Microsoft interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

SDE - 1

Microsoft
upvote
share-icon
1 rounds | 1 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

expand-icon
Preparation
Duration: 4 months
Topics: Data structures, Pointers, Microsoft Cloud, Computer Architecture, Dynamic Programming, Azure Services,
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : During an interview, never say that you don't know the answer, keep trying and the interviewer will help you himself.
Tip 2 : Keep speaking up the approach going on in your mind, they want to judge your approaches much more than whether the answer is right or wrong.
Tip 3 : Be confident, cheerful, keep smiling, and continue making eye contact with the interviewer, this leaves a positive impression.
Tip 4 : Search and practice questions specific to the company, questions are repeated several times.
Tip 5 :  A sound knowledge of Microsoft Azure Services and cloud computing will be an icing on the cake, and increase your chances to get selected.
Tip 6 : Keep giving contests on coding platforms, it will help you to stay motivated and check your stand.
Tip 7 : Keep a daily goal of number of questions instead of the time duration.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: None
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Everything mentioned on the resume should be thoroughly known to you since if they catch you being dishonest, pretty good coding skills also might not help.
Tip 2 : Have projects related to the same field you are trying to apply for mentioned in your resume, this shows you are already experienced in the field.
Tip 3 : Adding references of some experienced people of the same field might help you gain their trust.
Tip 4 : Do not keep your resume too long, and do not mention irrelevant details, keep it short and crisp.
Tip 5 : Some experience in the field of operations and management or some positions of responsibility will really help you score extra points since it shows you have leadership qualities and are familiar with the market along with super coding skills.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration1 hour
Interview date1 Jul 2020
Coding problem1

1. First Missing Positive

Moderate
18m average time
84% success
0/80
Asked in companies
DunzoHikeSamsung

You are given an array 'ARR' of integers of length N. Your task is to find the first missing positive integer in linear time and constant space. In other words, find the lowest positive integer that does not exist in the array. The array can have negative numbers as well.

For example, the input [3, 4, -1, 1] should give output 2 because it is the smallest positive number that is missing in the input array.

Problem approach

I approached this problem in three steps -
(i) Search all positive integers, starting from 1 in the given array. We may have to search at most n+1 numbers in the given array. So this solution takes O(n^2) in the worst case.

(ii) Used sorting to solve it in lesser time complexity. We can sort the array in O(nLogn) time. Once the array is sorted, then all we need to do is a linear scan of the array. So this approach takes O(nLogn + n) time which is O(nLogn).

(iii) I also suggested a solution using hashing. We can build a hash table of all positive elements in the given array. Once the hash table is built. We can look in the hash table for all positive integers, starting from 1. As soon as we find a number which is not there in hash table, we return it. This approach may take O(n) time on average, but it requires O(n) extra space.

Try solving now

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

How do you remove whitespace from the start of a string?

Choose another skill to practice
Similar interview experiences
company logo
SDE - 1
5 rounds | 15 problems
Interviewed by Microsoft
4034 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 1
5 rounds | 7 problems
Interviewed by Microsoft
2660 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 1
1 rounds | 2 problems
Interviewed by Microsoft
7424 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 1
4 rounds | 7 problems
Interviewed by Microsoft
1272 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
Companies with similar interview experiences
company logo
SDE - 1
5 rounds | 12 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
115096 views
24 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 1
3 rounds | 7 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
35146 views
7 comments
0 upvotes
company logo
SDE - 1
3 rounds | 11 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
21829 views
4 comments
0 upvotes