Last Updated on August 17, 2024 by Ali Hamza
Table of Contents
Introduction
Microsoft is a multinational tech corporation based in Redmond, Washington, offers computer software, consumer electronics, and personal computers. Some of its products include Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Suite, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft is one of the Big Five IT corporations in the US. Microsoft is one of the biggest employers worldwide, and its employment rate keeps increasing yearly. Undoubtedly the company is on the dream list of every aspiring candidate! However, before applying for Microsoft, you need to know the company in detail, its interview process and what kind of questions are asked in the interview. If you want to get hired at Microsoft, then you should prepare microsoft interview questions thoroughly.
What does Microsoft offer that no other company can?
Microsoft highly believes in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace for its employees, focuses on flexible work-life balance and offers:
- Impressive salaries & compensation packages,
- Top-class benefits, and
- Technological innovation.
- It also offers scholarship programs, internships, and full-time job positions.
Securing that perfect position in the world’s most influential software company is a challenge.
However, if you prepare well for the Microsoft Interview Questionsand familiarize yourself with the company, its interview pattern, and expected questions, you can ace the interview confidently.
Microsoft Core Competencies
Before getting on to the interview questions, you need to understand on what basis they will test you. Here are a few of Microsoft’s core competencies you should focus on.
- Collaboration
- Drive for results
- Customer focus
- Influencing for Impact
- Decision Making Skills
- Judgment
- Adaptability
Microsoft Interview Questions
We will cover all the relevant aspects of your Microsoft interview and answer all your doubts.
Let’s get started with the Microsoft Interview Questions.
Unlike any other company’s interview, Microsoft follows quite a different interview pattern and asks several Behavioral, Technical, and Situational Questions to test you on various grounds.
- Behavioral Interview Questions
Here, questions are based on work-life balance, workplace ethics & conduct, and leadership qualities. Your answers help the recruiter to assess you based on Microsoft’s core competencies.
The most popular question is: Why Microsoft?
It is the most common yet most important question in a Microsoft Interview. It is a challenging question, and answering this can either get you selected or rejected at that moment and defines your value in the organization.
The interviewer evaluates your enthusiasm about joining the company, your authentic self, and your knowledge about the company, its beliefs, and values. There is no right or wrong to answer this question. Therefore, ensure to prepare an answer that lasts an amazing impression. The answer should be honest and convincing about your dedication to the company.
Highlight the following points while answering:
- How excited you are to work with a tech company like Microsoft
- The USP that makes you the right fit for the position applied.
- How you can add value to the organization
- Critical Skills that you are bringing into the organization
- How Microsoft will help to contribute to your career and personal growth
Other most asked behavioral questions include:
- Tell me about yourself
- What are the three qualities that differentiate a Microsoft Employee?
- Tell me about a time when you took a risk at work?
- What is your career’s biggest achievement or failure so far?
- Tell me about a time when you faced internal conflicts and how you dealt with them?
- How do you make people agree with your point of view?
- Which Microsoft product do you like the most and why?
All these behavioral questions will help the interviewer critically examine you, your motivation factor, eagerness and curiosity, capability to contribute towards the growth-mindset culture, and more.
- Technical Interview Questions
The technical questions round is conducted using a STAR method. STAR represents Situation, Task, Action, and Results. In the technical questions, Situation and Task assess your understanding & scope, and Action and Result assess your coding and testing knowledge. However, other companies like Apple Interview Questions do not follow these methods.
The technical questions will comprise concepts like list trees, strings, dynamic programming, math & statistics, backtracking, graphs, sorting, and searching. The question will be based on Gas Stations, List Nodes, Majority elements, Binary Matrix, Distribute Candy, Product Subarray, Expression Match, Edit Distance, and more.
The most asked technical questions include:
- What do you understand by class and object in C++?
- What does operator overloading mean?
- How to allocate and deallocate memory in C++?
- Find the missing numbers in an array.
- What is a rich text format?
- How do you validate a given IP Address
- Solve the sudoku puzzle.
- Print the last ten lines of a big file or a string.
To answer the technical questions, use the following tips and tricks:
- Understand the question and then use the problem-solving technique to answer it.
- Analyze the question scenario and present a clear and concise solution for the problem.
- Answer the question within a specified time limit. Do not spend too much time on a single question.
Prepare for the Microsoft Interview Questions
- In-depth research about the Microsoft Company is vital. Know about the company’s history, its offerings & competitors, its current position in the market, last financial year’s revenues, market value, new technological advancements developed by the company, and more.
- Don’t restrict yourself to Microsoft, and expand your knowledge about the technological world, what other tech companies are doing, and potential growth areas.
- Implement Microsoft’s Core Competencies in your answers and elaborate on them using examples to create value.
- Do not give generic answers. Always add value to your answer using reasons and examples from your personal life experiences.
- Learn about all the relevant technical concepts which are likely to be asked in the interview.
Conclusion
Cracking a Microsoft Interview is no piece of cake. The questions are more complex than apple interview questions. But good preparation is what you need.
Why wait for the right timing, create your right time now!
Prepare mock answers for all the mentioned questions and prepare for the most unexpected question.
It’s time to pull up your socks, prepare for your interview, and get that dream job at Microsoft.
Apart from that, if you are interested to know about Microsoft Power Platform then visit our Technology category.
