Microsoft interview questions

Showing 211–240 of 252 results

• Print Org Chart by LevelMedium

  This problem tests your ability to model a tree structure from flat parent-child relations and perform a level-order traversal to format hierarchical data.

  MicrosoftData ScientistCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Query departments and top earnersEasy

  This problem tests your ability to aggregate data using window functions to identify top-performing rows within specific groups and perform conditional filtering across joined tables.

  MicrosoftData ScientistData Manipulation (SQL/Python)Technical Screen
• Reason About Alien Dictionary OrderingMedium

  This problem tests the ability to model lexicographical constraints as a directed graph and determine if a valid ordering of unique characters exists using topological sorting.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screen
• Recover Sorted Digits from Scrambled English Number WordsMedium

  Recover sorted digits from scrambled English number-word letters, including repeats, and analyze why arbitrary customer vocabularies may lose unique recoverability.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• Resolve Technical Disagreement and Work Across Different StylesMedium

  Discuss technical disagreement and contrasting work styles with fair alternatives, shared evidence, explicit decisions, and practical collaboration changes.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerBehavioral & LeadershipOnsite
• Respond to a Reliability Regression Shortly After DeploymentMedium

  Respond to a post-deployment latency or reliability regression with scoped diagnosis, safe rollback decisions, customer-impact measurement, and prevention.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerSoftware Engineering FundamentalsOnsite
• Resume Deep Dive: Technical Decisions, Personal Contribution, Challenges, ImpactMedium

  A resume-driven behavioral interview that walks through a past project in depth: the architecture and technical decisions, what the candidate personally contributed, the hardest challenges, and the measurable impact. It tests ownership, technical judgment and clear, structured storytelling.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerBehavioral & LeadershipOnsite
• Return Top K Open BusinessesHard

  This problem tests your ability to filter data streams and maintain a top-K collection using a priority queue with custom sorting logic.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Return a topological ordering of a graphHard

  This question tests the ability to implement Kahn's algorithm or a DFS-based approach to perform a topological sort while correctly handling cycle detection.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Return the k most frequent values in an array with a deterministic tie ruleMedium

  Return the k values that occur most often in an integer array, ranked by frequency with ties broken by the smaller value. It tests frequency counting, selecting the top k efficiently and producing a deterministic order when several values tie at the cutoff.

  MicrosoftMachine Learning EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Return the k values in a sorted array closest to a target, with smaller-value tiesMedium

  Given a sorted integer list, a count k and a target value, return the k elements closest to the target in ascending order. The problem tests a precise tie rule that favors smaller values, duplicate values, targets outside the array's range, and working efficiently on already sorted input.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOther
• Reverse linked list in fixed-size groupsMedium

  This question evaluates proficiency with singly linked list manipulation, pointer/reference management, in-place group operations, and complexity reasoning including time and constant extra space.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• Rotate a 3×3 digit grid by 180°Medium

  This problem tests your ability to perform spatial transformations on a fixed-size 2D structure while maintaining data integrity across a transformation.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• SQL: count files where bull and bear appear as standalone space-delimited wordsMedium

  SQL practice question: given a table of files and their text content, count how many files contain the words bull and bear as standalone, space-delimited words. It tests careful pattern matching, case sensitivity, NULL handling, and returning a row for each word even when its count is zero.

  MicrosoftSite Reliability EngineerData Manipulation (SQL/Python)Onsite
• Senior Engineer Behavioral: Explaining Something You Learned Recently and AppliedMedium

  A senior software engineer behavioral question asking the candidate to describe one thing they learned recently. It tests curiosity and learning habits, the ability to explain a new concept clearly and accurately with its limits, and whether the learning was applied to real work with a visible result.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerBehavioral & LeadershipHR Screen
• Senior Engineer Behavioral: The Toughest Situation You Handled at Work and HowMedium

