Microsoft Interview Experience (IC 2)

Introduction

This post has been long overdue. In my previous post I have penned down my Meta interview experience. Please do read that for a bit of my background. After I got rejected from Meta, I was disheartened and didn’t want to give any interview for some time. I wanted to prepare more so that I can perform better. But fortunately I got an opportunity from Microsoft for IC2 a week after my Meta reject. Initially I thought I should let go of the opportunity as I was not confident enough to crack it. I just couldn’t stand another reject. But Microsoft doesn’t have any downtime, there is a chance that I can get another interview immediately after a reject (unlike Google, Meta, Salesforce etc.,). So it started.

Online Assessment

After I confirmed the recruiter that I am interested in the position, I got a link for online assessment. I asked her the time I got to complete the OA. She asked me to complete it within a week. Initially I planned to take the test on the last day, but I just prepared for Meta interview rigorously. So took a couple of days to just revise all the concepts and syntax and gave my online assessment.

The test included 2 questions with a time limit of 90 mins including 1 medium question and 1 hard question. I was able to solve the medium question within 10 mins with all the test cases passed. The second question took me 3 attempts to get all the test cases passed. My first approach for this solution is O(n²) and few test cases timed out, I optimized it to O(n log n) for which all the test cases passed. I am still skeptical about the second question, I tried for a solution with O(n) TC, but I couldn’t come up with any solution (Later I realized there is a O(n) solution which is a very complex approach). As I had more time, I gave multiple solutions for the first question.

In my opinion after all the preparation, I considered this OA as an easy one. 2 days later I received an email that I got selected for next rounds.

Full loop interview

I received an email to select the dates for my full loop interview. I gave the immediate possible dates as I know I won’t be preparing more even if I have time. The full loop interview consists of 4 back to back 45 mins rounds with 15 mins break in between. My time slot was 2 PM to 5:45PM. In Microsoft, there won’t be a structure for the interview. Any interviewer can ask any topic. Usually topics include Behavioral, Coding, Low level design, System Design. Depending on the team you are interviewing for, the topics might change. In all 4 rounds all topics required by the team will be covered by at least one of the interviewer. If one doesn’t cover it other will. Mostly in all rounds first few mins will go for Behavioral questions.

I interviewed for a team in Dev Division and in all the 4 interview rounds I was asked Behavioral questions for first 15 to 20 mins and coding questions for remaining time. If you solve 1 question in the remaining time, you will be asked a follow up question or some other question. In 3 out of 4 rounds, I solved the first question with optimal solution so got second question. In 2 out of those 3 rounds, I solved both questions. In 3rd round I explained the solution for follow up question but couldn’t code it up as there was no time left. In the final round I was only able to solve one question and that too had some flaws (but it works).

There is no need to run your code and you can choose the language of your choice. Interviewers were very professional and helped me during coding. I really loved the behavioral part, it went like a conversation rather than an interview.

Result

I got an email 2 days later. I really didn’t want to open the email, but after gathering some courage I opened it. My heart was pounding and I shed a tear or two as I read that I was selected for the position. And yes I finally got a job. It was a gruesome 8 months of job search.

Preparation

I haven’t prepared anything separately for Microsoft, all my preparation was from Meta interview. Take a look at the conclusion section here for my preparation.

Thank you

I failed Salesforce, Google and Meta before landing a job. One thing I learnt is you will get better after each interview, I saw a significant improvement after each of my rejects. It is hard, but hang in there and keep improving yourself and you never know when the luck will knock your door. I hope this helps the readers in their preparation. Feel free to reach out to me on Linkedin if you need some guidance/referral. Thank you for reading my post and I wish everyone good luck in their interviews.