Microsoft | SDE2 | Hyerabad | June 2024 [Offer]

Current Status

Company: One fo the top Investment Bank
Position: Associate (eq. SDE 2)
Location: Bangalore
Current YOE: 4yrs 10months

Interview Details

Company: Microsoft
Position: SDE II (L62)
Location: Hyderabad
Current YOE: 4yrs 10months
Date: June 2024

I applied online through Micorosoft's careers page. I applied over many many job openings at Microsoft's careers page. I finally got a mail for online coding assessment and a call from HR after approx 30 days. He explained the interview process and also asked me some get to know questions. Told me you have to pass the OA in order to proceed to the on-site rounds.

In total, there was 1 OA + 4 on-site interviews.

Online Coding Assessment

Time limit: 1hr
Platform: Codility
Type: onine coding assessment
Self-Verdict: Strong Hire

2 DSA medium level questions.
Several domain related MCQ questions.

Then came 4 on-site rounds. R1, R2, R3, are supposed to take place same day, 2 in the first half of the day, another in second of the day. The fourth round is called AA round (some Microsoft term).

Round 1

Time limit: 1hr
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Type: Problem solving
Self-Verdict: Strong Hire

Very open ended questions about my current responsibilites, techincal questions related to my current work, some questions on how this handled , how that is handled.
These initial questions took almost 15 min. The we moved to a problem solving (sort of LLD) question on codility paltform. It was based on Trees.

I think this question was an LLD question. But I approached it in a DSA style. But I didn't prepare for any of these Microsoft interview as I overloaded from other interviews. So, I did no special prep or any dedicated revision for Microsoft.
There were multiple open questions which I kept asking throughout the interview because those were needed to take some code design decisions.
Throughout the interview he kept raising doubts, how will your code handle if this happens, if that happens.
Towards the end of interview, I was able to provide a working solution. He even made me run the code for 2 test cases, and it worked flawlessly.

Round 2

Time limit: 1hr
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Type: DSA
Self-Verdict: Lean Hire

Interviewer was pretty chill and calm throughout the interview, he was supportive too.
1 leetcode medium question was given: Minimum Time to Collect All Apples in a Tree

I never saw this question before. At first, I got confused and thought the algorithm has to find the time in minimum time complexity, and started writing the code. But this was not the case, your algorithm may travel the entire tree to find this out. You just have to find the min time value. After he clarified the expectations of the question, I was able to come up with the correct and working code.
He made me run the code. The code was producing correct output for all the test cases he gave.

Round 3

Time limit: 1hr
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Type: System Design
Self-Verdict: Strong Hire

A system design question to design something similar to Messengar was given.
I addressed all the aspects in a very detailed manner: requirements, NFR, Scale, Estimates, Data modelling, Db strategy, constraints, bottlenecks, etc.
No specific platform was given, you can chose anyone you use for practice.
Like any system design interview, he kept asking for flaws and challenges in my design, and I was able to handle all of them and gave convincing solutions to those.

Round 4 - AA Round

Time limit: 1hr
Platform: Microsoft Teams
Type: Open ended + LLD
Self-Verdict: Strong Hire

I don't remember much from this round but it was very open ended round. She asked about my current work, my role, some questions on my projects, etc. Then she gave some LLD question. She wasn't expecting an end to end written solution, she was only interested for me to design the core of the problem, which I remeber I was able to, and was able to address any challneges she pionted out in my design.
She clearly seemed convinced. She was the hiring manager as well.

Offer: https://leetcode.com/discuss/compensation/6020504/Microsoft-or-SDE2-(L62)-or-Hyderabad.