I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Sept 2015
Interview
Microsoft recruiter sent in a linked In invite for the service engineer role.
First was written test , not a objective one instead a detailed one for example explain IaaS, PaaS etc.
4 rounds of In-person interview at MS office.
Before the interviews started we had a 15 minute introduction about the role and the department. ( appreciate that, it gave a sense of what was the department and job like)
Each round was 45 minutes ( timed) and a break of 15 minutes between each round.
The main focus of the interviewee(s) was to gauge the interviewers response/solution for a given situation and analysis behind the approach.
It was well organised and the interviews were on time. The interviewee had to be in one room and the interviewers will find the room.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Majorly on my professional experience , tools technologies, latest technologies.
Data structures , typical questions - Write your own Data structure implementation.
Emphasis was on real-time support bugs/resolutions.Tools that will help the support/debug issues.
My suggestion for the service engineer roles is to not get too carried away with data structures, algorithms ( these are necessary for the software developer role), instead concentrate on overall application , support, scenarios to debug large scale apps, tools and technologies, DevOp and Design.
I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Jan 2020
Interview
Interview process consists of 1)phone screen and 2) first round of tech interview over the phone. If you do well, you get to called for an F2F at Microsoft (Onsite interview at Redmond, WA office). There would be 4-5 rounds each of approximately 45 mins - 1 hr.
Questions will be around Tech fundamentals, major projects you recently worked on, key skills you mentioned. Good understanding of communication, teamwork and support roles is a plus. Interviewers are very friendly and even drop hints while asking questions. They are more interested in finding out your approach to solve a problem, than solution.
Being at Microsoft Redmond campus itself is an experience. Be sure to visit Microsoft Visitors Center.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions are totally based off of your experience and work history. Make sure to revisit fundamentals for your Key area of expertise. You'll be surprised to hear questions about simple basics such as protocols, networking fundamentals or even troubleshooting (any tools ), no need to worry about 3rd party tools (other than Microsoft products).
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Jul 2018
Interview
5 people scheduled people to interview with, plus one 'as appropriate'. There were certainly no 'Softball' questions thrown my way! Every question was very detailed, and the messaging was consistent; "You will be focusing on improving the Services through Feature Improvements and automation."
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a set of Columns, write a function that takes an integer value to return the headers of each column, assuming that the headers are Letters in the alphabet, which can overload and expand to the maximum of the size of an integer.
