Here I share the experience of my two frds who give d interview of Microsoft
Written Round: This is a completely technical aptitude.There were two sections, one section had 10 questions all multiple choice type, with negative marking +3,-2. The questions were on pointers, arrays,references, basic operator precedences and other basics like preorder postorder, OS questions.Second section is the old Microsoft format:-
Programming Questions – we were asked to do gcd(a,b) in O(log(ab)) . · Test cases – Write test cases for a swiping pad · Design Problem - Design a grocery store billing system , specify the data structures that can be used there was also other details including some discounts, taxes, barcodes etc (My friend used 4 approaches, with each approach having a data structure for each task.One had queue and tree, one had stack and skip lists, the most efficient one had tries and others. Also make sure you explain your algorithms working in detail.
Round 1(technical): His round is mostly a tech interview with a couple of HR questions here and there.Most of the questions required writing algorithms. Here are some sample questions: · “How was the aptitude? You dont seem to happy about it” · Given two sorted linked lists, merge them to a single sorted list. They will ask for recursive code and also to explain it with some sample inputs. · Given an array of just two numbers (Ex: 1′s and 0′s), sort them in an efficient way, (some variations include 3 numbers), also you are required to do it in O(n) solution. · Write a recursive code to find loop in a singlely link list.
This round is easy compared to some of the other rounds. Only a couple questions 4-5 not more here.
Round 2: This was longest and toughest round so far as i have heard, most of he people who attended said it was hard. It is also a pure technical round. First after all the introduction, they ask you about the toughest project you have done (Thinking about it me friend said all were easy dont say that :D). My friend told him about his TGMC(the great mind challenge ibm), and questions were asked in detail, as detailed as you can get. Basically you say something he changes it and asks a questions(how can you improve that you _ _ stuff like that). My friend was doing a web related project and they asked him this: given a list of URL’s of the type (URL,type,content) write a program to list out which are the porn site and which are not porn(my friend was like sites with XXX continuously is porn he asked more details, seemed like he knew a lot of porn sites). They kept pointing out this and that while your writing your code and ask you to make certain parted more optimized. For example my friend used 4 flags for the above code he wanted it done with the maximum use of 2 flags and also he want graphs concept to be used.My friend took a good 1 and a half hours for his part.Then you have to write test cases for the code you have written,(wrote around 30 questions). Then you have to tick which test cases your code handles properly. Then modify the code again to make it work for the remaining cases. The last question was “How to test whether or not a server is good ”( consistency, scalability....). This is the longest and tuffest round of all. Basically be EXTRA through about a single project.
Round 3: Again this is also a tech round. Questions asked to my friend were:
Q1: Write test cases to perform “pair-wise” reverse a linked list.. (Sample Inp 3->4->5->6->7->8, Output 7->8->5->6->3->4. )
Q2: Write code for the same problem that satisfies all the above testcase.
Q3. Given a random function rand(n) , how ll u test that it returns exactly the random numbers between 1 to n? Used some probability laws and the interviewer help here to solve the problem. The round took about an hour
HR(they say its HR its not!!): This was not HR. They ask a lot of questions again, no pen or pencil face to face tech chat. You have to name two subjects you like the most and they ask you questions from it. (I am going to expalin in direct speech)
My friends said Computer organization and design and datastructures. Lot of questions about cache, virtual memory, write back and write through.In datastructures about hash table, arrays listed list, advantages and dis advantages of hash table.
Also he asked a simple program to wrap it all up:” Given an array of numbers each number is repeated twice, find the only number that is not repeated ”. My friend started with O(n^2) solution, moved on with O(nlogn)(like 5 solutions).He still wanted better and gave clues (he wanted me to use sign bitsJ ).After about 30 minutes it was over
If you are selected they call you to a room and give you a FREE t-SHIRT AND A CAP :o .
Most important point..In all the rounds they finally asked ” Do u have any questions ” , Ask good questions here MY friend asked about stuff relating to the companies technology , number of employees, a couple of things about the c compiler, java etc.
