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Microsoft Interview Questions

Review this list of 246 Microsoft interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    +19

    "First I will talk about this restaurant space in general. Types of restaurants, trends, think about how we can offer something that is differentiated to a viable buyer. Vision / mission of this product User segments - pick one Define user goals, user journey, needs/pain points Think about solutions to their pain points (10 min) Then I’d pick one or two of the solutions and define the features in more detail, as it ties to user journey. I’ll define tradeoffs **1.Restaurant sp"

    Yespm T. - "First I will talk about this restaurant space in general. Types of restaurants, trends, think about how we can offer something that is differentiated to a viable buyer. Vision / mission of this product User segments - pick one Define user goals, user journey, needs/pain points Think about solutions to their pain points (10 min) Then I’d pick one or two of the solutions and define the features in more detail, as it ties to user journey. I’ll define tradeoffs **1.Restaurant sp"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'How would you store a list of numbers as a single number?'
    +7

    "First thing the interviewee did wrong is not asking clarifying questions. This is the most vague problem I have every heard, and the interviewee just made assumptions and started programming."

    Nicholas S. - "First thing the interviewee did wrong is not asking clarifying questions. This is the most vague problem I have every heard, and the interviewee just made assumptions and started programming."See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +2 more
  • +9

    "I will have a discussion with him regarding why he disagrees with my solution. I will try to present him a plan about my solution. why I think its the best approach and take his feedback. I will try to analyze his approach and find the best in both approach. Will try to discuss with him and come up with an approach which is agreeable to both parties. The idea is refining the solution and approach instead of personally taking the disagreement. I will make sure that we are attacking the problem"

    Shanavas M. - "I will have a discussion with him regarding why he disagrees with my solution. I will try to present him a plan about my solution. why I think its the best approach and take his feedback. I will try to analyze his approach and find the best in both approach. Will try to discuss with him and come up with an approach which is agreeable to both parties. The idea is refining the solution and approach instead of personally taking the disagreement. I will make sure that we are attacking the problem"See full answer

    Behavioral
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "What are you strengths -: My strengths would include my eagerness to learn. This allows me to be open to new projects, roles and products and I can give my 100% to achieve the goals expected of me Other strengths would include my collaborative approach to work. I believe a team can achieve tremendous success if shares a common goal, respects other's opinions and contribution and is built on fundamental of trust Finally my biggest strength would be my commitment and passion to solve the custome"

    Amit A. - "What are you strengths -: My strengths would include my eagerness to learn. This allows me to be open to new projects, roles and products and I can give my 100% to achieve the goals expected of me Other strengths would include my collaborative approach to work. I believe a team can achieve tremendous success if shares a common goal, respects other's opinions and contribution and is built on fundamental of trust Finally my biggest strength would be my commitment and passion to solve the custome"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    +2

    "I'm going to structure my answer like this so it is easy for both of us to follow up and grasp them easily. Let's first clear out some of the grey areas and make them black and white. Also, decide what are in-scope and out of scope. Second, let's understand what is our goal for improvement - is it the customer experience or any specific feature in mind? for a group of users? Third, I will brainstorm what are the pain points for user personas and solutions to improve them. Fourth, I will priorit"

    Suhasan C. - "I'm going to structure my answer like this so it is easy for both of us to follow up and grasp them easily. Let's first clear out some of the grey areas and make them black and white. Also, decide what are in-scope and out of scope. Second, let's understand what is our goal for improvement - is it the customer experience or any specific feature in mind? for a group of users? Third, I will brainstorm what are the pain points for user personas and solutions to improve them. Fourth, I will priorit"See full answer

    Product Design
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  • "If I could only talk to one customer of my product, I will pick that customer who was earlier a loyal user of my product but now engaging less or have left the product recently. As a PM, two most important metrics that show that your product is worthy for your users are retention & monetisation. If I am seeing a Loyal user not engaging any more with my platform, it shows that either that user has found 10X better substitute to satisfy the same need or that user is not liking my platform any mor"

    Krishan K. - "If I could only talk to one customer of my product, I will pick that customer who was earlier a loyal user of my product but now engaging less or have left the product recently. As a PM, two most important metrics that show that your product is worthy for your users are retention & monetisation. If I am seeing a Loyal user not engaging any more with my platform, it shows that either that user has found 10X better substitute to satisfy the same need or that user is not liking my platform any mor"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Strategy
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Design a photo app for the blind.'

