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.