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Microsoft | SDE2 | Bangalore | 31 May 2024 [Reject]
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I'm writing this post to share my experience interviewing for an SDE 2 position at Microsoft in 31st May 2024. I have done MTech CSE from a Tier-1 College and have 4 years of experience in the field. I hope this information helps others preparing for similar interviews.
Timeline:
22 May 2024: Received a referral from a Microsoft SDE 2 employee.
25 May 2024, 11:00 PM: Invited (Mail) to complete an Online Assessment (OA) on Codility by 27th May. Passing the OA would qualify me for an interview on 31st May.
26 May 2024: Completed the OA on Codility (2 questions in 80 minutes).
Question 1: Find the largest possible subset of an array A where the AND of all elements is greater than 0 (Medium difficulty).
Question 2: Update no more than 2 lines in existing code to make it calculate the total sum of node values correctly.
Codility Experience: The biggest issue I encountered with Codility was that it didn't provide feedback on how many test cases passed out of the total hidden ones, unlike HackerRank or LeetCode contests that show pass/fail status. This lack of information makes it crucial to consider all possible test case scenarios, including corner cases, and thoroughly test your code before submitting.
28 May 2024: I got mail from the recruiter that I'm shortlisted for 31st-May Friday drive. Also the same day I got the call for recruiter asking me about my availability, I asked for some time but the recruiter was like we don’t have interviewer available on next friday. You need to give it on this friday only. So I said Yes.
30 May 2024, 1:00 PM: I received an email with the link for the next day's interview timings. There were two scheduled interviews, each lasting one hour. However, the email mentioned that I should be available for the entire day in case they decide to schedule a third round on the same day.
Interview Rounds:
31 May 2024
Round 1:
Discussed my current work and challenges (30 minutes).
DSA question: Search in a Rotated Sorted Array (LeetCode 33). I explained my modified binary search approach, implemented it on Codility (passing 5 out of 6 test cases), and answered questions about assignment operators, copy constructors, and virtual functions. The interviewer was supportive and offered extra time to improve the failing test case, but I couldn't resolve it within 5 minutes
Round 2:
Discussed my work experience (15 minutes).
Design questions:
Q1 : Redesign the flight booking experience for MakeMyTrip (MMT) using generative AI.
Q2 : Implement a rate limiter to ensure users cannot tweet more than 100 times in 5 minutes on a specific Twitter feature.
The interviewer was supportive, and the discussion was positive overall.
After that round, within 30 minutes on the same day, I received a call from the recruiter asking if I would be ready for a third round of interview in 15 minutes. I said yes.
Round 3 :
Easy DSA question: Find the Least Common Multiple (LCM) of two numbers. I wrote and implemented the code on Codility with test cases. We discussed corner cases, test case selection strategies, and Time Limit Exceeded (TLE) and integer overflow considerations.
Design question: Similar to URL shortening.
The interviewer was supportive, and the round felt positive.
Follow-up:
03 June 2024: I called the recruiter to inquire about feedback and the next steps. They mentioned collecting candidate results and scheduling with the hiring manager. I was told to expect an update by the end of the week.
04 June 2024: Received a rejection email without a specific reason.
Overall:
This is a detailed account of my recent Microsoft SDE 2 interview experience (May 2024). The interview process itself was smooth and well-organized. However, I am disappointed with the outcome. While I'm unsure of the specific areas where I could have improved, I'm committed to learning from this experience and refining my skills. Here's to continuous learning and growth!
If you found this post insightful, please like it!
Good luck to everyone!!!