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

SDE - 1

Microsoft
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4 rounds | 7 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 2 Months
Topics: Data Structures, Pointers, Linked List, Trees, Graphs, Dynamic Programming, Back Tracking, React JS.
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Practise leetcode questions as much as possible
Tip 2 : Learn a Tech Stack in advance so that you can utilize the time given to do the project on making it better rather than learning the tech stack from scratch.

Application process
Where: Other
Eligibility: CGPA 6 and above
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Keep it to one side
Tip 2 : Only add the things necessary for the role that you're applying for.
Tip 3 : Don't lie in the resume and add projects related to the role.
Tip 4 : Add any volunteering work that you did.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Easy
Online Coding Interview
Duration15 Minutes
Interview date24 Apr 2022
Coding problem3

It was an MCQ round of 10 questions on the fundamentals of programming.

1. MCQ Question

Which one of the following is the process of inserting an element in the stack?

a. Insert
b. Add
c. Push
d. None of the above

Problem approach

The answer is c. In stack, the process of inserting an element is known as a push operation.

2. MCQ Question

Which data structure is mainly used for implementing the recursive algorithm?

a. Queue
b. Stack
c. Binary tree
d. Linked list

Problem approach

The answer is b. Recursion means calling the function itself again. Stack is used to maintain the previous records of the function.

3. MCQ Question

Which data structure is required to convert the infix to prefix notation?

a. Stack
b. Linked list
c. Binary tree
d. Queue

Problem approach

The answer is a, i.e., stack. Stack is a data structure used to reverse the order of the operators in the expression. It is also used as a storage structure that stores all the operators and print all the operators when all the operands have appeared.

02
Round
Easy
Online Coding Test
Duration30 minutes
Interview date27 Apr 2022
Coding problem1

Online Challenge anytime between 07:00 PM IST - 11:59 PM IST on Wednesday, April 27th, 2022.
algorithmic puzzles in this challenge - questions where you may be asked to provide a solution to an algorithmic puzzle in plain text, and/or write or analyze short blocks of programming language independent pseudo-code.

1. Puzzle

Imagine a group of people meeting each other for the first time, and in keeping with protocol, each person must greet and elbow bump every other person once.
If there were seven people in the group, how many elbow bumps would occur in total?
Also outline, as a short note in the comment section, the process you used to come to this conclusion.

Problem approach

Person 1 had to bump elbows with 6 people. Person 2 has to bump elbows with 5 people as he already bumped elbow with person 1 and so on... so the total number of elbow bumps will be 6+5+4+3+2+1 i.e. n*(n-1)/2 and n is the total number of people present. So, the final answer is 21.

03
Round
Hard
Assignment
Duration23 days
Interview date4 May 2022
Coding problem1

1. Assignment

We were given 3 topics to choose from and do a full stack project on the topic.
Face Recognition
Develop a browser-based application or a native mobile application to demonstrate the application of Face Recognition technology.
Data Analysis
Develop an application to demonstrate how the Automotive Industry could harness data to take informed decisions.
Algorithms
Demonstrate through your app the different kinds of algorithms that a web-streaming app (like Netflix) or an audio-streaming app (like Spotify) may use for their Recommendation Engine.

04
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration50 Minutes
Interview date24 Jun 2022
Coding problem2

It was an online interview held on Microsoft Teams. The interviewer asked 2 coding questions and the time and space complexity of my approach.

1. Merge Two Sorted Arrays

Moderate
15m average time
85% success
0/80
Asked in companies
HSBCHikeAmazon

Ninja has been given two sorted integer arrays/lists ‘ARR1’ and ‘ARR2’ of size ‘M’ and ‘N’. Ninja has to merge these sorted arrays/lists into ‘ARR1’ as one sorted array. You may have to assume that ‘ARR1’ has a size equal to ‘M’ + ‘N’ such that ‘ARR1’ has enough space to add all the elements of ‘ARR2’ in ‘ARR1’.

For example:

‘ARR1’ = [3 6 9 0 0]
‘ARR2’ = [4 10]
After merging the ‘ARR1’ and ‘ARR2’ in ‘ARR1’. 
‘ARR1’ = [3 4 6 9 10]
Try solving now

2. Check Identical Trees

Moderate
20m average time
85% success
0/80
Asked in companies
DunzoMicrosoftDisney + Hotstar

You are given two binary trees with 'n' and 'm' nodes respectively.


You need to return true if the two trees are identical. Otherwise, return false.


Example:
For the trees given below:- 

example

The given trees are identical as:-
1. The number of nodes in both trees is the same. 
2. The number of edges in both trees is the same. 
3. The data for root for both the trees is the same i.e 5. 
4. The data of root -> left (root’s left child) for both the trees is the same i.e 2.
5. The data of root -> right (root’s right child) for both the trees is the same i.e 3.
6. The data of root -> right -> left ( left child of root’s right child) for both the trees is the same i.e 6.
7. Nodes with data 2 and 6 are the leaf nodes for both the binary trees. 
Try solving now

Here's your problem of the day

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Skill covered: Programming

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

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