The Microsoft software engineer interview is one of the most difficult technical interviews to ace. That%E2%80%99s mainly because of the stiff competition, an arduous interview process, and an acceptance rate of less than 2% The purpose of the Microsoft interview process is to assess a candidate’s aptitude for solving challenging coding and scalable systems design problems. Due to Microsoft’s extremely high standards when making hiring decisions, even engineers with years of experience frequently fail to advance past the taxing interview rounds.
It takes more than just knowing how to solve coding problems in order to ace the Microsoft interview and receive that sought-after offer. Before making a hiring decision, recruiters and hiring managers take into account a number of factors. That is exactly what we’ll discuss in this article. In order to ace the interview, look at what you should include in your Microsoft interview preparation plan.
Check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation e-book to prepare for technical interviews if you’re a software engineer, coding engineer, software developer, engineering manager, or tech lead.
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Let’s examine what the ideal Microsoft interview preparation schedule would entail. Additionally, we’ll examine the Microsoft interview procedure, look at some sample Microsoft interview questions, and offer insightful advice for acing the interview.
How did you apply to be a Microsoft intern?
Many people I know were referred to the Microsoft internship, but I kind of just cold-applied through the website really early in the hiring cycle. I applied pretty immediately, in July or August. I figured why not apply and see what happens since this was one of those companies that everyone had heard of.
What advice would you give to software engineering internship applicants?
If you feel prepared, apply as soon as you can. Additionally, make sure you have a plan in place a few months before the hiring cycle, which typically begins in July or August. Make sure you have an impressive side project. Make sure you have one or two months to devote to learning Leetcode and preparing for algorithms.
For me, I think timing was everything. Many of the people I know who have received referrals do so a little too late because they are awaiting the completion of their referral. And they end up not really hearing back. Although I am aware that some people are successful even when they apply a little bit later, I have personally found that I was much more successful when I applied earlier, almost as soon as companies opened their portals.
What interview prep resources would you recommend?
There was one list that was similar to the LeetCode 100 and contained the 100 most typical Leetcode interview questions. Elements of Programming Interviews for Python was another resource I used because I wanted to prepare as thoroughly as possible. Although it was more condensed, which is helpful, all the resources I found in that textbook were also available online, so I wouldn’t say it was absolutely necessary.
I believe that using a textbook at first is very beneficial because it gives you structure during the overwhelming interview process. However, I believe using Leetcode is acceptable once you’ve had some experience with interviews and you know what they’ll expect from you.
What was the interview process like?
I believe that after the phone interview, there was a coding challenge that consisted of a few fairly simple coding questions. Most of the questions focused on soft skills, such as “What are you involved with,” “What are your successes and things you’ve had trouble with,” and “What are your involvements,” and I believe they asked me a fairly basic question about a data structure. But I know that experience isn’t super uniform. Many people have had much longer and more in-depth technical phone interviews, while others were entirely non-technical.
Following that, there was an in-person final interview that included two to three rounds of both technical and non-technical questions. These were more about difficulties you’ve encountered or how you believe your actions have prepared you for success at a tech company. And the technical part was a pretty standard Leetcode question.
They covered the airfare, hotel, and a small allowance for meals and travel, which was really nice. They also paid for an Uber. It was a really enjoyable interviewing experience and undoubtedly one of the factors in my decision to work for Microsoft.
Learn more about the Microsoft interview process here
What was the summer internship experience like?
Instead of just dabbling in a few things, you spend the entire ten weeks working on one project at Microsoft. You work on a side project, collaborate with a mentor every day, and only interact with your manager once or twice a week rather than being treated like a full-time software engineer. My experience was that we had a project, we divided the final objective into five or six distinct milestones, and we added a new task to each milestone each week. It gave me a lot of stability, and I felt a lot of support.
Does your project usually make it to production?
I had the good fortune to work on a project that received millions of views each month, which was amazing. You can’t see something I was working on on the website because it was just infrastructure, but the backend is still functional.
But it depends on the team. My experience was fantastic because I got to work on a project that involves lots of customers, but I’m aware that many interns are assigned to use internal resources. Additionally, there are internal tools within each of these sizable divisions of Microsoft, such as the Office team, Microsoft Teams, and Azure teams. There are numerous interns working on real consumer-facing products in each of those divisions, in addition to internal tasks.
How does the return offer system work?
You meet with your manager and mentor on a regular basis during the internship. You set your internship-wide goals at the first check-in, and you meet again at the midpoint and end to review your progress. You discuss how you affect the group and the business.
You talk about where you think you could’ve done better.
Recognizing what I did and, more importantly, how I could improve was, in my opinion, crucial for my return offer. I believe I made a very good observation of what I could have done better, and I believe my manager highly valued that. I can really see that you know instinctively where to improve, and that’s really important to see in a developer, she said in her feedback to me.
Finally, they rate you as Strong Hire, Hire, or No Hire. If you accept a return offer, you won’t be directly informed whether you’re a Hire or Strong Hire, but your compensation package will reflect this.
Before you accept a return offer, familiarize yourself with Microsoft’s advantages.
What was the biggest challenge for you?
There were two things.
One, finding a good place to work in quarantine. I was working every day in the living room of my Evanston apartment because my WiFi couldn’t get to my room. Ultimately, everything turned out well, but that was still interesting.
The other one was the transition. I’ve worked for a variety of businesses before joining Microsoft, but I believe that because it is a large organization, there is a lot of legacy code. Because my particular project was buried beneath so many different layers of infrastructure, it took a lot of effort to even begin to understand it. But the key is understanding that you have a mentor in place for a reason. I thought I was being a bother by asking so many questions and I wanted to work on everything alone, but it was necessary and available. It was difficult for me to understand it because I had trouble accessing the resources and asking the right questions.
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FAQ
Are Microsoft internships hard to get?
Even though it may be difficult to obtain an internship at Microsoft, just attending the meeting will help you in your search for employment. You can use it to help you improve your responses and gain the confidence you need to successfully complete the challenging course.
What is Microsoft’s acceptance rate?
Candidates with a strong sense of purpose and an interest in technology and the company are hired by Microsoft. What is the job acceptance rate for Microsoft? Due to the tough competition and many rounds of interviews, the acceptance is less than 2% There is no denying why it is regarded as one of the most difficult interviews to pass
How many Microsoft interns get full time offers?
85 percent of interns at Microsoft are offered full-time jobs, and more than 80 percent of them accept.
What does it take to get an internship at Microsoft?
Join Microsoft now to contribute to innovation and the creation of tomorrow’s businesses. You must be a full-time student majoring in a relevant field who will be attending college or university for at least one term, semester, or quarter after your internship to be eligible for consideration for an internship.