Microsoft | SDE-2 | Redmond | [Reject]

I recently interviewed with Microsoft and wanted to share my experience with you. Total YOE : 3 years Current Status : No Job in hand Location : Redmond

Reached out by recruiter on LinkedIn. Appeared for a tech screen and then called for the virtual onsite.

For each round, there were 1-2 behavioural questions asked.

Round-1: I was asked a question on Binary tree , told the correct approach and wrote the recursive code, after that I was asked to write the iterative approach as well. I think I wrote the current code for iterative too along with time and space complexity. According to me this was the best round. Interviewer looked satisfied at the end.

Round-2: I was asked a hard question. I had little bit of difficulty understanding the question but the interviewer helped me clarifying it. Then he asked me the appropriate data structure to be used. I told the correct answer and the approach but could not write the code(was able to write only one component of the code) and then time was over.

Round-3: In this round, I was asked a question (may be not on and it was medium level), I was trying to tell him the approach but due to more complexity he asked me to think of the optimised approach. I was able to come up with the written code but it was buggy initially and he helped me fix the code. But I spoke something silly initially may be due to nervousness. Then he asked the modified version of the question and I had difficulty writing the code for it but by the end I was able to write the correct code with his help. He suggested me not to be nervous.

Round-4 (Hiring Manager): I was asked a question on LRU Cache(Not a direct one but concept is same). We discussed about it and then he asked me to write the code. I just wrote one method and then only 5 minutes were left then he asked me to understand the requirements and then asked me about multithreading, i told him the approach for handling concurrency. Total round(around 45 mins). He looked very tired and unhappy during the interview.

My preparation: I have done 250 questions: (90 E/ 150 M/ 24 H) approx. I think I need to improve more and practice more writing the maintainable code. Hiring Manager told me this is the junior position they are hiring for.

Is there any chance I may get the offer?

Thanks for reading, and all the best to everyone :)