Microsoft

Microsoft's process is consistent across its India offices and mostly virtual. From application to offer it usually takes three to six weeks, faster for campus hiring.

1. Application and resume screen

Apply on the Microsoft careers site, through a campus drive or through a referral from a current employee. Recruiters shortlist on academics, relevant projects and experience, and for lateral hires on depth in the technologies the team works with.

2. Online coding assessment

Software engineering candidates receive an online assessment on a platform such as Codility with two or three problems to solve in about 90 minutes. Campus drives may also include an aptitude section. Product management, support and sales candidates have a recruiter or hiring manager screen instead.

3. Recruiter or technical phone screen

A 30 to 45 minute conversation. For engineers this often includes a coding problem on a shared editor; for other roles it covers motivation, background and role fit.

4. Virtual interview loop

Three or four interviews of 45 to 60 minutes, usually on one day, with engineers and managers from the hiring team. Each mixes coding or role-specific problems with behavioural questions, and at least one round focuses on design.

5. As-appropriate round

If the loop goes well, a senior leader such as a hiring manager or director conducts a final interview. It covers your experience, judgement, motivation and fit with Microsoft's culture, and effectively confirms the hire.

6. Offer

Feedback is consolidated and the recruiter shares an offer typically within one to two weeks. Microsoft India compensation includes base pay, an annual bonus, stock awards and strong benefits.

The rounds below describe a Software Engineer loop at the India Development Center. Product management, support and sales roles keep a similar number of rounds with case, scenario and role-play interviews in place of coding.

Round 1: Online coding assessment

About 90 minutes on an online platform, taken remotely. Two or three algorithmic problems of easy to medium difficulty, judged on correctness and efficiency across hidden test cases.

• Arrays, strings and hash maps
• Two pointers, sliding window and prefix sums
• Trees and basic graph traversal

Round 2: Coding and problem solving

A 60 minute video interview with a software engineer. One or two problems solved live in a shared editor. Interviewers look for how you clarify requirements, consider edge cases, write clean code and test it, and they will ask you to improve complexity.

• Dynamic programming on sequences
• Graph problems such as connected components or topological sort
• Design a data structure with specific time bounds

Round 3: Design

60 minutes with a senior engineer. Freshers get object-oriented and low-level design; experienced candidates get system design on problems drawn from Microsoft's products, such as collaboration, storage or cloud services. Trade-offs, scalability and reliability matter more than a single right answer.

• Design a file-sharing service like OneDrive
• Design a real-time collaborative document editor
• Design the classes for a calendar and meeting scheduler

Round 4: Coding plus behavioural

60 minutes with an engineer or manager. A shorter coding problem combined with questions about your projects, teamwork, handling feedback and learning from mistakes, reflecting Microsoft's focus on a growth mindset.

• A time you received difficult feedback and what you changed
• A project where requirements changed midway
• How you helped a teammate succeed

Round 5: As-appropriate interview

45 to 60 minutes with a senior manager or director. A broader discussion of your experience, motivation for Microsoft, judgement on ambiguous problems and long-term interests, sometimes with a light technical or design question.

• Why Microsoft and why this team?
• The most impactful thing you have built and why it mattered
• How you would approach your first ninety days