I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft
Interview
There were 2 rounds, 1st was online coding and the 2nd one was on-site/virtual zoom meetings which had 4 rounds.
I signed an NDA so won't be discussing the questions, but they were typical leetcode medium-easy questions. I am sharing my Microsoft interview experience, this is the 2nd time I gave the final rounds of Microsoft, the 1st time it was very smooth and the interviewers were amazing, but this time around I can't say the same for one of the interviewers
2nd round
1st interview
There were 2 questions asked and both were easy and I produced a working solution.
2nd interview
I have given tons of interviews before and this one would rank on the top of the WORST ones for me, both in terms of performance and interviewer.
The question asked was easy to understand and I could have solved it using a different method which was clear to me, but the interviewer was adamant on using his data-structure which I was not able to comprehend. It took a lot of back and forth discussing the pros and cons of using his vs mine. Around 20 minutes of the time was wasted on this discussion and I was left with another 25 minutes. The interviewer then let me proceed with my solution but stopped me again mid-way to use his again. It was both distracting as well as difficult since it broke the chain of thoughts.
Although the interviewer has worked in the company for a long time, I respect that, but that interview style was completely unacceptable, I have always dreamt of working for Microsoft one day and it has been my childhood dream, but this experience was very disappointing and I question myself about it.
3rd interview
Two questions were asked and both were again on the medium spectrum of difficulty, got some good feedbacks from the interviewer and got a working solution for both the problems.
4th interview.
Basic OOPS questions and again a coding question which was on the easy level of difficulty. I produced a working solution for this one too in the last minute.
Interviewer number 1,3 & 4 were very pleasant to work with and that's how I have felt giving interviews for other companies as well.
Overall I could produce a working solution for 5/6 questions and still got rejected. I will definitely take this as a learning experience and move forward to join another company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Signed NDA, I wish I could help other aspirants like me, I would say follow all the medium questions in LeetCode and do a lot of string and int array questions. A little of Binary tree and Recursion is also important.
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft in May 2026
Interview
1. Recruiter screen: recruiter was friendly but had their camera off. They asked me about my recent work experience, my strongest programming language, and salary expectations
2. Technical Screen: live HackerRank coding challenge with a team member of the team hiring for the role, over Microsoft Teams. The interviewer had their camera off but was easy to talk to. The coding challenge was a LeetCode-style challenge that required the backtracking algorithm. Interviewer spent extra time aftwards to take questions from me and share information about the team and employer.
3. 3x "Full Loop Interview Technical". The interviewers did not show up to these interviews. I emailed the recruiter who told me that interviewing for the role had been cancelled.
My overall impression of Microsoft based on their hiring practises is the company is dysfunctional, employees are disengaged, their hiring practises are disconnected from the actual job, and they don't care about candidate experience.
Moderate. Do leetcode tagged Microsoft questions. They generally ask from most recent Microsoft tagged questions. I applied without referral. Will have a technical screening with hiring manager. Then DSA and System design rounds.
Interview process:
Online assessment (hard level)
1-hour screening call
4 interviews in one day:
Medium-hard LeetCode (OOP-focused)
Medium-hard LeetCode DSA problem
Long system design interview (strong focus on relational database design)
Partner manager interview (AI-focused + behavioral)
The process was technically challenging and well-structured.
However, after the final interview, there was over one month of silence despite follow-up messages. Eventually, I received a generic rejection email stating:
"This decision does not reflect on your potential or the value of your experience."
I would have appreciated more timely communication and more specific feedback after such an extensive process.
