Microsoft Interview Experience for Software Engineer | 1 Year Experienced

Applied via employee referral. Got a call for interview rounds after 1.5 months from date of applying on portal.

Round 1(Codility Screening Round): 2 questions to be solved within 60 minutes.

1. Basic string question.>
2. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/lexicographically-smallest-string-formed-by-removing-at-most-one-character/

Got confirmation within a day that I have been shortlisted for further rounds

Round 2(Technical Interview 1): Taken by Software Engineer with around 2-3 years experience. 

1. All 4 pillars of OOPS
2. Difference between Linked List and Arrays
3. Reverse a Linked List
4. Difference between Queue and Priority Queue
5. Given a few tables which have some values linking few rows across tables, write a functional code to print the entry with highest priority. (Main focus here was on creating classes with modular and well defined structures, usage of correct data structures at right point [HashMap, ArrayList, PriorityQueue] and clean coding)

Round 3(Technical Interview 2): Taken by Software Engineer with 5+ years of experience.

1. Detailed discussion about current work and tech stack.
2. Add two binary strings that have been represented using Linked Lists (variation of https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/add-two-numbers-represented-by-linked-lists/)
3. Search for a word. (Trie based approach. Only asked for approach, did not ask to code)
4. Discussion on Multi-Threading, Mutual Exclusion, Design Patterns in Java, Inheritance vs Interfaces, Synchronization, Producer-Consumer problem

Got call from recruiter that I had cleared both technical interviews and that my final round would be conducted in a couple of days.

Round 4(Manager Round): Taken by Engineering Manager with 20+ years of experience. After a quick introduction about myself, I was asked about

1. Reason for changing job
2. A time when you took feedback from peers constructively
3. Toughest assignment you have been involved in
4. Discussion about current projects and tech stack
5. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/check-for-balanced-parentheses-in-an-expression/ (only asked about choice of data structure and time complexity)
6. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/length-of-the-longest-substring-without-repeating-characters/ (only asked about choice of data structure and time complexity)

Got a call from recruiter the same day saying that I had been selected for the role. 

Tips:

1. Focus on basics. DSA, OOPS, OS
2. Show willingness and eagerness to learn and collaborate in technical interviews.
3. Don’t lose faith and trust your preparation. I had previously been rejected by multiple product-based companies during campus placement and also during my off-campus attempts.
4. Maintain a good connection with your assigned recruiter/HR. This shows an eagerness from your side and he/she can really guide you through the ins and outs of the process very well.

Above all, believe in yourself.