Microsoft

I applied for the Microsoft SWE Intern role through an off-campus opening. After the resume screening, I received the online assessment invite. Round 1: Online Assessment The OA had 2 coding questions and the difficulty was around medium to hard. Both questions were heavily DSA-focused and required careful handling of edge cases. I was able to solve both and get the test cases accepted, so I was pretty hopeful about getting the interview call. After some time, I received the interview shortlist. Round 2: Technical Interview 1 The first technical interview started with a short introduction and then went directly into DSA. The interviewer first asked me to solve a Reverse Linked List problem. I explained both the iterative and recursive approaches and discussed the time and space complexity. The next problem was based on Open the Lock. I started with the basic idea and then explained why BFS was suitable for finding the minimum number of moves. We also discussed edge cases and how I would handle already-visited combinations. After that, we moved to tree traversals. I was asked how I would approach different traversal requirements and when BFS or DFS would be more appropriate. The last problem was a combination of backtracking and BFS. This one took more time because I initially went in the wrong direction. I discussed my approach with the interviewer, received a couple of hints and eventually managed to code a working solution. The interviewer was mainly looking at how I approached unfamiliar problems and how clearly I communicated my thinking. Round 3: Technical + Behavioral The second round started with a discussion about my projects. The interviewer asked me to explain one of my projects in detail, including my contribution, the technical decisions I made and some of the challenges I faced. There were follow-up questions based on the architecture and implementation. I was also asked how I would improve the project if it had to handle a much larger number of users. After the project discussion, we moved back to DSA. The main coding problem was Gas Station. The interviewer initially asked me to explain a brute-force approach. I walked through the idea and then discussed its complexity. I was able to code the approach and test it with different cases. We also talked about how the solution could be optimized. The rest of the round included some behavioral questions about teamwork and my experience working on projects. Result After the final interview, I waited for the result. Unfortunately, I was not selected for the SWE Intern role. The process was a good learning experience because Microsoft wasn't only checking whether I knew standard DSA patterns. The interviewers paid attention to how I explained my approach, handled hints, debugged problems and communicated while coding. The first technical round especially made me realize that being comfortable with trees, graphs and BFS/DFS is important, but being able to solve an unfamiliar variation under interview pressure is a different skill. Even though I didn't get through, reaching the final technical round gave me a much better idea of what I need to improve for future product-company interviews.