Microsoft Software Development Engineer interview questions
based on 1.2K ratings - Updated Jul 22, 2025
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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%
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I am respecting the process, but my experience was that I got an on-campus interview, 45 min. Went well enough. I got contacted the next day that I would have another round of interviews, which turned out to be scheduled for the following morning at 8 am, where I had two 45 min interviews back to back on-campus. I thought it was an interesting process that didn't leave a lot of time to prepare
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Study algorithms, prepare for problem solving questions
I applied through college or university. The process took 6+ months. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
I got in contact through a fair at college. After I gave them my resume there, they reached out for a phone interview. The phone interview was relatively average. After the phone interview, they sent me an email saying I got past the phone round and they wanted me to go to Redmond, but they had no positions available anymore, so I could try again next year and bypass the phone round.
The next year I went to Redmond and toured campus and interviewed with 4 or 5 people. Each asked different questions. Two of the interviews were technical and the rest were just discussion.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Microsoft in Jan 2014
Interview
The guy who called me wasn't a developer, someone from HR. He was asking questions about my past experience, previous job-related questions, one puzzle and other questions about most used programming languages, my favorite software, what I would like to improve. The puzzle was about nine pieces of marble. They're all equal, except one which is heavier than others. You have balanced weights and you have to find the heaviest one by weighting only twice. I'd encountered this problem before and solved it, so during the interview, I guess I solved too quickly.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The guy was quite likeable and friendly, but it was strange for me that he didn't want to know any particular technical details regarding my experience, so I actually didn't know what to tell him then.