Microsoft Engineering Manager Interview Questions

Review this list of 13 Microsoft engineering manager interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'What's your favorite product and why?'
    +260

    "Clarify "What do you mean by favorite product? Are you thinking specifically hardware, software, or a feature within those, or something non-electronic? Dealer's Choice. "Are you asking why I love this product, or to explain why this product is a market leader independent of how i feel about it? Talk about why YOU love this product. Rephrase Question With all that in mind, i want to rephrase the question. "What is your favorite software product and what features in this product"

    Tim W. - "Clarify "What do you mean by favorite product? Are you thinking specifically hardware, software, or a feature within those, or something non-electronic? Dealer's Choice. "Are you asking why I love this product, or to explain why this product is a market leader independent of how i feel about it? Talk about why YOU love this product. Rephrase Question With all that in mind, i want to rephrase the question. "What is your favorite software product and what features in this product"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Product Design
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    +82

    "My approach to dealing with difficult stakeholders has always been: Engage - Directly engage with the stakeholder, meet or chat Listen - Listen to what they have to say, patiently. Understand - Understand their POV, even if it is impossible at some times Ask - Ask clarifying questions. Why? When? What? Engage again - Keep them in the loop until there is closure For example, we were in the final stages of a very important, strategic project for our organization. I was leading th"

    Jane D. - "My approach to dealing with difficult stakeholders has always been: Engage - Directly engage with the stakeholder, meet or chat Listen - Listen to what they have to say, patiently. Understand - Understand their POV, even if it is impossible at some times Ask - Ask clarifying questions. Why? When? What? Engage again - Keep them in the loop until there is closure For example, we were in the final stages of a very important, strategic project for our organization. I was leading th"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +8 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Tell me about a time you made a mistake.'
    +87

    "Let me tell you about a time where a website I managed suddenly showed slow performance and the mistake on our side was it was unnoticed until a user reported the issue to management. As a PM for that project, I took full responsibility of the situation and worked with the engineering team to quickly resolve it. This mistake taught me the importance of focusing and monitoring non functional requirements as well in addition to new feature development /adoption where I was mostly spending my time"

    Sreenisha S. - "Let me tell you about a time where a website I managed suddenly showed slow performance and the mistake on our side was it was unnoticed until a user reported the issue to management. As a PM for that project, I took full responsibility of the situation and worked with the engineering team to quickly resolve it. This mistake taught me the importance of focusing and monitoring non functional requirements as well in addition to new feature development /adoption where I was mostly spending my time"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +6 more
  • +27

    "We had a huge launch on September 1st of this year where we completely redesigned our application from the grounds up and also migrated to a new platform (React.JS). This project took us 8 months and the launch was a huge deal for the team. Unfortunately the launch wasn't as smooth as we expected and despite doing multiple rounds of QA, some major issues cropped up in the core part of the app right after launch and our client was quite upset since it was disrupting their day-to-day workflow. "

    Aabid S. - "We had a huge launch on September 1st of this year where we completely redesigned our application from the grounds up and also migrated to a new platform (React.JS). This project took us 8 months and the launch was a huge deal for the team. Unfortunately the launch wasn't as smooth as we expected and despite doing multiple rounds of QA, some major issues cropped up in the core part of the app right after launch and our client was quite upset since it was disrupting their day-to-day workflow. "See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +7 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Tell me about yourself.'
    +112

    "As you know, this is the most important question for any interview. Here is a structure I like to follow, Start with 'I'm currently a SDE/PM/TPM etc with XYZ company.... ' Mention how you got into PM/TPM/SDE field (explaining your journey) Mention 1 or 2 accomplishments Mention what you do outside work (blogging, volunteer etc) Share why are you looking for a new role Ask the interviewer if they have any questions or will like to dive deep into any of your experience"

    Bipin R. - "As you know, this is the most important question for any interview. Here is a structure I like to follow, Start with 'I'm currently a SDE/PM/TPM etc with XYZ company.... ' Mention how you got into PM/TPM/SDE field (explaining your journey) Mention 1 or 2 accomplishments Mention what you do outside work (blogging, volunteer etc) Share why are you looking for a new role Ask the interviewer if they have any questions or will like to dive deep into any of your experience"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +9 more
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  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Design Facebook Messenger.'
    +53

    "Great explanation on each of the components and their use. During the interview would a PM candidate be expected to go in-depth for capacity estimation (e.g. storage estimation, bandwidth estimation etc.?)"

    A B. - "Great explanation on each of the components and their use. During the interview would a PM candidate be expected to go in-depth for capacity estimation (e.g. storage estimation, bandwidth estimation etc.?)"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    System Design
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Describe a time when your project failed.'
    +6

    "I feel this is more about "Describe a time when I failed or struggled" rather than "Project Failure"."

    Anjali V. - "I feel this is more about "Describe a time when I failed or struggled" rather than "Project Failure"."See full answer

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

    "A good answer is describing an experience where you either proposed something that was selected after discussion or an alternate approach was taken, or you disagreed with a decision and argued for something else, either successfully or not. A good answer would be you had cogent arguments, the decision went another way for some reason, and you then fully backed the decision (agree to disagree is another way of stating it). You did not take it personally and you fully committed to the deci"

    Mrinalini R. - "A good answer is describing an experience where you either proposed something that was selected after discussion or an alternate approach was taken, or you disagreed with a decision and argued for something else, either successfully or not. A good answer would be you had cogent arguments, the decision went another way for some reason, and you then fully backed the decision (agree to disagree is another way of stating it). You did not take it personally and you fully committed to the deci"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    +1

    "Situation - A time I dealt with conflict while on a team was while I was working at Shopify on physical and digital gift card refund point of sale solutions. The situation was that we were dealing with complex technical constraints including not changing particular UI components behavior to act as they should be intended. On the refund screen, the existing design was using a toggle on the same screen to bring up a modal for gift card selection to either select digital or physical options. Thi"

    Ben G. - "Situation - A time I dealt with conflict while on a team was while I was working at Shopify on physical and digital gift card refund point of sale solutions. The situation was that we were dealing with complex technical constraints including not changing particular UI components behavior to act as they should be intended. On the refund screen, the existing design was using a toggle on the same screen to bring up a modal for gift card selection to either select digital or physical options. Thi"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +2 more
  • 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
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "Functional Requirement Upload the file of any type POST v1/drive Upload the another version of file. POST v1/drive/{fileId} Delete the file. DELETE v1/drive/{fileId} Share the file. POST v1/drive/{fileId} Control the access level of the file. Provide the file accessibility following the directory structure. Non Functional Requirement Reliability: The file along with its versions uploaded should be"

    Vikash A. - "Functional Requirement Upload the file of any type POST v1/drive Upload the another version of file. POST v1/drive/{fileId} Delete the file. DELETE v1/drive/{fileId} Share the file. POST v1/drive/{fileId} Control the access level of the file. Provide the file accessibility following the directory structure. Non Functional Requirement Reliability: The file along with its versions uploaded should be"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    System Design
    +1 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 
    Video answer for 'Design a key-value store.'

    "Simple file system ( Hash Map , LSM trees), and consistent hashing. I failed to discuss about conflicts ( Versioning)"

    V V. - "Simple file system ( Hash Map , LSM trees), and consistent hashing. I failed to discuss about conflicts ( Versioning)"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    System Design
    +2 more
  • Microsoft logoAsked at Microsoft 

    "depends on. weather they want to persue any goal which is aligned with current scnerio"

    Graig - "depends on. weather they want to persue any goal which is aligned with current scnerio"See full answer

    Engineering Manager
    Behavioral
    +1 more
Showing 1-13 of 13