Microsoft Interview Questions

Review this list of 211 Microsoft interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'How do you select the value of 'k' in the k-means algorithm?'
    +1

    "As an interviewer, I have asked this question to candidates in the past. Here are the major topics I am looking for in an interview The candidate should understand that there are ways of measuring the loss of a particular clustering. For example, we can take the average distance of each point to it's cluster center. The candidate should understand that this loss will always decrease as the number of clusters increases. For that reason, we can't just pick the value of K that minimizes the l"

    Michael F. - "As an interviewer, I have asked this question to candidates in the past. Here are the major topics I am looking for in an interview The candidate should understand that there are ways of measuring the loss of a particular clustering. For example, we can take the average distance of each point to it's cluster center. The candidate should understand that this loss will always decrease as the number of clusters increases. For that reason, we can't just pick the value of K that minimizes the l"See full answer

    Machine Learning Engineer
    Concept
    +1 more
  • "As a product manager in microsoft to support the customers I have to design a product. Let us take the E-Service as a name.In that we can see a form at first and after that a chat bot at the picture even there is a calling facility.Other queries done with the bot."

    Dheeraj sai P. - "As a product manager in microsoft to support the customers I have to design a product. Let us take the E-Service as a name.In that we can see a form at first and after that a chat bot at the picture even there is a calling facility.Other queries done with the bot."See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Technical Program Manager
    Behavioral
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "I think AI such as ChatGPT seemed to spit out its answers fast and instinctively, hence proving its efficiency but in the recent versions it seems to have acquired reasoning skills which was revealed 'transparently' to users. This new, reasoning skills introduce a small delay in its response and explains what it does during the delay but I do not really think that it is "thinking" any differently than before, except that it is constrained by some purported rules when asked to summarise certain b"

    Louisa C. - "I think AI such as ChatGPT seemed to spit out its answers fast and instinctively, hence proving its efficiency but in the recent versions it seems to have acquired reasoning skills which was revealed 'transparently' to users. This new, reasoning skills introduce a small delay in its response and explains what it does during the delay but I do not really think that it is "thinking" any differently than before, except that it is constrained by some purported rules when asked to summarise certain b"See full answer

    Customer Success Manager
    Behavioral
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  • +2

    "Me: That's an interesting challenge. I would like to get some clarifications before jumping into potential solutions. Are we talking about the global search market irrespective of device or are we talking about a specific geography / device type? Interviewer: Lets go ahead with all possible searches. Me: Ok. Is there a specific reason we want to capture a significant market share from Google (e.g. higher search revenue, cross-selling MSFT services etc.) and are there any timelines we should k"

    Harsh W. - "Me: That's an interesting challenge. I would like to get some clarifications before jumping into potential solutions. Are we talking about the global search market irrespective of device or are we talking about a specific geography / device type? Interviewer: Lets go ahead with all possible searches. Me: Ok. Is there a specific reason we want to capture a significant market share from Google (e.g. higher search revenue, cross-selling MSFT services etc.) and are there any timelines we should k"See full answer

    Product Strategy
    Analytical
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Assumptions and Clarification! What kind of blind person are we talking about ? Are they partially blind? Color Blind? Can Detect Light ? Can See blurry Images? Is the Blind person an adult, elderly or a teenager? Do they have any additional disabilities? Where will this Iron be used? At home? or perhaps one for travel? Do we have any limitation of resources? Assumptions- We are talking about a Complete Blind person who cannot see anything at all i.e Zero ability to se"

    Prabhav G. - "Assumptions and Clarification! What kind of blind person are we talking about ? Are they partially blind? Color Blind? Can Detect Light ? Can See blurry Images? Is the Blind person an adult, elderly or a teenager? Do they have any additional disabilities? Where will this Iron be used? At home? or perhaps one for travel? Do we have any limitation of resources? Assumptions- We are talking about a Complete Blind person who cannot see anything at all i.e Zero ability to se"See full answer

    Product Manager
  • +4

    "Me: First of all, I’d like to have some clarification about this project. Me: What is the current product line design of the vending machine? Is this a traditional vending machine? Customers pay money cash or credit card, and select products and receive the product. Interviewer: Yes, that is the correct assumption. We make vending machines for canned drinks and bottled drinks. Another product line is for selling small packaged snacks. Me: What is the goal of this project? Is"

    Takashi M. - "Me: First of all, I’d like to have some clarification about this project. Me: What is the current product line design of the vending machine? Is this a traditional vending machine? Customers pay money cash or credit card, and select products and receive the product. Interviewer: Yes, that is the correct assumption. We make vending machines for canned drinks and bottled drinks. Another product line is for selling small packaged snacks. Me: What is the goal of this project? Is"See full answer

    Execution
    Product Design
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Was the statement very similar to the leetcode or was it changed and only the main idea remained?"

