They wewStep 1: Recruiter Screening Call The Microsoft interview process begins when a recruiter spots your resume or profile and reaches out to you for an initial screening call. Microsoft’s preliminary screening call gets right into it. You will go over your resume and then answer a few behavioral questions. The recruiter wants to get a sense of how curious and capable of learning you are. They also want to gauge your leadership abilities, problem-solving skills, team collaboration skills, and how well you hold up to pressure. This part of the interview should take around 15 minutes. If you are applying for a technical engineering or developer role, the recruiter will also ask you some technical uestions. The technical skill questions let the recruiter know that you really have what it takes. Microsoft is known for asking technical questions on data structures and algorithms during its preliminary call. The recruiter will also ask you a coding question to be answered through a shared editor. You are given 30 minutes to complete it. The data structures most likely to be discussed are arrays and strings, queues and lists, linked lists, trees/tries, hash maps/hash sets, and graphs. You will need to show and discuss the algorithms used in your solutions. The interviewer may ask recursive questions and expect in-depth answers on the complexity of your algorithms. Microsoft doesn’t have any specific coding language requirements. But it’s a good idea to use a preferred one, like C#. This phone call lasts around 45 minutes, at the longest. Step 2: Technical Phone Interview Technical role applicants are often asked to do another phone interview (or two) with a Microsoft hiring representative. This phone call happens 1 to 2 weeks after the initial screening call. The recruiter will give you an interview agenda that lets you know what topics and questions may be discussed and what’s expected of you. You should get this at least a few days ahead. Make sure you research the topics given. Microsoft expects its technical candidates to demonstrate deep technical knowledge, be able to recommend solutions, point out pros and cons, and defend your choices. Step 3: Virtual On-Site Interview Loops Microsoft’s on-site interview rounds are now done remotely. This process consists of 4 to 5 continuous interviews, held on the same day. The interviews are facilitated by two interviewers each. These interviewers are usually senior managers and developers. They ask both behavioral questions and coding exercises. The interviews get progressively harder with progressively senior and higher-ranked interviewers. After each round, the interviewers will give you a “hire” or “no hire” rating. If you receive three “no hires”, your interviewing process may end there. You will also get to interview with members of the team you want to join. The traditional on-site process holds this interview as a lunch. It may seem more casual, but it’s a serious part of the process.