Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 3.3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 75% positive. To compare, the company-average is 71.9% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 18 days to get hired, when considering 359 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 18 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Software Engineer according to 359 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 20%
Presentation: 14%
Skills test: 14%
Phone interview: 11%
Background check: 8%
Group panel interview: 8%
Personality test: 8%
IQ intelligence test: 7%
Other: 5%
Drug test: 4%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
The first step was a phone screening with a recruiter, during which we discussed my background and experience. The recruiter also gave me some information about the company culture and the position I was applying for. Next, I had two technical phone interviews with software engineers on the team. These interviews were challenging, and covered a wide range of topics such as algorithms, data structures, and programming languages. However, the interviewers were very friendly and supportive, and did a good job of guiding me through the questions. After successfully completing the phone interviews, I was invited to an onsite interview at the Microsoft campus. This consisted of several rounds of interviews with different members of the team, including technical interviews and behavioral interviews. The technical interviews were quite challenging, but I felt well-prepared and was able to perform well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
"Given a binary tree, write a function to check if it's a valid binary search tree."
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Melbourne)
Interview
After submitting an online application, I received a HackerRank assessment after passing the resume screening stage, then I was rejected after completing the assessment and did not proceed to further interview rounds.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The assessment consisted of two LeetCode-medium-level coding questions to be completed within 75 minutes.
45 mins technical interview with a member of their San fran team. Very relaxed and informal but questions were focused and lots of follow ups. Easy to schedule as was over video conferencing platform
Straightforward technical loop overall, with strong interviewers at every stage. I genuinely enjoyed the in-depth conversations around technical challenges and algorithmic problem-solving — the entire process felt well-structured and genuinely engaging.