Experience - 157
Microsoft
SDE II | Level : 63
Interview Experience
Summary
📌 Job Role: Software Development Engineer
🔢 Number of Rounds: 6
📜 Offer Status: Rejected
📍 Location: Bangalore
👤 Candidate Name: Not disclosing due to signed NDA
Interview Process:
The interview process at Microsoft for the Senior Software
Engineer (L63) position in Bangalore was a comprehensive
evaluation across multiple areas — coding, frontend
development, low-level and high-level system design, and
behavioral assessment.
The process was as follows:
Codility Round (Online Assessment)
Frontend Round
Low-Level Design (LLD) Round
High-Level Design (HLD) Round
Another High-Level Design (HLD) Round
Hiring Manager (HM) Round
It began with an online assessment, followed by technical
rounds covering different domains. The final stage was the
Hiring Manager round, which combined behavioral questions
with another system design challenge.
Preparation Guide
There was no specific preparation source mentioned for this
interview process. However, from the experience shared,
candidates targeting such a role should focus on:
Strong problem-solving skills in coding platforms like
LeetCode and Codility.
Frontend-specific problem solving, especially around
asynchronous and concurrent execution.
System design skills — both Low-Level and High-Level — with
emphasis on scalability, extensibility, and performance.
Behavioral interview preparation, aligning with Microsoft’s
leadership principles and past project discussion.
Round 1: OA
Duration: 90 minutes (completed in 30 minutes)
Difficulty Level: Easy
Experience:
This was a 90-minute online assessment, but I was able to
complete both problems within 30 minutes with all test cases
passing.
The problems were straightforward and tested basic coding
and problem-solving skills.
Questions:
Bank Account Transactions:
Two people have separate bank accounts. An array of
transactions is provided in the format [[A, B, 20], [B, A, 10]]
where each subarray denotes a transfer (e.g., A transferred
$20 to B, then B transferred $10 to A). Find the minimum
initial account balance required for each person and return it
as an array.
Highest Country Account Balance:
Multiple international bank accounts are provided in the
format [COUNTRY CODE][ACCOUNT NO] such as IN00034056
or US0022312. Given a list of accounts with their balances,
return the country that has the highest total amount.
Key Learnings:
While the problems were simple, accuracy and speed are
important in online assessments as they set the tone for the
rest of the interview process.
Round 1: Frontend
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience:
The focus was on implementing a concurrent web crawler in
JavaScript. I approached the problem using topological sort,
which produced a synchronous solution. However, the
interviewer was expecting an approach that supported
parallel execution to maximize performance. This mismatch
in approach led to a “No Hire” decision for this round.
Question:
A web crawler is crawling a webpage with multiple links. To
complete crawling, we must process the links present in the
current page before moving to other dependent pages. Given
a dependency graph showing which page depends on which,
write a JavaScript function to crawl all pages and their
children as quickly as possible, using concurrency.
Key Learnings:
Need to strengthen my understanding of parallel execution
techniques in JavaScript, especially using Promise.all, worker
threads, or asynchronous queues.
Round 3 : LLD
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience:
The task was to design a Logger Service. I implemented it
using a simple Queue and Map, meeting the initial
requirement of processing logs in order. However, the follow-
up asked for making the logger extensible so that any logging
logic could be added without modifying the core code. My
design lacked that level of flexibility, leading to a “Lean Hire”
verdict.
Question:
Design a Logger service with the following:
A start method for starting a process.
An end method for ending a process.
A log method that logs all services that started earlier than
any currently running process and have ended.
Time complexity should be O(1).
Follow-up:
Extend the logger so it can take any logging logic without
changing the code.
Key Learnings:
Need to improve at designing extensible systems that
support dynamic behavior without code changes.
Round 4 : HLD
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Experience:
The problem was to design an online collaborative editor that
supports both text and images. I proposed a solution using
WebSocket for real-time synchronization. However, the
interviewer was not fully satisfied with the approach and
details provided.
Question:
Design an online editor that supports collaborative editing for
text and images.
Key Learnings:
Need to explore real-time collaborative architectures in more
detail, including conflict resolution strategies (like
Operational Transformation or CRDTs).
Round 5 : HLD
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Experience:
The problem was to design an autocorrect system for an
editor/keyboard. I proposed a high-level design using
Elasticsearch for efficient lookups and autocorrect
suggestions. The interviewer appreciated the high-level
design but wanted an algorithm-level implementation of the
autocorrect logic. I explained a backtracking approach, but it
wasn’t strong enough to get a “Strong Hire” verdict.
Question:
Design an autocorrect system for an editor or keyboard, and
implement the autocorrect logic.
Key Learnings:
Need to balance high-level design with low-level algorithmic
detail, especially for product features like autocorrect.
Round 6 : Hiring
Manager
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience:
This round was a mix of behavioral and technical questions. It
began with a deep dive into my past projects and the
challenges faced. The technical portion involved designing an
Expense Management System with a submission and
approval workflow. While the Hiring Manager appeared
satisfied during the discussion, HR later communicated that
the feedback was negative.
Question:
Behavioral: Discuss previous projects, challenges faced,
leadership experiences.
Technical: Design an Expense Management System with
submission and approval features.
Key Learnings:
Even if the conversation feels positive, the final decision may
depend on evaluation metrics and factors that are not
directly visible to the candidate.
Final Thoughts:
While the result was a rejection, the process provided deep
insights into the expectations for a Senior Software Engineer
at Microsoft. The key takeaways are:
Ensure you can bridge the gap between synchronous and
asynchronous/concurrent programming.
In system design, address both scalability and extensibility,
with clear reasoning for architectural choices.
Be prepared to drill down from high-level designs to low-level
algorithms when prompted.
Behavioral interviews matter as much as technical skills; align
answers with company values.
Experience Link
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