Microsoft · Software engineer · SDE / SDE II
Technical Phone Screen (Coding)
A ~30-45 min shared-editor session over Teams
What this round is judged on
- Correctness · working solution that passes cases
- Clean coding · readable, well-structured code
- Communication · talking through the approach
- Fundamentals · solid grasp of core data structures
Where this round sits
Microsoft’s published process. Lime marks the stage this round runs.
- 01Recruiter / HM screen
- 02Online assessment (Codility) and/or technical phone screenthis round
- 03Onsite loop
- 04As Appropriate (AA) round
- 05Debrief / hiring committee
What happens in each stage›
- Recruiter / HM screen
- 20-30 min phone or Teams call on background, motivation, team fit, and level calibration; light or no technical content.
- Online assessment (Codility) and/or technical phone screen
- 60-90 min auto-graded coding assessment (2-4 problems) and/or a ~30-45 min shared-editor coding screen with 1-2 easy-to-medium problems.
- Onsite loop
- Four to five back-to-back ~1-hour interviews: 3-4 coding rounds plus 1-2 design rounds (design standard at SDE II and above), with behavioral questions woven throughout.
- As Appropriate (AA) round
- Final interview with a senior leader (often a skip-level) to close doubts and sell the candidate; common but not universal, varies by org, level, and region.
- Debrief / hiring committee
- Interviewers submit written hire/no-hire feedback; a debrief reconciles it, then offer and negotiation.
Sources
Built from what Microsoft publishes about its own process and from real interview data. No leaked question lists. The questions you get are generated against your own resume, so they are not from anyone else's interview.
Overall hiring stages and official interview-prep framing.
Official mission statement and stated corporate values used in the behavioral round.
SDE ladder and internal level codes (SDE 59, SDE II 61, Senior SDE ~63/64, Principal up to 67).
Algorithm topic priorities and difficulty framing for the coding rounds; 403'd the bot but human-readable.
Sources last checked . Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.
Other Microsoft rounds
- Recruiter / Hiring-Manager Screen
Conversational phone or Teams call
- Behavioral / Values (Growth Mindset)
A STAR-driven conversation, often with your resume in hand, that also appears woven into coding rounds
- Design Round (OOD / System Design)
A spoken, whiteboard-style discussion with no coding
- Onsite Coding Loop
A ~45-60 min live pair-programming round in a shared editor