Microsoft SDE hiring runs on an interview process — an online assessment, sometimes a recruiter or technical phone screen, then a loop of virtual (or onsite) rounds mixing DSA, LLD, HLD, and an Applications Approval (AA) round. The exact rounds vary by role level (New Grad/L60 vs SDE-2/L61 and above), the specific org (Azure, Windows, core engine teams, and so on), and sometimes the interviewer — the outline below is the pattern that shows up most consistently across recent (2025) candidate reports.
Typical Microsoft SDE interview process
| Stage | What it tests | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| Online Assessment | 1–2 coding problems (medium to hard range), sometimes with a combinatorics or graph-theory question mixed in | 75–90 min |
| Technical Screen (sometimes skipped) | 1 coding question plus a resume/background discussion | 30–45 min |
| Loop rounds (3–5) | DSA, LLD, and — from SDE-2 upward — a dedicated HLD/system-design round | 45–75 min each |
| AA Round / Hiring Manager | Role deep-dive, behavioral questions, and often a technical follow-up (debugging, a design discussion, or a coding recap) | 30–120 min |
LLD and HLD rounds show up even for some New Grad loops, not just SDE-2 and above — one recent report had a hiring-manager round fold in a full LLD prompt for an entry-level candidate. See the LLD Interview Questions and System Design Interview Questions sections to prepare for these directly.
Process varies by team, level and loop. Backend and core-engine teams (like the Core SQL Database Engine team) lean harder on concurrency and low-level design; product teams lean more toward user-facing LLD prompts. Treat this table as the common pattern, not a guarantee of your exact loop.
Prepare each track on its own terms: DSA, LLD, System Design (HLD), and Behavioral & Culture-Fit.