Microsoft

My Microsoft SWE Intern interview was primarily about DSA, but what stood out was the number of follow-up questions. The interviewer did not just want the first solution that came to mind; I had to keep improving it and justify every choice. The process started with an online coding assessment containing two medium-level problems. After clearing it, I was invited for the technical rounds. In the first technical interview, I was given a problem based on finding the longest subarray with consecutive elements. I initially explained a brute-force solution, after which the interviewer asked me to optimize it. I eventually reached an O(N) approach and was then asked whether I could solve it in a single pass. I modified the approach using a few state variables and explained the edge cases while coding. The next discussion moved to another DSA problem involving a graph. I had to determine the required traversal and explain why BFS/DFS would work under the given constraints. The interviewer also asked about time and space complexity and tested the solution with different edge cases. There was a separate discussion around my projects and technical fundamentals. I was asked about OOP concepts and how I had implemented specific features in my projects. One thing I noticed was that the interviewer kept asking “why?” after my answers, so having a clear understanding of everything on my resume was important. The interviews were challenging but interactive. I tried to communicate my approach before coding, take hints when necessary, and improve the solution instead of rushing into implementation. After completing the process, I received the selection confirmation for the Microsoft SWE Intern role.