Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 2.7 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 70% positive. To compare, the company-average is 66.3% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 26 days to get hired, when considering 10 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 34 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Software Engineer according to 10 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 25%
Phone interview: 20%
Skills test: 15%
Background check: 10%
Personality test: 10%
Group panel interview: 5%
Other: 5%
Drug test: 5%
Presentation: 5%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Washington, DC) in Oct 2025
Interview
online application
I received inmail from a recruiter at microsoft through linkedin which has the job description and link to apply and i directly applied through that link.
Initial Screening
I receive mail from recruiter and asked about NP ,work experiance, invited for a meet
Genral discussion on current work experiance and College education, my preffered programming language
Experiance working on C++,multithreading
the HR told that the process will involve 3 rounds ,2 technical and one managerial which will be based on DSA and problem solving
Technical Round
Duration 45 minutes, one dsa question medium leetcode
meeting held on Microsoft teams
formal introduction
Length of Longest substring without repeating characters
First i solved with bruteforce than optimize solution
Challenges - execute given test cases and all should pass with correct output.
Technical Round
Duration : 1 hour
Meeting held on Micrsoft Teams
formal introduction
Asked: 1 Dsa question , 1 Debugging , 1 problem from GIT topic
Solve - Find repeating and missing number in array
I give a solution with hashmap and then Optimized Approach with O(1) Space complexity.
Debug - Find repeating elements from two arrays
merge conflict question with given parameters by interviewer, how to solve when same line of code already created by user1 and merged and if 2nd person still working on problems and have different code on same line, then how to solve the merge conflict
I have solved both question related to DSA, but unable to explain for GIT merge conflict properly
Was a typical first round recruiter screen - pretty straightforward but didn't end up getting moved vforwards. Prompt, Professional and overall a good experience. They asked me about my background, explained the role and it was with the recruitment team.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe your background going into detial in each role
Expect a lengthy hiring process that can take at least two months from start to finish. In my experience, there was approximately one month of interviews followed by another month waiting for the final decision. Be prepared for a slow timeline, especially after completing all interview stages.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time where have above and beyond for a customer
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.