Microsoft | L62 | Hyderabad | January 2025 [Reject]

Hey everyone, hope you're doing well!
I currently work as an SDE-2 at Amazon and recently had the opportunity to interview with Microsoft for an SDE-2 backend role(L62). I got the referral through a friend.
Round 1(DSA):

• In depth Project discussion

• Given {L1, L2,... R1, R2,...}-> arrange them to {L1, R1, L2, R2,....}.

  • Brute force was acceptable O(n*n)

• Given a linked list of even size, the task is to return the maximum sum of twins. A twin sum is defined as list(i) + list(n-1-i).

  • I initially proposed reversing the second half of the list, but modifications to the list were not allowed. The hint was to use extra space. I suggested an approach using two pointers and space of size n/2. First, use the two pointers to reach the middle of the list. While moving, store the elements in an array of size n/2. Then, move the slow pointer towards the end, adding the values from the array as you go along, calculating the twin sums.

Verdict: Hire

Round 2(LLD):
The problem was to implement an image-serving library that would be integrated with various Microsoft products. The library should accept an HTTP URL for an image and handle the process of downloading it. Initially, the problem statement seemed vague and simple, but as we discussed further, we explored several important aspects, including:

• Resiliency (e.g., retries and different retry strategies)
• Optimizations (e.g., caching strategies, various cache eviction policies; I proposed a custom eviction policy)
• Input-output modeling
• Design patterns
• Naming conventions

The interviewer was very supportive
Verdict: Hire

Round 3(HLD+Manager):
This round was conducted by a Principal Manager:

1. We had an in-depth discussion about my current roles and responsibilities, as well as my ongoing projects. He didn’t seem convinced by the projects, though I’m not sure why.
2. He asked me to design a notification system, separating critical and non-critical notifications.
3. During the HLD discussion, he asked about rate-limiting algorithms, but I could only recall the Token Bucket algorithm.

Overall, I thought the HLD went well, and I believe the projects might have been the reason for not moving forward.

Verdict: No Hire

Overall Verdict: No Hire

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