Get a Job at Microsoft: Interview Process and Top Questions

As one of the top tech companies in the world, Microsoft's interview process is notoriously thorough, lengthy, and challenging.

Microsoft offers plenty of opportunities. It is considered a top employer of students and new graduates, with internship and research positions available across the company.

Forbes rated Microsoft as the second-best workplace among over 700 companies worldwide. Like Spotify or Airbnb, its work culture has also made it a top employer for diversity and social impact.

Below, we summarize the Microsoft interview process and the questions you should expect to answer.

Microsoft Interview Process

Microsoft's interview process can take two weeks to one month and consist of three to five rounds.

For students, the process could take up to two months and involve as many as nine interview rounds.

The process typically involves:

• An initial screening call with a recruiter.
• A phone screen with a hiring manager.
• A technical interview (for technical roles only).
• An onsite loop consisting of 4-6 interviews.

The interview process is not centralized and may vary depending on the role you apply for.

Microsoft's core values

Microsoft values strong communication and collaboration skills, as well as a consciousness of Microsoft’s core values, competencies, and company culture.

Think of some examples from your background that epitomize Microsoft’s competencies throughout each interview.

• Collaboration: Effectively communicating within and across teams.
• Drive for Results: Striving to fulfill commitments, continually seeking bigger challenges, and holding oneself and others accountable.
• Customer Focus: Empowering every individual and organization to achieve more.
• Influencing for Impact: Successfully persuades and influences others using effective communication skills.
• Judgment: Accurately assess complex problems and use business acumen to make informed decisions.
• Adaptability: Possessing the ability to handle ambiguous situations or problems with agility.

The interview process focuses on the following key aspects of Microsoft’s culture:

• Growth Mindset. True learners who can quickly acquire new skills and connect with others to help bring big ideas to life.
• Diverse and Inclusive. Being open to learning about one's own biases and changing behaviors accordingly. Valuing differences, seeking them out, and inviting them in.
• One Microsoft. Actively seeking collaboration with others, looking for common ground across differences, contributing to and building on the success of others, and prioritizing the customer and team within their role.
• Customer Obsession. Understanding customers' perspectives, showing empathy for their experiences, and incorporating these insights into decisions and deliverables.
• Values. When we come together, we treat each other respectfully, act with integrity, and hold each other accountable for our words and actions.
• Manager Expectations. Our managers help bring our culture to life. By modeling, coaching, and caring, they reinforce our culture and create an environment where everyone can do their best work.

Questions related to these pillars will appear throughout the interview process; try to emphasize them in each stage.

Interviews may be conducted over the phone, through Microsoft Teams, or in person.

Step 1: Recruiter phone screen

The first step in the Microsoft interview process is a 30-to-45-minute phone call with a recruiter.

The recruiter will review your resume and ask a few behavioral questions and some questions about your background.

Questions you can expect from the recruiter include:

• Why Microsoft?
• What appeals to you about this particular role?
• Why do you want to work in this specific space?

The recruiter will use this call to assess your communication, collaboration, and leadership abilities and determine whether you would be a good fit for Microsoft’s culture.

Technical Roles

Microsoft is known for asking data structures and algorithm questions for technical roles during the preliminary recruiter call.

Be prepared to describe your technical skill set and answer a coding question through a shared editor during this call.

The data structures most likely to be discussed are

• arrays and strings,
• queues and lists,
• linked lists,
• trees/tries,
• hash maps/hash sets,
• and graphs.

The interviewer may ask recursive questions and expect in-depth answers on the complexity of your algorithms.

Step 2: Hiring Manager Screen

Prepare to answer more behavioral questions in this section and delve deeper into your educational and career experience and how those skills are transferable to the position.

Be sure to emphasize Microsoft’s culture and competencies throughout this interview.

You’ll likely get questions like:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Where do you see yourself in five years?
• What’s your favorite Microsoft product? How would you improve it?

Step 3: Technical Interviews

Candidates are typically asked to do one or two additional technical interviews, which last about 30 minutes to one hour each.

These interviews may involve some system design, coding, or behavioral questions.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you need clarification, or tell your interviewer if you need more time.

Although accuracy and technical skill are essential, these interviews are more about your thought process and ability to clearly show the progression and reasoning behind your ideas.

Microsoft’s technical interview process will evaluate candidates on all of the following:

• Problem Solving. Interviewers will observe your decision-making process and ability to think on your feet.
• Design. Microsoft is looking for engineers who can work with its existing platform but are not afraid to build a new one from scratch.
• Coding. Your code should be clean, concise, and bug-free. Microsoft will allow you to use the coding language you are most familiar with in a third-party coding tool.
• Testing. Interviewers will expect you to test your code and show how it works.

Microsoft recommends candidates prepare for technical interviews across the following areas:

Algorithms

Recursion is a typical pattern for some questions you might receive in technical interviews.

According to Microsoft, you should know at least one n*log(n) algorithm, but preferably two, such as merge sort or quicksort.

Data Structures

Interviewees should be familiar with these common data structures and be able to describe their pros and cons:

• Arrays
• Strings
• Queues
• Lists
• Linked Lists
• Trees/Tries
• Hash Maps/Hash Sets
• Graphs

System Design and Distributed Systems

Familiarize yourself with the following system design concepts before the interview, as you will be working with them regularly on the job:

• Distributed Systems
• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
• N-Tiered Architecture
• Resiliency
• High Availability
• Auto-Scaling
• Replication
• CAP Theorem
• Partitioning

Machine Learning

In addition, some candidates, especially those applying for Machine Learning (ML) roles, will likely have an interview round focused explicitly on machine learning competencies, during which they will be tested on complex ML and AI problems.

