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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 3481–3510 of 5874 results
- MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerFind minimum cycle cost per node
This problem tests your ability to identify cycles within a weighted directed graph and compute the ratio of cycle cost to node count efficiently.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline AssessmentGraphBinary SearchShortest Path - 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 Bugs in an AI-Generated URL Shortener
Tests code review, debugging, and refactoring skills by identifying flaws in an AI-generated in-memory URL shortener and implementing a robust, thread-safe replacement.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical ScreenCode ReviewConcurrencyHashing - 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 - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerGreedy and Top-k Beam Search Decoding That Returns the Sentence Probability
A coding question on decoding a sequence from a next-token probability distribution: implement greedy decoding, extend it to beam search that keeps the top k partial sequences, and return the chosen sequence with its overall probability. It also probes why long sequences tend to receive low probability and how decoding should account for that.
Machine LearningTechnical Screen - 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 - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerHandling a Deadline You Will Miss, and Why Adding Engineers Late Backfires
A behavioral question about realizing that a task you own will miss its deadline and what you do next, followed by a probe on why adding more people close to delivery tends to backfire. It tests early escalation, framing options and trade-offs, ownership, and an understanding of ramp-up and coordination costs.
Behavioral & LeadershipOnsite - 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 Bounded Per-Key Ordered Task Executor
Design and implement a thread-safe, bounded task executor that guarantees sequential execution per key while enforcing a global concurrency limit across all keys.
Software Engineering FundamentalsTechnical Screenconcurrencymultithreadingsystem-design-basics - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerImplement a Priority Queue from Scratch with Custom Ordering and Stable Ties
Data structures question that asks you to build a priority queue from scratch with insert, peek, remove-top and size operations, a caller-supplied ordering and stable ties. It tests the choice of underlying structure, invariant-preserving insertion and removal, complexity analysis and edge-case handling.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOther - 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 Thread-Safe Per-Key Ordered Executor
Implement per-key FIFO task execution with thread-safe submission, bounded global concurrency, ready-key scheduling, and exception-safe slot release.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - 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 the Linux cp Command, Then Explain Its OS and C++ Internals
A low-level engineering exercise to implement the Linux cp command in C++ and then explain what happens beneath it. It tests system calls, short writes and error handling, the page cache and kernel-assisted copying, and RAII-based management of file descriptors.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - 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 EngineerIntroduce yourself and explain 'Why us?'
This question evaluates behavioral and leadership competencies—communication, decision-making under ambiguity, stakeholder alignment, technical leadership, mentorship, and impact articulation—within the Category: Behavioral & Leadership for a software engineering role.
Behavioral & LeadershipTechnical Screen - 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
Microsoft