  A senior software engineer behavioral question about the hardest challenge or most difficult situation the candidate has handled at work. It tests judgment under uncertainty and pressure, how the problem was diagnosed and prioritized, communication with stakeholders, an honest outcome, and lessons applied afterward.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerBehavioral & LeadershipHR Screen
• Shard a Large Input Embedding Table Across DevicesHard

  Compare vocabulary and hidden-dimension embedding sharding through per-rank storage, token routing, hidden-state layout, skew, and downstream communication.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerML System DesignOnsite
• Shard an LM Head and Combine Distributed LogitsHard

  Shard an LM head by vocabulary or hidden width, distinguishing complete logits from partial dot products and exact distributed top-k from full-distribution sampling.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerML System DesignOnsite
• Simulate a Throttled Function Wrapper That Keeps Only the Latest Pending CallMedium

  A coding simulation of a throttle wrapper: given a cooldown length and sorted call times, report which calls actually run and when, where calls arriving during a cooldown keep only the latest one pending. It tests precise event ordering, an explicit rule for calls at the exact moment a cooldown ends, and an efficient single pass.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• Sizes of 4-Connected Foreground Regions in a Binary Image, in Scan OrderEasy

  Given a binary image stored as a matrix of 0s and 1s, return the size of every region of horizontally or vertically connected foreground pixels, ordered by when each region is first reached in a top-to-bottom, left-to-right scan. It tests grid traversal, connected components, and handling a single region that covers up to a million pixels.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• Solve Three Coding Interview ProblemsMedium

  This problem tests your ability to manipulate sorted data, optimize for mathematical properties, and implement efficient data structures for string prefix operations.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Solve Throughput, Rate Limiting, and LFUHard

  This problem tests your ability to design a system with O(1) time complexity for cache operations and time-window-based request tracking.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• Solve binary-search knapsack & graph shortest pathMedium

  This question evaluates a candidate's ability to apply algorithmic optimization by using binary search instead of dynamic programming for a knapsack-style selection problem and to construct and compute shortest paths on a weighted graph from custom input.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Solve binary-tree reverse printing and LPSEasy

  This question evaluates proficiency with tree data structures and level-order traversal semantics for reverse level printing, as well as string algorithmic reasoning and dynamic programming concepts for computing the longest palindromic subsequence, categorized under Coding & Algorithms.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Solve budget queries and shortest pathMedium

  This question evaluates algorithmic design and data-structure selection for efficient preprocessing and query answering, along with shortest-path computation and graph representation choices, testing complexity analysis, large-input handling, path reconstruction, and edge-case reasoning in the Coding & Algorithms domain.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Solve cache, grid path, and substring problemsHard

  This problem tests your ability to implement an LRU cache, solve a dynamic programming problem on a grid with constraints, and optimize string searching using the sliding window technique.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite
• Solve four classic algorithm problemsEasy

  This set evaluates proficiency in core algorithms and data structures: tree traversal and order manipulation (zigzag level-order), dynamic programming and subsequence reasoning (longest palindromic subsequence), numeric algorithms and search/approximation (integer square root), and positional numeral systems/base conversion (spreadsheet column to number). These problems are commonly asked to assess algorithmic thinking, complexity analysis, and handling of edge cases in the Coding & Algorithms domain, testing both conceptual understanding of underlying principles and practical application of implementation techniques.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Solve load balancing and perfect pairsMedium

  This question evaluates algorithm design, correctness proof, and complexity analysis skills by combining a contiguous partitioning load‑balancing optimization with a combinatorial/number‑theoretic pair‑counting problem.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment
• Solve power jumps and graph tourHard

  This problem tests your ability to optimize minimal operations using bitwise properties and to determine the existence of a specific graph traversal path.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen
• Solve three scheduling and array problemsMedium

  This multi-part question evaluates algorithmic problem-solving skills across task scheduling with cooldowns, in-place array deduplication, and string rearrangement to avoid adjacent duplicates, highlighting concepts such as frequency counting, scheduling constraints, and two-pointer or in-place techniques within the Coding & Algorithms domain.

  MicrosoftSoftware EngineerCoding & AlgorithmsOnsite