For interviews focused on ML, Microsoft wants to see:

• Confidence in articulating ML and coding concepts
• Familiarity with Microsoft’s current use of AI in its product ecosystems
• Ability to discuss previous technical engineering work
• Passion for the company's mission and vision

Step 4: Onsite Loops

Microsoft’s remote or in-person onsite interview rounds usually consist of 4 to 5 back-to-back interviews lasting 45 minutes to 1 hour each.

The interviews are usually facilitated by senior managers and developers you will be working with.

Depending on the role you are applying for, interviews will consist of both technical and behavioral rounds, consisting of:

• Behavioral questions
• Product questions
• Technical questions
• Resume questions
• Coding exercises

Most interviewees are given at least a week to prepare for the onsite interview loop following the previous session.

If you are interviewing at a physical location, you will have an hour-and-a-half lunchtime opportunity for casual conversations with your interviewers and a 30-minute break on your own toward the end of the on-site interview.

Microsoft Interview Questions

Interviews with Microsoft will focus heavily on your technical and coding ability and behavioral questions.

In both aspects, interviewers will pay close attention to your ability to clearly communicate your thought processes and alignment with Microsoft’s culture and core competencies.

Behavioral

• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone. How did you resolve it, and what did you learn?
• What do you do if your team is blocking you?
• Why would you be a good fit for Microsoft’s mission?
• Describe a time when your project failed.
• Tell me about a time when you gained trust.
• What is one of the biggest risks you have taken?

Coding & System Design

Here are a few sample coding or technical questions you may face in technical interview sections:

• Find the longest substring without repeating characters.
• Find the number of rotations in a circularly sorted array.
• Implement an LRU cache and explain design decisions.
• Construct a binary tree using post-order and in-order traversal arrays.
• Solve a sudoku efficiently using the appropriate algorithm.
• Design a distributed scheduling system.

Machine Learning

• How do you evaluate an ML model?
• What is a confusion matrix?
• Implement the KNN algorithm.
• Implement a 2D convolutional filter.

Product Management

• What are your strengths and weaknesses as a product manager?
• Design an app for renting bicycles.
• Should Microsoft change its pricing models?
• Design a refrigerator for kids.
• Design a photo app for the blind.
• How would you use VR to improve education?

Data Science

• How would you investigate a sudden drop in viewership on YouTube?
• What is a P-value?
• Predict the results from a fair coin flip.
• What are the types of biases that can occur during sampling?

Microsoft Interview Loops

Microsoft’s interview loops consist of technical and behavioral rounds. Expect to answer lots of behavioral questions during these sessions.

Interviewers use these loops to:

• Gauge what you know
• Evaluate how you think and solve problems
• Assess what it’s like to work with you

In particular, Microsoft will evaluate your ability to work with others in a group setting as you will be working with a large team no matter where you end up at Microsoft.

Product Manager

Candidates applying for Microsoft Product Manager roles will face questions related to product design, which are meant to test their analytical skills and abilities in product strategy and execution.

Interviewers want to see your creative process and communication skills here, so verbalize your thought process when responding to specific product design simulation questions.

In this session, Microsoft is looking for:

• Dedication to customer experience and stakeholder communication;
• Fast and efficient problem-solving;
• Understanding product life cycle complexity and planning through development, release, and end-of-life.

Technical PM

A Technical Product Manager who interviewed with Microsoft faced 3 technical rounds during the onsite portion, followed by 2 rounds of behavioral questions.

The technical interviews touched on topics like:

• General systems design
• Data structures
• Data sourcing

You have the opportunity to use a whiteboard during these interviews.

PhD Presentation

Some roles ask candidates with PhDs to give a one-hour presentation on their research. Interviewees want to understand the relevance of your research and background to the role at Microsoft.

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, so be prepared for discussions.

Try your best to link your research and experience to Microsoft’s vision, products, and use of technology.

Software Engineering

During the software engineering interview loop, expect to be tested on your technical and coding skills and your product mindset through system design analysis.

This interview loop is far more technical than behavioral, so displaying good communication skills can set you apart as a candidate.

This interview loop is filled with technical tests and coding questions, so brush up on your coding languages and other web technologies beforehand.

Data Science

Data science candidates will face 3 to 5 45-minute interviews, which are meant to assess their technical skill set and their alignment with and passion for Microsoft.

This may include a PhD presentation, depending on your educational background.

Interview Tips

Here are a few tips to help you ace Microsoft’s interview process and get the job.

Embrace Microsoft’s culture.

Living Microsoft’s culture is key to its mission. It especially looks for candidates who embody a growth mindset — the belief that everyone has the potential to grow and develop.

This means you should show curiosity, willingness to learn, and readiness to face the unknown.

Do your research.

Put in the work to understand the position and company you are applying for, other competitors, and the latest developments in the tech industry. Come prepared for each interview session with plenty of questions for your future team members.

Be specific and transparent in your answers.

A helpful framework for answering technical and behavioral questions is the STAR(R) method. This helps you deliver clear and concise answers to complex problems:

• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Result
• Reflection

FAQs

Does Microsoft hire students?

Yes, Microsoft has several programs available for interns and recent graduates.

Are Microsoft interviews remote or in person?

Interviews may be either remote or in person. If interviewing virtually, Microsoft has prepared a complete set of tips and recommendations on things like tech, environment, and accessibility accommodations.

Can I apply for more than one Microsoft job at a time?

Yes, Microsoft does not have restrictions on this.

More Interview Prep Resources

• Microsoft’s careers website
• Microsoft interview guides
• Microsoft interview questions
• Get coaching from a product manager at Microsoft