    Anonymous Wombat - "Was the statement very similar to the leetcode or was it changed and only the main idea remained?"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Data Structures & Algorithms
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'How would you use VR to improve education?'

    "I got to play with a VR for the first time a few weeks ago at my friend’s house and I loved it, so this is a really fun question. Clarifying Questions Is this something we are looking to create Microsoft or are we a startup company etc? > Education can refer to elementary, high school, university, or even self-learning (e.g. Udemy). Is there a specific area we want to focus on? << What do y"

    Rohan S. - "I got to play with a VR for the first time a few weeks ago at my friend’s house and I loved it, so this is a really fun question. Clarifying Questions Is this something we are looking to create Microsoft or are we a startup company etc? > Education can refer to elementary, high school, university, or even self-learning (e.g. Udemy). Is there a specific area we want to focus on? << What do y"See full answer

    Product Design
    Concept
  • +1

    "Approach 1: Use sorting and return the kth largest element from the sorted list. Time complexity: O(nlogn) Approach 2: Use max heap and then select the kth largest element. time complexity: O(n+logn) Approach 3: Quickselect. Time complexity O(n) I explained my interviewer the 3 approaches. He told me to solve in a naive manner. Used Approach 1 had some time left so coded approach 3 also The average time complexity of Quickselect is O(n), making it very efficient for its purpose. However, in"

    GalacticInterviewer - "Approach 1: Use sorting and return the kth largest element from the sorted list. Time complexity: O(nlogn) Approach 2: Use max heap and then select the kth largest element. time complexity: O(n+logn) Approach 3: Quickselect. Time complexity O(n) I explained my interviewer the 3 approaches. He told me to solve in a naive manner. Used Approach 1 had some time left so coded approach 3 also The average time complexity of Quickselect is O(n), making it very efficient for its purpose. However, in"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Coding
    +1 more
  • "While working as a consultant, I was assigned to a project to design and build a solution for accessing and managing documents on deepwater drilling wells with limited connectivity. I and the developer assigned to the project conducted interviews with various engineers and team members on the rigs. We worked with the client's IT group to analyze options for getting content to and from the rig. Together, we came up with a solution that would leverage their existing SharePoint infrastructure (avai"

    John F. - "While working as a consultant, I was assigned to a project to design and build a solution for accessing and managing documents on deepwater drilling wells with limited connectivity. I and the developer assigned to the project conducted interviews with various engineers and team members on the rigs. We worked with the client's IT group to analyze options for getting content to and from the rig. Together, we came up with a solution that would leverage their existing SharePoint infrastructure (avai"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Behavioral
  • +3

    "The question refers to a very specific event: "step into the back for a few minutes, return and see a lot of people waiting"... I might try to clarify goals and scenario: Before I stepped back, there were no ppl waiting? If so, we might be talking about a very specific, even uncommon scenario, in which optimizations for the complete serving system in the long term might not be needed. Maybe they even arrived all together and this is expected behavior. Are people waiting for something specif"

    Alfredo M. - "The question refers to a very specific event: "step into the back for a few minutes, return and see a lot of people waiting"... I might try to clarify goals and scenario: Before I stepped back, there were no ppl waiting? If so, we might be talking about a very specific, even uncommon scenario, in which optimizations for the complete serving system in the long term might not be needed. Maybe they even arrived all together and this is expected behavior. Are people waiting for something specif"See full answer

    Execution
    Analytical
  • "Clarifying and assumption When we say financial security, are we talking about authentication, fraud detection or money laundering? Assumption: Fraud detection. Focusing specifically on transaction-level fraud. Is this an internal AI implementation or an external third-party service we provide to multiple financial businesses? Assumption: External Third-party AI financial security product. Requirements Need to detect when fraudulent transactions happen. **Detection stra"

    Darpan D. - "Clarifying and assumption When we say financial security, are we talking about authentication, fraud detection or money laundering? Assumption: Fraud detection. Focusing specifically on transaction-level fraud. Is this an internal AI implementation or an external third-party service we provide to multiple financial businesses? Assumption: External Third-party AI financial security product. Requirements Need to detect when fraudulent transactions happen. **Detection stra"See full answer