Good Luck
Written Round: This is a completely technical aptitude.There were two sections, one section had 10 questions all multiple choice type, with negative marking +3,-2. The questions were on pointers, arrays,references, basic operator precedences and other basics like preorder postorder, OS questions.Second section is the old Microsoft format:-
Programming Questions – we were asked to do gcd(a,b) in O(log(ab)) . · Test cases – Write test cases for a swiping pad · Design Problem - Design a grocery store billing system , specify the data structures that can be used there was also other details including some discounts, taxes, barcodes etc (My friend used 4 approaches, with each approach having a data structure for each task.One had queue and tree, one had stack and skip lists, the most efficient one had tries and others. Also make sure you explain your algorithms working in detail.
Round 1(technical): His round is mostly a tech interview with a couple of HR questions here and there.Most of the questions required writing algorithms. Here are some sample questions: · “How was the aptitude? You dont seem to happy about it” · Given two sorted linked lists, merge them to a single sorted list. They will ask for recursive code and also to explain it with some sample inputs. · Given an array of just two numbers (Ex: 1′s and 0′s), sort them in an efficient way, (some variations include 3 numbers), also you are required to do it in O(n) solution. · Write a recursive code to find loop in a singlely link list.
This round is easy compared to some of the other rounds. Only a couple questions 4-5 not more here.
Round 2: This was longest and toughest round so far as i have heard, most of he people who attended said it was hard. It is also a pure technical round. First after all the introduction, they ask you about the toughest project you have done (Thinking about it me friend said all were easy dont say that :D). My friend told him about his TGMC(the great mind challenge ibm), and questions were asked in detail, as detailed as you can get. Basically you say something he changes it and asks a questions(how can you improve that you _ _ stuff like that). My friend was doing a web related project and they asked him this: given a list of URL’s of the type (URL,type,content) write a program to list out which are the porn site and which are not porn(my friend was like sites with XXX continuously is porn he asked more details, seemed like he knew a lot of porn sites). They kept pointing out this and that while your writing your code and ask you to make certain parted more optimized. For example my friend used 4 flags for the above code he wanted it done with the maximum use of 2 flags and also he want graphs concept to be used.My friend took a good 1 and a half hours for his part.Then you have to write test cases for the code you have written,(wrote around 30 questions). Then you have to tick which test cases your code handles properly. Then modify the code again to make it work for the remaining cases. The last question was “How to test whether or not a server is good ”( consistency, scalability....). This is the longest and tuffest round of all. Basically be EXTRA through about a single project.
Round 3: Again this is also a tech round. Questions asked to my friend were:
Q1: Write test cases to perform “pair-wise” reverse a linked list.. (Sample Inp 3->4->5->6->7->8, Output 7->8->5->6->3->4. )
Q2: Write code for the same problem that satisfies all the above testcase.
Q3. Given a random function rand(n) , how ll u test that it returns exactly the random numbers between 1 to n? Used some probability laws and the interviewer help here to solve the problem. The round took about an hour
HR(they say its HR its not!!): This was not HR. They ask a lot of questions again, no pen or pencil face to face tech chat. You have to name two subjects you like the most and they ask you questions from it. (I am going to expalin in direct speech)
My friends said Computer organization and design and datastructures. Lot of questions about cache, virtual memory, write back and write through.In datastructures about hash table, arrays listed list, advantages and dis advantages of hash table.
Also he asked a simple program to wrap it all up:” Given an array of numbers each number is repeated twice, find the only number that is not repeated ”. My friend started with O(n^2) solution, moved on with O(nlogn)(like 5 solutions).He still wanted better and gave clues (he wanted me to use sign bitsJ ).After about 30 minutes it was over
If you are selected they call you to a room and give you a FREE t-SHIRT AND A CAP :o .
Most important point..In all the rounds they finally asked ” Do u have any questions ” , Ask good questions here MY friend asked about stuff relating to the companies technology , number of employees, a couple of things about the c compiler, java etc.
Good Luck
