sell Or Share My Information
      • Cookie Consent Tool
      Download the App

      • Browse by:
      • Companies
      • Jobs
      • Locations
      • Communities
      • Recent Posts

      Copyright © 2008-2026. Indeed, Inc. "Glassdoor," "Worklife Pro," "Bowls," and logo are proprietary trademarks of Indeed, Inc.

    • Security
    • Work With Us

      • Advertisers
      • Careers
    • Jobs at Microsoft

      120 jobs in United States
      Program Manager (contract)
      Remote
      ·
      $52 - $59 /hr
      (Employer provided)
      View job
      Program Manager (contract)
      Remote
      ·
      $55 - $63 /hr
      (Employer provided)
      View job
      Program Manager (contract)
      United States
      ·
      $58 - $66 /hr
      (Employer provided)
      View job
      Program Manager (contract)
      Remote
      ·
      $49 - $55 /hr
      (Employer provided)
      View job
      Program Manager (contract)
      Redmond, WA
      ·
      $62 - $71 /hr
      (Employer provided)
      View job
      View all Program Manager Jobs