Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 3.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 69% positive. To compare, the company-average is 71.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 17 days to get hired, when considering 13 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 44 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Software Engineer according to 13 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 29%
Skills test: 19%
Phone interview: 14%
Background check: 14%
Presentation: 14%
Group panel interview: 5%
IQ intelligence test: 5%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Microsoft (New York, NY) in Oct 2021
Interview
I had a coding test which I very clearly passed, but the interviewer chose not the proceed for an unspecified reason. I found the lack of transparency to be unprofessional.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a function in any language (preferable C#) which computes the angle between the hand hands of a clock given a time of day. The function must work for all combinations of hour and minute. Input: int hour, int minute. Output: float angle (in degrees). For example, at 3:00 PM, the angle is 90 degrees. At 3:45 PM, the angle is 180 degrees.
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Melbourne)
Interview
After submitting an online application, I received a HackerRank assessment after passing the resume screening stage, then I was rejected after completing the assessment and did not proceed to further interview rounds.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The assessment consisted of two LeetCode-medium-level coding questions to be completed within 75 minutes.
45 mins technical interview with a member of their San fran team. Very relaxed and informal but questions were focused and lots of follow ups. Easy to schedule as was over video conferencing platform
Straightforward technical loop overall, with strong interviewers at every stage. I genuinely enjoyed the in-depth conversations around technical challenges and algorithmic problem-solving — the entire process felt well-structured and genuinely engaging.