    "Context Photo app || Click images, videos via mobile app (android, ios) + editing + share + upload Who are we? || Startup who wants to build accessibility apps for the disabled people Why do we want to build this app? || Current apps are not usable by visually impaired, we can bring difference & gain market share. Constraints || To launch in next 12 months Is this app exclusively targeted for blind? || Yes but regular people may also use it but not our main target group **Goa"

    FuzzyLogic - "Context Photo app || Click images, videos via mobile app (android, ios) + editing + share + upload Who are we? || Startup who wants to build accessibility apps for the disabled people Why do we want to build this app? || Current apps are not usable by visually impaired, we can bring difference & gain market share. Constraints || To launch in next 12 months Is this app exclusively targeted for blind? || Yes but regular people may also use it but not our main target group **Goa"See full answer

    Product Design
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Situation: While in the middle of a migration project, which required rewrite of services of my product into a cloud infra., we needed to configure our rules management services onto cloud as per legacy platform. The data extract of all the rules from legacy platform in a csv file needed heavy formatting to be usable for configuration of the new service. My entire engineering capacity was allocated on other prioritized ongoing feature migration and I had no bandwidth left in the ongoing spri"

    Geetesh T. - "Situation: While in the middle of a migration project, which required rewrite of services of my product into a cloud infra., we needed to configure our rules management services onto cloud as per legacy platform. The data extract of all the rules from legacy platform in a csv file needed heavy formatting to be usable for configuration of the new service. My entire engineering capacity was allocated on other prioritized ongoing feature migration and I had no bandwidth left in the ongoing spri"See full answer

    Customer Success Manager
    Behavioral
  • "Think of an operating system (OS) as being similar to a person managing household tasks like you! Imagine you have several chores to do around the house, such as cooking, cleaning, and praying. Each of these tasks is like an individual app. You, in this case, are responsible for ensuring all these tasks are completed smoothly. When you cook, you decide what ingredients to buy, how much of each, and which utensils to use. For cleaning, you assess what surfaces need to be cleaned, whether you need"

    Ekta M. - "Think of an operating system (OS) as being similar to a person managing household tasks like you! Imagine you have several chores to do around the house, such as cooking, cleaning, and praying. Each of these tasks is like an individual app. You, in this case, are responsible for ensuring all these tasks are completed smoothly. When you cook, you decide what ingredients to buy, how much of each, and which utensils to use. For cleaning, you assess what surfaces need to be cleaned, whether you need"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Technical
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    +2

    "When I transitioned from the Analytics team to the Product team, I faced challenges in gaining the trust of the engineering team. Having previously worked with them in a role where I provided insights rather than defining their priorities, they were initially hesitant to accept my inputs in my new role. This led to some misalignment, as they chose to focus on tasks independently rather than incorporating my recommendations. Recognizing the need to build credibility, I took a proactive approach."

    Shahrukh K. - "When I transitioned from the Analytics team to the Product team, I faced challenges in gaining the trust of the engineering team. Having previously worked with them in a role where I provided insights rather than defining their priorities, they were initially hesitant to accept my inputs in my new role. This led to some misalignment, as they chose to focus on tasks independently rather than incorporating my recommendations. Recognizing the need to build credibility, I took a proactive approach."See full answer

    BizOps & Strategy
    Behavioral
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Design a key-value store.'

    "Is this in-memory key value store or Disk based as store they are trying to make? Can someone help me with this"

    Chetan R. - "Is this in-memory key value store or Disk based as store they are trying to make? Can someone help me with this"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Product Manager
    Product Design
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Problem statement ; Traffic congestion is defined by what? Vehicles remaining stationary after X mins of time, inability to move forward . This impacts thus on the productivity times / turnaround times of vehicles etc, Due to inaccurate traffic handling management systems , people end up missing their meeting deadlines, ambulances dont reach on time resulting in severe health issues, missing up customer deadlines by sales professionals for a demo. Why is there a traffic congestion?? Users: Its"

    Chirashree G. - "Problem statement ; Traffic congestion is defined by what? Vehicles remaining stationary after X mins of time, inability to move forward . This impacts thus on the productivity times / turnaround times of vehicles etc, Due to inaccurate traffic handling management systems , people end up missing their meeting deadlines, ambulances dont reach on time resulting in severe health issues, missing up customer deadlines by sales professionals for a demo. Why is there a traffic congestion?? Users: Its"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Analytical
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Product of Array Except Self'
    +58

    "If 0's aren't a concern, couldn't we just multiply all numbers. and then divide product by each number in the list ? if there's more than one zero, then we just return an array of 0s if there's one zero, then we just replace 0 with product and rest 0s. what am i missing?"

