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Software Engineer Interview Questions
Practice 9403 coding, system design and machine learning questions from 546 companies, sorted by role, topic and interview round. Every question has step-by-step hints, a code runner that supports 8 languages and an AI mentor; members also get the full solution walkthrough.
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Showing 1531–1560 of 2629 results
- MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerFind shortest substring with n unique letters
This question evaluates proficiency in string processing, frequency management, and algorithmic optimization for locating constrained contiguous substrings. Commonly asked in the coding & algorithms domain because it reveals how candidates reason about character distinctness and efficiency trade-offs, it targets practical application of algorithmic techniques rather than purely conceptual theory.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerFind the Best Connected Strength for Every Tree Node
Compute the maximum weight connected subgraph containing each node in a tree with +1 and -1 neuron weights using rerooting dynamic programming.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline AssessmentTree DPRerooting DPGraphs - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerFind the Most Visited Track Position
Determine the most frequently visited track position given a series of sprint endpoints by efficiently tallying overlapping intervals.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsitearraysprefix-sumdifference-array - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerGroup GPUs by node and partition by links
This problem tests your ability to model a network as a graph and perform partitioning to optimize internal connectivity constraints.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenGraph TheoryBipartite MatchingCombinatorial Optimization - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerIdentify the Extra Directed Edge
This question evaluates understanding of graph theory concepts—directed trees, parent-child constraints, and cycle detection—and measures competency in reasoning about how a single extra directed edge can violate rooted-tree properties.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement Calendar, Tokenizer, and Meeting Optimizer
This problem tests your ability to parse structured meeting request strings into interval objects and then identify the largest subset of non-overlapping meetings that can be scheduled within a fixed workday.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteIntervalsParsingGreedy - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement Matrix Move and Logger
This problem tests in-place array manipulation for submatrix coordinate transformations and the implementation of a thread-safe, time-windowed rate limiter using a sliding window approach.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteArraysHash TableSliding Window - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement Memory Allocation and In-Memory Records
This problem tests your ability to manage a block of contiguous memory via a free-list and maintain a hierarchical data structure for user records.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteMemory ManagementData StructuresGraphs - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement SQL Table and DNA Ordering
This question evaluates a candidate's skills in robust input parsing, in-memory data modeling, API design, and sequence reconstruction from linked fragments, covering string handling, edge-case handling for CSV, and graph-like ordering of sequence fragments.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement a Snapshot Set Iterator
This problem tests your ability to design a data structure that maintains point-in-time consistency for an iterator despite subsequent modifications to the underlying collection.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenData StructuresDesignIterator - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement a rate limiter at scale
This problem tests your ability to implement an efficient, thread-safe rate limiter using a sliding window algorithm to ensure a request quota is enforced across a distributed environment.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteConcurrencyData StructuresDistributed Systems - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerImplement a sliding-window rate limiter allow()
This problem tests your ability to implement a thread-safe rate limiter using a sliding window algorithm to ensure a service stays within specified traffic constraints.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteConcurrencyRate LimitingHash Map - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement a type-based mutex for tasks
This problem tests knowledge of synchronization primitives, dictionary-based locking mechanisms, and the ability to manage resource contention based on dynamic categorization.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenConcurrencySynchronizationMultithreading - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerImplement array and tree traversal tasks
This problem tests your ability to optimize an array-based trading algorithm using a greedy approach and your mastery of level-order tree traversal to extract a specific view of a binary tree.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenGreedyBFSDFS - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerImplement concurrent structures and debug queue code
This question evaluates data-structure implementation and concurrent programming competencies by testing construction of an LRU cache, a custom hash map, a quadtree spatial index, and debugging of a producer-consumer queue.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement four data-structure/string geometry tasks
This problem tests foundational skills in string arithmetic, parsing, coordinate geometry, and segment tree-based range queries.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteStringsGeometryData Structures - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement greedy decoding and beam search
This question evaluates understanding of autoregressive decoding strategies—greedy decoding and beam search—including cumulative log-probability scoring, beam maintenance, EOS handling, and sequence expansion logic; it is categorized under Coding & Algorithms for Software Engineer roles.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerImplement idempotent request handling with idempotency keys
This problem tests your ability to design a thread-safe idempotency layer that ensures an API endpoint processes identical requests exactly once, even in the presence of concurrent execution.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteConcurrencySynchronizationSystem Design - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement tree traversals, BFS, and subsets generation
This question evaluates proficiency with fundamental data structures and algorithms—binary tree traversals (preorder, inorder, postorder), breadth-first search on unweighted graphs, and power-set/subset generation—emphasizing implementation choices between recursive and iterative approaches and required time and space complexity reasoning.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerIn-Memory URL Shortener: Encode and Decode
Design an in-memory URL shortener class supporting fast encoding and decoding between original long URLs and compact short URLs using hash maps.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screenhash-tabledesignstring - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerKeep Stable Unique Column Names Across Schema Changes
Maintain stable case-insensitive unique column names across additions, removals, reordering, reappearance, and natural suffix collisions, with independent table histories.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerList Point Pairs Spanning Non-Degenerate Boxes in N Dimensions, Sorted by Volume
A coding problem that takes points in two or more dimensions, finds every pair whose axis-aligned box has non-zero volume, and returns those pairs with their volumes in a strict order. It tests careful pair enumeration, handling of flat or degenerate boxes, and deterministic sorting with tie-breaks.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerLongest Single-Letter Substring After at Most k Letter Replacements
A string problem: given uppercase letters and a budget of k single-letter changes, find the longest contiguous substring that can be turned into one repeated letter. It tests efficient substring scanning with letter counts and careful reasoning about when a candidate substring stays valid.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerMaximize Equal Array Length After Contiguous Sum Merges
Determine the maximum possible length of two identical arrays formed by repeatedly merging adjacent elements of two given positive-integer arrays, or return -1 if impossible.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteTwo PointersGreedyArrays - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerMaximize Points by Deleting Values and Their Neighbors
Tests dynamic programming and hash map aggregation to maximize points under adjacency constraints over a sparse range of values.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessmentdynamic-programminghash-tablesorting - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerMaximize profit with bounded sell window
This question evaluates proficiency in array algorithms, time and space complexity analysis, and techniques for bounded-range optimization and streaming adaptation.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerMeasure Every Lake on a Map Tile, Listed in Scan Order
Compute the area of every water body on a rectangular map tile, reported in the order a row-by-row scan first touches each one; tests connected components on a grid and avoiding recursion limits on huge regions.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsitegridgraph-traversaldfs - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerMedian of Every Fixed-Length Sliding Window in an Integer Array
A coding problem that slides a window of fixed length k across an integer array and asks for the median of every window position, returned as floats in window order. It tests keeping the middle of a changing collection available as elements enter and leave, exact handling of even-sized windows, and overflow-safe averaging.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerMerge multiple sorted arrays using min-heap
This question evaluates algorithm design and data structure proficiency, focusing on merging multiple sorted sequences and reasoning about time and space complexity for large numbers of arrays and elements.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerMerge overlapping intervals
This question tests the ability to manage and merge interval-based data, requiring sorting and a single-pass linear traversal to resolve overlaps.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenSortingIntervalsArrays
Microsoft