Microsoft SDE-2 — rounds anchored to my own past projects

## Background
Rather than applying through the standard portal, I reached out directly to recruiters and leaned on referrals — that route worked better for getting noticed.

## Online coding round
On HackerRank, two problems in 90 minutes. Clearing it came down to passing as many test cases as possible to hit the internal cutoff score.

## Round-by-round

### Round 1
Medium-level problems. The interviewer expected a fully optimised solution rather than brute force; once I had it, the conversation moved to space complexity and then my past projects.

### Round 2 — Low-level design
Instead of a standalone design prompt, the interviewer asked me to walk through class diagrams and relationships based directly on one of my own past projects.

### Round 3 — System design / scaling
Also anchored to my own project work, but focused on scalability concepts and the **CAP theorem**, and how those applied to what I'd built.

### Round 4 — Behavioural
Workplace scenarios — navigating conflicts with a manager or colleague. One question: looking back, what could you have done differently to convince your manager? I made sure to have real, specific stories ready rather than answering in the abstract.

## Verdict
**Selected.**