Microsoft | L61 | Hyd | 3yrs exp

I recently cleared 4 rounds of tech interviews with Microsoft.

Round 1 : Online Test 2 Medium Problems, One was a variation of Stock Buy sell and other was on String DP.

Round2: Hiring Manager Interview Was quite amazed, HM round happened in the beginning for me. Was asked two DSA problems on Arrays and LinkedLists alongwith behaviour and design aspects of my current work.

Round3: This was one of the best rounds and was with a senior Architect who had a deep discussion on my current projects, the HLD and LLD aspects mainly. Went for around 1.5 hrs

Round 4 : Design Round with Senior Manager

Was asked a standard DP problem on grids initially and then went on to ask a design problem to build Theft Identification Platform with CCTVs and alerting with expectations around the DB choices, video streaming, event processing and communication between the services. The round went okayish as the problem was very open ended with multiple components.

Round 5: Design Round with Senior Developer

Was again asked a problem on trees, similar to burning tree(min time) and then asked me to design Instagram Feeds and Reels. The focus was more on HLD aspects.

Got the feedback after 4 days, Realized that Microsoft focussed a lot on system design aspects than coding and previous design experience can greatly give an edge, given they are very selective in hiring currently for their teams.