I recent completed SDE2 loop and wanted to share my experience, takeways & tips from the interview process.

• System Design with Senior Engineer - Design a rate Limitter & general questions regarding server debugging like logs, monitoring etc

To be honest, I had not prepared this question, and I started the solution from scratch (it was not nowhere near the standard solution). I talked about, how I will implement this in gateway, basic data structures, client flow. The interviewer seems convinced with all my answers and thinking.

Verdict - Passed.
Takeway - Think out loud and talk your thinking process, and how actually it will work from inside. Its fine if you dont know about the solution (atleast for this level).

• Coding & Behavioral - I was asked a LC medium string question related to sorting a string based on custom order, and behvaioral questions related to projects.

Verdict - Passed
Takeaway - I think the question was little tricky, but with enough practice, one can easily solve it. For Behavioral, make sure you practice the standard questions and know the details about your project.

• Coding with Senior Engineer - Here, again a very easy question related to two pointers & arrays, but again the interview probed me on why it worked.

Verdict - Passed
Takeaway - When practicing LC, make sure you can visualize the algorithm and know why it works.

Recruiter reached out after 2 days with the final offer and compensation detials.

Overall, I felt the interviewers were nice and supportive that speaks a lout about the culture of MSFT.