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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 3541–3570 of 5874 results
- MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSenior Engineer Behavioral: Explaining Something You Learned Recently and Applied
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.
Behavioral & LeadershipHR Screen - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSenior Engineer Behavioral: The Toughest Situation You Handled at Work and How
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.
Behavioral & LeadershipHR Screen - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerShard a Large Input Embedding Table Across Devices
Compare vocabulary and hidden-dimension embedding sharding through per-rank storage, token routing, hidden-state layout, skew, and downstream communication.
ML System DesignOnsite - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerShard an LM Head and Combine Distributed Logits
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.
ML System DesignOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSimulate a Throttled Function Wrapper That Keeps Only the Latest Pending Call
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerSizes of 4-Connected Foreground Regions in a Binary Image, in Scan Order
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSolve Three Coding Interview Problems
This problem tests your ability to manipulate sorted data, optimize for mathematical properties, and implement efficient data structures for string prefix operations.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenArraysMathTrie - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerSolve Throughput, Rate Limiting, and LFU
This problem tests your ability to design a system with O(1) time complexity for cache operations and time-window-based request tracking.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteData StructuresHashingSliding Window - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSolve binary-search knapsack & graph shortest path
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerSolve binary-tree reverse printing and LPS
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSolve budget queries and shortest path
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerSolve cache, grid path, and substring problems
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsiteHash MapLinked ListDynamic Programming - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerSolve four classic algorithm problems
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSolve load balancing and perfect pairs
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnline Assessment - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerSolve power jumps and graph tour
This problem tests your ability to optimize minimal operations using bitwise properties and to determine the existence of a specific graph traversal path.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenGreedyBitmask DPGraph Theory - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSolve three scheduling and array problems
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.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerSort Three Categories In Place
This question evaluates proficiency in in-place array manipulation, constant-space algorithms, and linear-time partitioning techniques. Commonly asked in Coding & Algorithms interviews to assess algorithmic efficiency, pointer/index management, and reasoning about invariants, it focuses on practical application of algorithmic concepts rather than purely theoretical understanding.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screen - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerStream output until stop token appears
This problem tests your ability to process streaming data from a generator while detecting a multi-character stop sequence that may be split across data chunks.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical ScreenStringsStreamingGenerators - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerThread Safety, Deadlock Prevention, and Arrays vs Linked Lists
A rapid-fire software engineering fundamentals round covering what makes code thread-safe, what a deadlock is, the main ways to prevent, avoid or recover from deadlocks, and how arrays and linked lists compare. It tests precise definitions, concrete examples and practical trade-offs such as lock ordering and cache locality.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - MicrosoftMediumSoftware EngineerTraverse a Matrix in Clockwise Spiral Order
Traverse a rectangular matrix in clockwise spiral order without modifying the input. Learn the four-boundary technique and the guards that prevent duplicate visits on the final row or column.
Coding & AlgorithmsOnsite - MicrosoftHardSoftware EngineerValidate a Hierarchy and Compute Propagation Time
Tests graph validation and traversal by requiring candidates to verify whether directed relationships form a valid single-rooted directed tree and calculate the maximum propagation delay from the root.
Coding & AlgorithmsTechnical Screengraphtreedfs - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerWhy This Company and Role, Three Traits That Fit, Job Changes, and Project Ownership
A motivation and fit question set for a software engineer role focused on privacy and compatibility: why this company and role, three traits that make you a match, why you changed employers, and which parts of a resume project you built yourself. It tests self-awareness, honesty, and alignment with the work.
Behavioral & LeadershipOnsite - MicrosoftEasySoftware EngineerYour View of AI and How You Use AI Tools in Software Engineering Work
A behavioral question asking for your view of AI and how you use AI tools in your engineering work. It tests balanced judgment about benefits and limits, how you verify AI-generated output, accountability for what you ship, and care with private code and data.
Behavioral & LeadershipOnsite - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerC++ Atomics, Memory Ordering, and Safe Publication
Understand C++ atomics, relaxed counters, acquire-release publication, lost updates, and when multi-field invariants still require a mutex.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerDebug missing output in Python async HTTP flow
This question evaluates understanding of asynchronous programming in Python, including event loop management and async I/O semantics, and is categorized under Software Engineering Fundamentals with a focus on practical application of concurrency concepts.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerExplain a Project and Its Hardest Engineering Challenge
Prepare a detailed project deep dive with clear ownership, a concrete engineering challenge, rejected alternatives, and evidence that the solution worked.
Behavioral & LeadershipOnsite - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerGCC, Clang, LLVM, and C++ Compiler Optimization
Compare GCC, Clang, and LLVM compilation stages, optimization trade-offs, undefined behavior, and methods for investigating generated-code differences.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerHow a C++ Mutex Protects Shared State
Explain C++ mutex ownership, memory visibility, RAII locking, contention, and deadlock prevention with a shared-counter example.
Software Engineering FundamentalsOnsite - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerHow do you explain work to non-technical partners?
This question evaluates a candidate's competence in communicating complex technical or ML topics to non-technical stakeholders and their motivation for working on AI/ML in trading contexts, with emphasis on translating technical tradeoffs into business impact, risk awareness, and domain constraints such as latency, cost, and compliance.
Behavioral & LeadershipTechnical Screen - MillenniumMediumSoftware EngineerHow would you model stock price prediction?
This problem tests the candidate's ability to design an end-to-end machine learning pipeline for financial time-series forecasting, specifically focusing on the nuances of feature engineering and evaluation in a non-stationary environment.
Machine LearningTechnical ScreenTime-SeriesFeature EngineeringFinancial Engineering
Microsoft
Millennium