    Sachin R. - "If 0's aren't a concern, couldn't we just multiply all numbers. and then divide product by each number in the list ? if there's more than one zero, then we just return an array of 0s if there's one zero, then we just replace 0 with product and rest 0s. what am i missing?"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +3 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Design Uber Eats.'
    +8

    "basic drew the diagram"

    Aswath B. - "basic drew the diagram"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    System Design
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "A load balancer, web application servers and a large database. Database is the core of the application containing the songs and tags related to each song. Application server will provide the search interface to find songs, play them and search them in specific categories or channels."

    Soraya B. - "A load balancer, web application servers and a large database. Database is the core of the application containing the songs and tags related to each song. Application server will provide the search interface to find songs, play them and search them in specific categories or channels."See full answer

    Product Manager
    Technical
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "In 2019, I was given a very important problem to solve. In a team of 3 we had to build a mobility assist device. The customer segment we would go for was something we could decide. The project was very close to me as I had lost someone I loved because of cancer and I saw how reduced mobility was a huge pain point in not being able to do physical activities. My team could only think of elderly people as the main target market. As the Head of Product what I did was: 1) I helped them dive even d"

    Soumya S. - "In 2019, I was given a very important problem to solve. In a team of 3 we had to build a mobility assist device. The customer segment we would go for was something we could decide. The project was very close to me as I had lost someone I loved because of cancer and I saw how reduced mobility was a huge pain point in not being able to do physical activities. My team could only think of elderly people as the main target market. As the Head of Product what I did was: 1) I helped them dive even d"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
    +3 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Let me try to explain it with simple life analogy You're cooking dinner in the kitchen. Multithreading is when you've got a bunch of friends helping out. Each friend does a different job—like one chops veggies while another stirs a sauce. Everyone focuses on their task, and together, you all make the meal faster. In a computer, it's like different jobs happening all at once, making stuff happen quicker, just like having lots of friends helping makes dinner ready faster."

    Praveen D. - "Let me try to explain it with simple life analogy You're cooking dinner in the kitchen. Multithreading is when you've got a bunch of friends helping out. Each friend does a different job—like one chops veggies while another stirs a sauce. Everyone focuses on their task, and together, you all make the meal faster. In a computer, it's like different jobs happening all at once, making stuff happen quicker, just like having lots of friends helping makes dinner ready faster."See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Imagine a blockchain as a magical, unchangeable diary that keeps track of all the candies you share with your friends. Whenever you share a candy, you write it down in this special diary, and your friends also write it down in their diaries. But here's the cool part – all the diaries are connected and can talk to each other! So, when you want to know who has borrowed your candy or if you borrowed candy from someone else, you just check this special diary. It shows you the history of all the can"

    Maedu E. - "Imagine a blockchain as a magical, unchangeable diary that keeps track of all the candies you share with your friends. Whenever you share a candy, you write it down in this special diary, and your friends also write it down in their diaries. But here's the cool part – all the diaries are connected and can talk to each other! So, when you want to know who has borrowed your candy or if you borrowed candy from someone else, you just check this special diary. It shows you the history of all the can"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    +1

    "Clarifying Questions Who are we? Traditional elevator company or a new age tech startup Assumption: New age tech based elevator company Any constraints: Budget, etc. Assumption: No What kind of a skyscraper building: Assumption: Commercial. Includes office spaces as well as others Any particular goal with respect to building this elevator? Design best in class elevator providing the best user experience for passengers User needs - Users have the following needs when"

    Shasleen I. - "Clarifying Questions Who are we? Traditional elevator company or a new age tech startup Assumption: New age tech based elevator company Any constraints: Budget, etc. Assumption: No What kind of a skyscraper building: Assumption: Commercial. Includes office spaces as well as others Any particular goal with respect to building this elevator? Design best in class elevator providing the best user experience for passengers User needs - Users have the following needs when"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
    +1 more
Showing 41-60 of 246