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

SDE - 1

Microsoft
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2 rounds | 4 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 2 months
Topics: DSA, Trees and Graphs, System Design, LLD,OOPS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Pratice DSA and focus on the core subject like Database and OS
Tip 2 : Practice atlest 2 question everday to maintain consistency.

Application process
Where: Hackerrank
Eligibility: Above 7 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Crisp Resume : Every body knows about this step, you must create a crisp resume mentioning about your key skills, always add impact numbers if possible (for example : increased efficiency by 50%, reduced cost by 2X, etc.) Add keywords around your skills, highlight them using BOLD in resume.
Tip 2 : Use Linkedin : Send connections requests directly to the recruiters rather than asking for referrals.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Test
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date11 Nov 2020
Coding problem2

The round consisted of 2 coding problems with screen-shared permission.

1. Sort An Array of 0s, 1s and 2s

Easy
10m average time
90% success
0/40
Asked in companies
IBMSamsungDirecti

You have been given an array/list 'arr' consisting of 'n' elements.


Each element in the array is either 0, 1 or 2.


Sort this array/list in increasing order.


Do not make a new array/list. Make changes in the given array/list.


Example :
Input: 'arr' = [2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0]

Output: Final 'arr' = [0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2]

Explanation: The array is sorted in increasing order.
Problem approach

Count the number of 0s, 1s and 2s in the given array. Then store all the 0s in the beginning followed by all the 1s then all the 2s.

Try solving now

2. Connect N Ropes With Minimum Cost

Easy
20m average time
80% success
0/40
Asked in companies
ArcesiumUberOptum

You have been given 'N' ropes of different lengths, we need to connect these ropes into one rope. The cost to connect two ropes is equal to sum of their lengths. We need to connect the ropes with minimum cost.

The test-data is such that the result will fit into a 32-bit integer.

Problem approach

I tried it with a min-heap and insert all lengths into the min-heap. Extract the minimum and second minimum from min-heap. Add the above two extracted values and insert the added value to the min-heap. Maintain a variable for total cost and keep incrementing it by the sum of extracted values. Return the value of this total cost

Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date20 Nov 2020
Coding problem2

It was in the afternoon on skype with HR and one more interviewer.

1. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock

Moderate
20m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
IntuitOptumOYO

You are given an array/list 'prices' where the elements of the array represent the prices of the stock as they were yesterday and indices of the array represent minutes. Your task is to find and return the maximum profit you can make by buying and selling the stock. You can buy and sell the stock only once.

Note:

You can’t sell without buying first.
For Example:
For the given array [ 2, 100, 150, 120],
The maximum profit can be achieved by buying the stock at minute 0 when its price is Rs. 2 and selling it at minute 2 when its price is Rs. 150.
So, the output will be 148.
Problem approach

1. Maintained two variables to store minimum price and maximum profit at any given time
2. Run for loop on the input, and update above variables accordingly
3. Return maximum profit at the end

Try solving now

2. System Design Question

Design a logging and analytics system which can support huge amount of load.

Problem approach

Tip 1 : Learn about time-series database
Tip 2 : Learn about message queues and use them in solution
Tip 3 : Explain how would you handle down time

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
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