ABOUT MICROSOFT
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation which produces computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.
Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship
hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft ranked No. 21 in the 2024 Fortune 500 rankings
of the largest United States corporations by total revenue; it was the world's largest software maker by revenue as of 2016. It is considered one of the Big Five companies in the U.S.
information technology industry, along with Amazon, Google (Alphabet), Apple, and Facebook (Meta).
Microsoft’s corporate vision is to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential
This vision statement shows that the company presents its business and computing products as tools that people and business organizations can use for their development.
what is going to drive the country forward is the ingenuity of the people of India and how technology can be an enabler. We are fully committed to bringing the best technology to help in that process.
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Today, We'll go through everything you need to crack the Microsoft interview, including coding questions and a step-by-step preparation guide.
Depending on the team you are applying for, you’ll need to crack 4 to 5 rounds of interviews. These interviews are designed to assess your technical skills and problem-solving abilities. What sets Microsoft interviews apart from other tech companies is that the hiring managers compare your performance against other candidates to assess your performance. In contrast, other companies make the hiring decision based on your performance. Following are the typical tech interview rounds at Microsoft:
🚀 Recruiter Connect: Best way to get noticed by Microsoft recruiters is to maintain a good Linkedin profile and message recruiters. The candidate can also apply on the Microsoft job portal but it is suggested that they also get a referral from an Microsoft employee.
🚀 Online Round: The CoCube or the online coding round consists of 5 to six competitive coding questions with a time limit running between 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes. The questions level varies consisting of questions from domains of Arrays, String, Single Linked List, Double Linked List etc.
🚀 Onsite Round: The group fly round or the onsite round consists of a written coding contest. Questions are provided and time span of 10 to 15 minutes are given to solve it and another 20 minutes are provided to explain the approach to the mentor, under whose supervision one is assigned to do the task. One should be well versed with the domains of competitive coding, data structure and algorithms to clear the round.
🚀 Techinal Round: These consist of face to face rounds with the interviewer and to pass through these round one should have good knowledge regarding the facts mentioned in the CV. The questions are generally asked from the projects, internships or training mentioned in the CV. Following this one should be well known with the course related subjects like Data Structure, Algorithms, Operating System, Networking, Database Management etc. So, basically, the interview tests whether everything mentioned in the CV is full proof and the interviewee is having in-depth knowledge regarding the subjects dealt during the course of engineering. Students can also be expected to write codes in the interview. The final technical round consists of System Designing where questions from various domains can be asked like Cloud COmputing, Microsoft Azure, Dropbox and various Microsoft technology driven engines.
🚀 Technical-cum HR Round: This round deals less with the technical questions but more with the HR questions like:
1.Where do you see yourself in next 5 years, Microsoft Interview Questions 2024 ?
2.Questions on family background.
3.Strengths and Weaknesses.
4.Questions on the facts mentioned in the CV.
How to Answer Microsoft Interview Questions
While you could just jump into the fray, memorize a few Microsoft interview questions and be done with it (Another hint: That's as far as most people get) that's not the best way to go about things.
Now, it's important to understand that talking about your skills is only one part of the equation. You also need to be ready for Microsoft behavioral interview questions. Some of these can be a little tricky, but, when handled properly, behavioral interview questions are also chances to shine.
What to do when stuck
Getting stuck during coding interviews is extremely common. But do not worry, that is part of the process and is a test of your problem solving abilities. Here are some tips to try out when you are stuck:
🚀 Talk through what you initially thought might work and explain why it doesn't
🚀 Come up with more test cases and write them down
🚀 Think about how you would solve it without a program
🚀 Recall past questions related to the topic, what similar questions in the past have you encountered and what techniques did you use to solve them?
🚀 Enumerate through the common data structures and whether they can be applied to the question. There really aren't that many - stack, queue, dictionary, heap, graph, etc.
🚀 Look out for repeated work and determine if you can cache those computations.
While coding
Write your code with a neat coding style (consistent indentation, spacing around your operators). Reading code written by others is usually not an enjoyable task. Use clear variable names, avoid single letter names unless they are for iteration.
Always be explaining what you are currently writing/typing to the interviewer. This is not about literally reading out what you are typing to the interviewer. Talk about the section of the code you are currently implementing at a higher level, explain why it is written as such and what it is trying to achieve.