Microsoft Software Development Engineer interview questions
based on 1.2K ratings - Updated Jul 22, 2025
Averageinterview difficulty
Very positiveinterview experience
How others got an interview
57%
Campus Recruiting
Campus Recruiting
18%
Applied online
Applied online
12%
Recruiter
Recruiter
10%
Employee Referral
Employee Referral
1%
Staffing Agency
Staffing Agency
1%
In Person
In Person
1%
Other
Other
Interview search
1,152 interviews
Viewing 61 - 65 of 1,152 Interviews
Microsoft interviews FAQs
Software Development Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 4 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 100% positive. To compare, the company-average is 71.3% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Development Engineer roles take an average of 1 day to get hired, when considering 1 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 46 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer according to 1 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 100%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bengaluru) in Oct 2019
Interview
When there is opening of microsoft sde intern then i applied for referrals then i got referred and i got link for application on microsoft careers ,then after few days i got a test link, afterwards a online interview round occurs then afterward two onsite round in Bangalore occurs
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bengaluru) in Dec 2019
Interview
I interviewed with Microsoft Azure Team - Hyderabad at Bangalore location .
Overall it was a very bad experience.
It was a bulk hiring process, where they had flown in interviewers from Hyderabad.
Around 40+ candidates of more than 3 years experience had been called.
Everyone was made to wait, and it was too stressful on the candidates - due to the longer wait time, and the panel - due to the high number of candidates to be interviewed.
I had two rounds. Each round was less than 30 minutes and very short. Not sure if it is because I gave the answer rightaway or because the interviewers were not interested (seemed like it).
First round :
1. Tell me about yourself
2. About my current work and job.
3. Then asked one coding question : Rotate array.
He asked to propose any solution first, and then optimise it. I said I have encountered this question and know the optimal solution with O(n) time and O(1) space. He asked to explain solution and then code it.
Once I completed - he asked to do unit test and say few test cases - I did it.
That was it.
Second round :
1. Few questions about my current work and job
2. One coding question : Clone LL with random pointer :
I had not known this question before and I came up with hashing based implementation . The interviewer asked me to write it down, and once done he asked me for alternative implementations.
I suggested two other methods all with O(n) extra space - but he wanted with O(1) extra space. I could not come up with it and was asked to leave.
Other people who interviewed with me got the following questions :
1. Implement singleton design pattern
2. clone circular Linked List
Overall interview experience was very bad. I had to wait for more than 7 hours just to give 30 minutes of interview.
The interviewers did not discuss or participate in problem solving - once I solved the given problem, interview was over. Also they seemed very disinterested in the entire interview process.
HR co-ordination was also very bad. Both interviewers did not have my resume and had some one else's resume - so it was irritating.
Major focus was on array, Linked List and design.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Rotate array.
He asked to propose any solution first, and then optimise it.
I applied through college or university. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Microsoft (Jalandhar, Punjab) in Jul 2017
Interview
Microsoft Internship Interview Experience July 2017.
He began with designing an application which will track and plot the other user’s location and gave me various scenarios like for example how I will handle memory overflow if sender went offline. This went on for more than 10-15 minutes.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I was asked to populate the next right pointer in a binary tree.