Microsoft | SDE-2 | Noida | JAN 2024 [Reject]

Background

Designation: SDE-1 YOE: 1.8 YOE (FT)

Interview Process Applied through the career portal.

• OA Round (2nd week of DEC )
  • A Hackerrank link was sent for the OA round; it contained two questions. One was based on String manipulation, and another was based on Heaps. Both were of medium difficulty.
  • I was able to solve the given questions within the time limit, with all test cases passing.

After a long wait, I was called for the next round of interviews in the first week of January, where rounds 1 and 2 happened on the same day.

• R-1 (1st week of JAN )

  • This was a 1-hour round. The interviewer was friendly. We spent 15 minutes discussing each other's roles and work.

  • Then, we moved to a DSA problem similar to "Remove All Adjacent Duplicates in String II", but instead of a string, it involved an integer array.

    • I solved it quickly using a for...while loop; the interviewer was impressed as I came up with a solution in under 10 minutes, and it passed all test cases.
    • The interviewer then asked me to optimize it to O(n) time complexity. With some guidance, I was able to implement an O(n) solution using a stack.

  • The interviewer provided positive feedback at the end. I would rate this round as a potential hire.

• R-2 (Same day)

  • The interviewer introduced themselves and reviewed my resume, which lasted for 15-20 minutes.

  • The interview was supposed to be DSA-focused, but it turned into a Low-Level Design (LLD) exercise.

    • I was asked to design a system similar to Stack Overflow with limited features such as topic subscription/unsubscription, asking/answering questions, upvoting, global search, and a feed view (with options for recent and most upvoted questions).

    • I started by defining APIs and the database schema with all fields. The interviewer then asked how to write efficient queries for all APIs.

    • We discussed how caching would improve performance. I added cache logic and specified which data to cache with TTL or permanently.

    • We also discussed scalability at both the service and database levels.

  • The interviewer agreed with my solution and gave feedback that I needed to be more vocal. The feedback was positive; I would rate this as a lean hire.

• R-3 (2nd week of JAN )

  • This round was with a senior manager (22+ YOE), which made me nervous.
  • After introductions and some behavioral questions, I was given a choice between DSA and System Design. I chose System Design, thinking DSA might be riskier.
  • I was asked to design a Gen-Z calendar that displays upcoming events (movies and sports) using a public API.
    • I started with API design, database design, query design, and then drew a diagram with a scalable solution.
  • At the end of the hour, I felt nervous and did not perform as well as I hoped. The interviewer mentioned that I needed to improve my system design skills and that I missed the volume aspect. However, they acknowledged that it was impressive for someone with less than two years of experience to tackle a system design problem. They suggested reading blog posts and watching videos on the topic. At this point, I knew I had not done well. The feedback indicated a 'no-hire' decision.

It's been over a week since R-3, with no updates, and no response from HR. Therefore, I consider this application rejected and will move on.