Preparing for a Microsoft Interview

The competencies that you will be evaluated on are: Coding/Designing – High Level & Low Level Design
/Data Structures/Algorithms / Problem Solving.

Please Read through this entire document to better prepare yourself for a Microsoft Interview

One key aspect about an Interview with Microsoft is - the more you prepare / do your ground work, the
higher are the chances of YOU succeeding in the Tech Interviews. Here are few other external links that
might help you prepare with a typical set of questions that might be probed at an Microsoft
Interview…Would highly recommend that you spend some qualitative time exploring these sites and
brushing up on your basics.

http://www.saurabhschool.org/index.php/data-structures

www.geeksforgeeks.org/

(Note: These links are purely sent for your practice / reference and are only indicative of the Tech
Questions that might be probed. Microsoft is in no way aligned with the propagation of these sites.)

Primary focus is ALWAYS on Coding & Design

 You will be writing codes on paper/board all the time, hence write syntactically and logically
correct executable code.
 Optimize the code and check for edge cases, null cases, happy cases, etc. before you present the
code.
 Evaluation Focus will be around on concepts like : Syntax, Return statements, Function
declaration, Recursive code(mandatory), pointer manipulation, scope of variables, O(log n) lock
and O(log n) unlock, initialization.
 Please make sure your code is Modular, Maintainable, testable and Time Complexity.
 Should take into account run-time/space-time complexity, In order & preorder traversals,
whether a null is a BST and whether a single node is a BST.

Should be able to optimize the code, modular programming, & Dynamic Programming.

Data Structure

 Application of Right Data Structures. Ex: Trees, Binary Trees, Hash map, Set, Hash tables,
Arrays, Linked Lists.
 Uses and implementation of DS like link-list, queues, arrays, trees, binary trees, stacks, hash
map etc.
  BFS, DFS, maximum number of nodes at a level of binary trees.
 Most of the work we do involves storing and providing access to data in efficient ways. This
necessitates a very strong background in data structures. You’ll be expected to understand the
inner workings of common data structures and be able to compare and contrast their usage in
various applications. You will be expected to know the runtimes for common operations as well
as how they use memory. Wikipedia is a great resource for brushing up on data structures.

Here are few other broad areas that you might be evaluated on…

 Design: OOPS
 Overloading vs. Overriding.
 Encapsulation and inheritance.
 inheritance and polymorphism
 HLD (Component wise segregation)
 LLD (Class & sequence diagram)
 Design patterns. Design tool if you’ve worked on any.

Problem Solving Skills

 Listen & understand problem statement completely before attempting the solution and avoid
jumping on to the solutions abruptly (seek 100% information).
 Ask more clarifying question and be receptive to hints provided by the interviewers. Articulate
and express thoughts clearly & crisp. Make the interviewing experience more interactive.
 Should be able to deal with ambiguity

Algorithm

 Sorting, Merging, Searching algorithms techniques.