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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Recruiter came to campus at a career fair. Had a 30 minute interview roughly 2 weeks after submitting survey. I was applying for a position that goes to 4th years normally so it was tougher than expected. 1 behavioral question.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Find the lowest common child in a binary search tree
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft in Feb 2015
Interview
I applied online and got contacted for a phone interview after about a month or two. Mainly asked about projects I've worked on and how I debugged them. I was asked if I'd ever changed a project to suit the end user. Also asked a brainteaser to work through out loud.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What's the difference between a thread and a process?
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Mar 2015
Interview
I went to the career fair then got contacted for campus interview. This interview was pretty chill and questions were easy. Then they flew me over to Seattle and I had 5 in person interviews. I thought I did well but got rejected. First three interviews were technical heavy while next two consist of some behavioral and design questions. I learned alot even though I did not get an offer.