I recently went through the hiring process for a Software Engineering Intern position at Microsoft for summer 2024. I applied through the company’s career portal in July 2023 and received a link to the online assessment in September 2023.
Round 1: Online Assessment
The online assessment consisted of two data structures and algorithms (DSA) questions, one on dynamic programming and the other on graphs. I had 1.5-2 hours to complete the assessment, and I was able to solve both questions with all test cases passing in about half an hour remaining from the total time. I was then shortlisted for the next round.
Round 2: Interview Round 1
I received an email to schedule my first interview about 15-20 days after the online assessment. I selected a date and received a confirmation call two days before to confirm my availability.
The interview began on Teams, and the interviewer introduced himself and asked me how my day was and to tell him about myself. He then described his interview style, which was focused on DSA. He told me that he would ask me two questions, and I would need to explain my approach and code them.
- I was given a string that comprised “(“, “)” and “*”. Now the “*” can represent – “(“, “)” or ” ” (a blank space).
A string was given and I had to return if it had valid parenthesis or not.
Input:- "*(())(*"
Output:- true
- Merge overlapping Intervals. Given a 2D- array merge the overlapping intervals. Here is the leetcode link – https://leetcode.com/problems/merge-intervals/
I was able to solve the first question and write the code for it. I didn’t have much time left for the second question, so the interviewer asked me to just describe my logic and time complexity.
After the interview, I received a call from HR about an hour later informing me that I had been shortlisted for the next round. I thanked him and reviewed fundamental subjects and my projects. Both interview rounds were held on the same day.
Round 3: Interview Round 2
The second interview started about 5-10 minutes late. The interviewer introduced herself and asked me about my favorite subjects in college and what projects I had worked on that excited me.
I answered enthusiastically, and then she shared a link to a platform pasted a DSA question into it, and asked me to write pseudocode for it. The question was about the celebrity problem:
Given an array of people where you can call a function "Knows()" to find if x knows y.
A celebrity is one that everyone knows but he knows no one.
I used a hashmap to solve the problem, and she told me to optimize it. I couldn’t think of a way to optimize it at the time, but after two minutes, she told me that I could use elimination and to think about it later.
The interview ended after that.
Tips
Here are a few tips for Microsoft SWE Intern interviews:
- Try to talk as much as possible and describe what you are thinking. Even if you fumble a bit on the logic, the interviewer is there to help you.
- Remember that communication is key. At every step, your interviewer must know exactly what you are trying to do.
- Relax and think clearly. If you do, you will be all set.
I hope this helps!
PS- I got the offer letter!