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

    "Clarification questions - Assumption: Blind person - Generally aware about what an ATM machine is and how it works. Markets - US market and think about global expansion later Regulatory, Financial companies approval - We have agreement from the regulators and financial companies about the merits and we don’t see any kind of concerns from these companies Goal - Part of the company's social initiatives - Positive word of mouth - increase customer base Users - **Blind users with no other disabi"

    Vijay S. - "Clarification questions - Assumption: Blind person - Generally aware about what an ATM machine is and how it works. Markets - US market and think about global expansion later Regulatory, Financial companies approval - We have agreement from the regulators and financial companies about the merits and we don’t see any kind of concerns from these companies Goal - Part of the company's social initiatives - Positive word of mouth - increase customer base Users - **Blind users with no other disabi"See full answer

    Product Manager
    Product Design
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Interviewer wanted to learn more about architecture and or scalability. But I was not sure what the expected answer was"

    Mridul J. - "Interviewer wanted to learn more about architecture and or scalability. But I was not sure what the expected answer was"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
  • "First, I'd like to ask some clarifying questions and try to narrow down the scope of this question. Among them I would like to ask: Are we looking to optimize for a specific goal or metric? Eg: we want more users/queries or are we looking to increase revenue? Are we testing over a specific aspect of Bing? EG: UI, search quality results, recommendation engine, etc. Duration and size of the test. Available resources or constraints (teams, technology, budget) Now, to ass"

    Alfredo M. - "First, I'd like to ask some clarifying questions and try to narrow down the scope of this question. Among them I would like to ask: Are we looking to optimize for a specific goal or metric? Eg: we want more users/queries or are we looking to increase revenue? Are we testing over a specific aspect of Bing? EG: UI, search quality results, recommendation engine, etc. Duration and size of the test. Available resources or constraints (teams, technology, budget) Now, to ass"See full answer

    Technical Program Manager
    Analytical
  • "Here's some thought on what I'll be doing in this situation: Identify the root cause (I'll try to assess WHY the engineers don't action these tickets). In order to identify the potential reasons, I'd have 1:1s with team members, observe participation and engagement in backlog grooming sessions and check in with leads and my peers. Lack of clarity on requirements or acceptance criteria. Skill gaps. Dependency on other teams or missing prerequisites. Team capaci"

    Anonymous Dingo - "Here's some thought on what I'll be doing in this situation: Identify the root cause (I'll try to assess WHY the engineers don't action these tickets). In order to identify the potential reasons, I'd have 1:1s with team members, observe participation and engagement in backlog grooming sessions and check in with leads and my peers. Lack of clarity on requirements or acceptance criteria. Skill gaps. Dependency on other teams or missing prerequisites. Team capaci"See full answer

    Customer Success Manager
    Behavioral
    +1 more
  • "Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. I am always inspired by helping others to achieve more by participating to different volunteer and mentorship experiences like Microsoft Student Ambassador, and GeeksForGeeks student ambassador, and I have also created and shared a free competitive-programming guide which once reached more than 700 stars on github, that enables students and professionals to join Microsoft like Microsoft, that hav"

    Davide P. - "Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. I am always inspired by helping others to achieve more by participating to different volunteer and mentorship experiences like Microsoft Student Ambassador, and GeeksForGeeks student ambassador, and I have also created and shared a free competitive-programming guide which once reached more than 700 stars on github, that enables students and professionals to join Microsoft like Microsoft, that hav"See full answer

    Software Engineer
    Behavioral
  • "Clarifying Questions: Do we have any specific goal in mind for this new product, for example targeting new audience, expansion to new places , catering to new need etc. · I am going to assume targeting new audience Do we have any constraints? · No constraints When you say restaurants does it mean casual restaurants, pubs, food joints 5 star hotels etc. · I am going to assume all kind of restaurants who have already registered there establishments on Swiggy Structure User Segme"

    Gaurav C. - "Clarifying Questions: Do we have any specific goal in mind for this new product, for example targeting new audience, expansion to new places , catering to new need etc. · I am going to assume targeting new audience Do we have any constraints? · No constraints When you say restaurants does it mean casual restaurants, pubs, food joints 5 star hotels etc. · I am going to assume all kind of restaurants who have already registered there establishments on Swiggy Structure User Segme"See full answer

    Product Design
    Analytical
    +1 more
Showing 81-100 of 211