Microsoft Interview Experience for SDE-1 (On-Campus)

CODING ROUND: There were 2 questions in this round and were given 1 hour to solve them. Difficulty level: Leetcode medium

INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE:

ROUND 1: I was asked 2 questions.

• Calculate pow(a,b)

I started with the brute force technique. Then kept optimizing it, the interviewer was very friendly and helped me with the tiny mistakes I made. I gave him multiple solutions like multiplying only to the square root of b and at last, I gave him the bit-manipulation solution. 

Same question: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/java-program-to-calculate-power-of-a-number/

• Add 1 to a number that was in the form of a Linked List

This was an easy question but also can be a tricky one as it can be a little confusing. Honestly, everything depends on the environment the interviewer sets. If the vibe is a tense one, even an easy question can seem very puzzling. So, being calm and solving them like we’re solving another one of the GFG interview problems is the key. 

Same question: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/add-1-number-represented-linked-list/

ROUND 2: Only one question was asked, the LRU cache one. The interviewer asked me to do it using HashMap. 

Similar question: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/lru-cache-implementation/

ROUND 3: This was the last round. The question I was asked was just the question of the sorting element posed in a different manner. The interviewer was checking if I would use an in-built sort function or make a sort function myself. He was pretty satisfied with my answer as I gave him both solutions. That’s it! We discussed about the workplace environment at Microsoft for the rest of my interview. 

And bam! After 20 days I got a call saying that I was offered the role!