Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 49% positive. To compare, the company-average is 58.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 39 days to get hired, when considering 47 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 37 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Software Engineer according to 47 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 24%
One on one interview: 22%
Skills test: 21%
Background check: 9%
Presentation: 7%
Group panel interview: 4%
Personality test: 4%
Other: 3%
Drug test: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 1%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (San Diego, CA) in Apr 2021
Interview
Had an initial phone screen with a relatively easy coding question, then 4 rounds of interviews. Of the 4 interviews, 3 were technical and 1 was mainly behavioral questions. Of the 3 technical interviews I would rate the difficulty as 1 leetcode easy, 1 medium, 1 hard.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1 - Given a list of strings, return all strings that are palindromes.
2- Given a list of integers, return all prime numbers.
3- Given source code file, how would you write a program to remove all comments form the file?
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.