Microsoft Software Engineer Interview Questions
6 real practice questions for the mid-level Software Engineer role at Microsoft (Technology), spanning behavioral, technical, and problem solving. Design, develop, and maintain software applications. The first 3 questions below include what Microsoft interviewers actually listen for, plus likely follow-ups.
- Questions
- 6
- Categories
- Behavioral (2), Technical (3), Problem Solving (1)
- Difficulty mix
- 5 medium · 1 hard
- Avg. answer time
- ~3 min
Behavioral Questions (2)
1.Tell me about a time when you received critical feedback on your work. How did you respond?
medium~3 minWhat interviewers look for
- Shows openness to receiving feedback
- Describes specific actions taken in response
- Demonstrates learning and growth
- Sought clarification to understand fully
- Applied learnings to future work
Likely follow-ups
- How do you actively seek feedback now?
- What's the hardest feedback you've had to accept?
Company context
At Microsoft, we believe in a growth mindset. We learn from feedback and continuously improve.
2.Describe a time when you collaborated with someone who had a very different working style. How did you make it work?
medium~3 minWhat interviewers look for
- Shows adaptability and flexibility
- Demonstrates respect for different approaches
- Found common ground and shared goals
- Achieved successful outcome together
- Built a stronger working relationship
Likely follow-ups
- What did you learn from their working style?
- How do you adapt your communication for different people?
Company context
At Microsoft, we value diverse perspectives and inclusive collaboration.
Technical Questions (3)
3.Given a string, find the length of the longest substring without repeating characters. Explain your approach.
medium~3 minWhat interviewers look for
- Identifies sliding window technique
- Uses hash map to track character positions
- Achieves O(n) time complexity
- Handles edge cases (empty string, all same characters)
- Can optimize space for limited character set
Likely follow-ups
- How would you modify this for at most k repeating characters?
- What if you needed to return the actual substring?
4.How would you design an API that needs to support both breaking and non-breaking changes over time?
medium~3 min5.Design a cloud-based document collaboration system like OneDrive and Office Online.
hard~4 min
Problem Solving Questions (1)
6.You're building a feature that works well for 95% of users but causes issues for 5%. How do you approach this?
medium~3 min