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Ask HN: Interview with Microsoft tomorrow, how to prepare best?

by showsover on 4/24/18, 4:58 PM with 13 comments

This will be my first ever interview with a big company, even though I have almost 7 years of experience as a developer. This means that my experience with interviews is pretty down-to-earth, talking about what I've done in previous jobs and where my focus lies.

I switched to C# development last year, before I did PHP, JS, and ERP (Dynamics AX) development. This means that my professional experience is limited, even though I've done some after-hours C# development for a little less than two years.

Even though I haven't yet had a "big" interview, I am currently studying for a masters in CS which means that my knowledge of CS theory should be OK. The biggest problem is that I don't know what kind of interview this will be and how I should prepare best.

Any advice is much appreciated.

  • by DoreenMichele on 4/24/18, 9:46 PM

    Do your best to have a relaxing, low stress day today. Do your best to get a good night's sleep tonight.

    Last minute cramming won't make you more prepared. It will just stress you out.

    Nothing wrong with posting this question and reading any answers you get, but you either already have the qualifications for the job or you don't. For the interview, you should be concerned with presentation. Being calm, cool, collected and well rested is one of the best ways to put your best foot forward here.

  • by bsvalley on 4/25/18, 5:55 AM

    Carefully pick your clarifying questions. People always suggest to ask clarifying questions and I think it's often seen as a negative thing in real life (which is sad). Instead, repeat the problem out loud and write scenarios on the whiteboard right away. Show that you've already started working on the problem. If you ask too many questions up front you'll have to come up with a perfect solution to redeem yourself.

    Work your solution through various examples, cases, exceptions, etc. It will show that you understand the complexity of a problem by mentioning all the complex cases out loud. It's like saying "here is how you're trying to trap me with this problem, I can finger point the trap". Now it's all about translating that into a working function on the whiteboard. If you don't get the working function, at least they know you're smart.

  • by trykondev on 4/24/18, 11:47 PM

    They will probably stress this to you before you begin the interview, but in case they don't -- one of the things they really check for is that you to ask many clarifying questions.

    If you're given a problem, don't start solving it immediately -- instead, ask about what kind of input (integers or strings or something else), ask about limitations on the input (could be people's ages or student numbers), ask if there is a certain way they would like you to handle a specific edge case, and anything else you can think of.

    They want to see that you are going to try and fully understand a problem before starting to write a solution.

    You're welcome to reach out if you have any specific questions. Good luck!

  • by mindcrash on 4/25/18, 7:31 PM

    In case you are catching up on this thread before your interview:

    Here's an example of what they will ask you if when you apply for a job in the AI team:

    https://medium.com/acing-ai/microsoft-ai-interview-questions...

    Here are some example questions which they will ask in general (hint: you will definitely need some pretty deep insight in algorithms and data structures):

    https://www.interviewcake.com/microsoft-interview-questions

    Even more here:

    https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/microsoft-interview-preparatio...

    And here's a Quora question about how to prepare with a response from a SDET (Microsoft-speak for "Test Engineer"):

    https://www.quora.com/How-should-I-prepare-for-a-Microsoft-i...

    Hope this helps, and good luck with your interview!

  • by downrightmike on 4/24/18, 5:22 PM

    Relax,and breathe before you answer. Ask them questions about what they do, anything to get them talking like in a conversation and not an interview.

  • by jason_slack on 4/24/18, 9:43 PM

    Think about the questions you are asked. Answer calmly and honestly. If you are not sure, say so. Review coding interview problems.

  • by parvatzar on 4/25/18, 6:41 AM

    Appreciate if you can share your experience at the interview. Good Luck!

  • by albertLuth on 4/26/18, 10:07 AM

    how was it?

  • by arthurBrooks on 4/24/18, 9:47 PM

    You need to learn about the technical interview process. You need to prepare Emotionally, Mentally & Technically You need to learn what to do and what not to do during the interview. You need to learn how to solve algorithms on whiteboard. You need to learn how to propose and implement alternative solutions to a given problem. Checkout the following guide. It will teach you, about all the points http://www.codespaghetti.com/interview-success