Microsoft SDE-2 Frontend — DSA, JS fundamentals and a collaborative editor design

## Background
A recruiter reached out on **LinkedIn** about a Frontend-focused SDE-2 opening. I have 4+ years of experience.

## Online assessment
A HackerRank assessment with two DSA problems, both medium-to-hard.

## Hiring drive
Shortlisted for a Saturday drive with all four rounds packed into a single day.

## Round-by-round

### Round 1 — DSA & JavaScript
Two parts. The DSA portion was a medium **graph** problem. The JavaScript portion involved working with **Date** objects to build a calendar view.

### Round 2 — Frontend fundamentals
Fast-moving: rapid-fire conceptual questions, output-based questions (predicting what a snippet prints), and a debugging exercise finding the issue without a debugger. I was also asked to build a custom hook to handle a dynamic form.

### Round 3 — System design
A high-level design discussion on building a **collaborative editor** — a real-time, multi-user document tool. The focus was heavily on trade-offs between architectural approaches rather than one "correct" design.

### Round 4 — Behavioural & technical
With a Group Engineering Manager. Career aspirations on the behavioural side; on the technical side, the architecture of a file uploader.

## Verdict
**Selected** — offer extended at the **L62** level.