Know Microsoft Interviews in-and-out by MS engineer

"The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today!"?

Isn't it the right motto to live by? Build-Debug-Upskill to success must start today to get the best tomorrow!

Talking about the best, product-based companies like Microsoft are the dream of many software engineers who love to code, innovate and develop! We do ring the same bell and are here to upskill working professionals to make the switch to companies like Microsoft.

It is a huge product-based company that continues to reign and disrupt the IT market with it's innovative products and services. But as they say, the mountain is tough to climb but the view makes it worth! So is here.?

The journey including the interviews, applications etc. can be overwhelming at times. It's just that one more application that can lead you to switch to the dream company!

Microsoft is a huge banner that hails various hiring programs for a multitude of working professionals or campus graduates.

Be it any mode, the interview processes test the individual on Data Structures proficiency, system design, core knowledge subjects like Operations Systems, Database Management and much more.

But where is the most emphasis for a software engineer? It's Data Structures!

Working professionals i.e. software engineers need to focus on all aspects while preparing for interviews. Although the technologies and experience count, but the knowledge of data structures is a necessity to make the switch to companies like Microsoft.

It's definitely practicing smart to ace that tech interview. Our co-founder and mentor at Bosscoder Academy, Rajat Garg, lets us in to his interview experience at Microsoft. A former Microsoft Software Engineer, Rajat Garg has worked on PowerPoint Web in building and scaling services to billions of users.

About Microsoft Interview Experience

Mainly, the interview comprised of 5 rounds and were completed in an average of 40-45 minutes:

• 3 rounds were based on data-structures entirely
• 1 round on problem-solving and math-puzzles
• 1 round on system design questions and a managerial aspect

Round 1:

The first mail that drops in your inbox post application selection is the Cocubes testlink. It generally consists of 2-3 coding questions spanning out over different data structures. On solving maximum test cases,? the application is then moved forward to round 2.?

Problem 1: Odd-Even Linked List Try it out here!

Problem 2: Find the number of maximum consecutive ones. Try it out here!

Problem 3: Find the total number of inversions. Try it out here!

Round 2:

The second round was conducted in the offline mode and consisted of one coding question that allowed the interviewer to understand the candidate.

Problem on heaps: Top k-frequent elements in an integer array. Try it out here!

Round 3:

The third round was held in the offline mode and Rajat was faced with coding questions, basic math and puzzle questions.

It was a question involving the math ability of probability and implementation with data-structures. Try it out here!

Round 4:

The fourth round was directed towards a specific data structure such as tree to test the candidate. It involved only one coding question.

Problem: Implement Trie (prefix tree) Try it out here!

Round 5:

The fifth round was inclined towards the managerial aspect. It did involve system design questions and logical puzzles too.

The system design question covered was " Design the search engine of Gmail ".

Identify the functional and non-functional requirements and walk through the different components of designing a search engine including crawler, indexer, retriever and so on.

The next part was a managerial question, " Are you a hard-working individual? If so, then prove it with instances. "

Rajat shares that these type of answers look out for real-life scenarios where one can portray their core journey. His answer definitely celebrates his hardworking nature.

He spoke about his transition from electrical to CSE background. As he was enrolled in the electrical domain, he constantly worked hard and got excellent CGPA in this stream. Besides that, Rajat also had an inclining interest in computer science and developed all necessary skills like coding all by himself. He participated and ranked higher than CSE students in various coding contests. All of these accomplishments accompanied by his stupendous performance in ECE calls for his hard-work in all aspects.

Conclusion

In short, data structure, good problem-solving , system design and giving real-life instances as answers to the managerial rounds? is the key to these rounds and well, these specially curated links for each Microsoft interview round will definitely help you track your preparation.

This was a first-hand account of a Microsoft software engineer who aced the 5 interviews!

About Bosscoder Academy

Not only this, Bosscoder Academy is home to wondrous mentors and instructors from top product-based companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple etc. who are spilling their interview beans and helping thousands of professionals get their dream placements. It's the hub of live classes, 24*7 doubt support, flexible schedules, mock interviews, resume workshops and even, career and placement support.

Click to know how Bosscoder Academy can help you become a top engineer!

PS: Want to know more about different interview experiences? Subscribe at Build-Debug-Upskill to Success by Bosscoder Academy!

Happy coding :)