This page is for people who aspire to work in Microsoft to
realize their DREAM in Microsoft's DREAM
Interviewing successfully with Microsoft is a tricky task but
can be pretty straightforward. It is tricky because they ask you interesting
question from many areas, which u might never have heard of. But if you hear of
those questions before hand the interesting part of it will be all gone and
they will be mere QUESTIONS!!!
As one of my acquaintance had put "interview is supposed to
separate wheat from chaff but if chaff know to disguise itself as wheat it can
get way with it and wheat if is light or if wind is strong will be considered
as chaff." So I think by preparing right for this INTERVIEW we can always pass
ourselves as WHEAT... which all of US want to be.
Fortune favors prepared minds!!!
This info is for Software Test Engineer and Software Design
Engineer in Test.
Lets get to the point....
Microsoft Interview consists of TWO stages.
On-Campus Interview/Telephonic interview
ON-SITE Interview.
Now which one is easier ??? This is a tough question..
I feel the on-campus one is tougher. Not because of questions
in interview but because of the less percentage of acceptance. The average
percentage of acceptance at this stage is around 5-15%. The decision made is
based on many criteria which keep changing from time to time (almost every
semester). But what we observed is that they are looking for confident people
who have basic understanding of the operating system and programming concepts.
On-campus interview:
A typical on-campus interview will be something like the
following: The interviewer is usually a manager or some one from higher
positions. And does not TALK much. so don't try to get into a small talk but
directly get to techs talk.
1) Why Microsoft?
2) Why Testing?
Have a good reason handy.
3) Tell me which project of yours do you like the most and why?
Make sure u prepare this in advance. You should be able to
bombard him with all sorts of technical details of your favorite project. Like
design details, Complexity (O), Implementations problems, Data structures used,
Problems faced, Modifications made and TESTING; Testing is one important aspect
that many miss. But one should know all details of the project. AND should be
able to answer any question. SO don't try to B.S.
4) Will u implement the project in any other way given a chance now?
They expect you to talk about any drawbacks (there should be
at least one) of you project and the fix for it.
5) A coding Question.
This will most probably be from one listed below.
Remember to keep talking all the time. Interviewer might act
as if s/he is not interested. But remember s/he is LISTENING!!!
6) A debugging question
Debug a given code,
7) A testing question.
This is a very important one. The interviewer will observe
your thinking process. So try to think out loud. It helps.
Some example questions are to Test a vending machine, Test a
toaster, Test a white board marker, Test a file open dialog, test a run dialog,
Test the file one module in word, test the calculation engine in
excel, test a TV remote, etc ..
I think that all they look for is how differently can you think and how
organized you are.
A small guideline to approach testing question is given below but remember this
is just a drill; you will have to think of some thing DIFFERENT to impress the
interviewer.
Verify the specifications (do this first !!!)
Check Correctness
Check Usability
Check Boundary conditions
Check Performance
Check State transition
Check the system for varying loads
Check Running the system in background
(unattended)
Check Error handling (bad inputs, system crash etc ..)
Check Security (latest hot cake!!!)
Check Compatibility
Check Reusability
Check Hardware dependencies
Check Version
Check documentation
Check Functionality
Check Signal handling
Check Control structures ( for white box testing) check each construct like IF, For etc ..
Check Special conditions ( like 1 for prime number)
Check Input output
Check Error recovery
Check Communications with other programs and within
This is a good interviewing experience in which all u r
asked for is to understand the basics of any concepts. They will normally
pick questions from your resume. They will be as simple as difference between a
thread and a process or what is a cache. But remember u have to know it in and
out. For example in case of threads and processes, the expected question can be
when to use process, when to use a thread, why is a thread light weight, what
is a kernel thread, if you have 2 threads in a process and one of those threads
needs real time clock what would you do, how r threads scheduled etc. So I guess
the following list will give you the basic list of topics which one needs to
master!
Algorithms and design : - sorts (insertion, bubble, heap,
merge, quick, counting, radix, bucket), trees, lists (single, double, circular),
dynamic programming, complexity of a solution, hash tables. I would refer "Introduction
to Algorithms (second Edition)by Cormen, Leiserson, and
Rivest(2001)" This has the most optimal algorithms for trees and sorts.
Operating systems:- all the topics r important ;) but some
very imp topics are process, scheduling, synchronization, main memory, virtual
memory. Any book will be fine but the book containing the implementationrather
than theory will help, " Operating Systems: A Design-Oriented Approach by CharlesCrowley"
C :- all one needs for C is K& R "
The CProgrammingLanguage".
Most of the programs which microsoft asks are from this book.
Network : Any book is fine but normal questions are from
security, Network layer and Transport layer. You can find some slides from lectures at here. This covers most of the concepts required in general for any networking interview
Unix Programming : IPC, Synchronization, socket programming etc... You can find some slides from lectures at here. This covers most of the concepts required in general for any UNIX based interview
Implementation : c string(string.h), data structures( Link lists1, Link lists2 , trees) , sorts.
Please remember that you have to fluent in coding on the day of interview and
none of the question will be new for you. the important thing is not to make
mistakes and blunders. So it is v very important that all the coding questions
are reviewed before the interview day.
These are the most frequently asked topics other may depend on
you resume.
On Site interview consists of 2 HR and 5 technical interview.
The day starts with a HR. It is just a simple warm up
interview. HR will give the teams for which you will be interviewed.
Each of the technical interview will mainly consist of a
puzzel, a coding question, a testing question and a question from the project
you have done(resume). Most of the puzzles and coding questions will be from
the links below.
The simple formula to know you results at the end of the day
is
i<=3 technical interviews 0-10% chances
i>3&&i<5 technical interviews -0-50% chances (If
you are exceptionally good then it is 100%)
i==5 technical interviews 90-100% (If you have a very good 5th
then it is 100%)
Enough of crap now to some imp stuff:- material!!!!
BTW: Did I mention that you can contact me at getkirank(_at_)yahoo.com
Microsoft Jobs blog has some insight to MS recruting process Please take some time in going through this site. The information relevant to the interview is updated constantly. is any one surprised to know that the recruiters really want you to get the JOB. I can tell you I was while going through the website.