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Microsoft interview, from the AI-assisted round to the As Appropriate interview.

Updated · Sources at the end

Microsoft interviews software engineers in two to four conversations of up to an hour each, its careers site says, and in some 2026 loops one of them is different: a coding round where you are expected to use an AI assistant. About ten candidates from February to October 2026 met one, in CoreAI, GitHub and Software Engineer II loops in the US and India and in intern and new grad finals; one had VS Code with GitHub Copilot, another a recruiter who allowed any tool, including Claude, Claude Code and ChatGPT, and in both the other rounds stayed without AI. Not every loop has one. Microsoft's own rule is that candidates show their own skills without outside help unless it is explicitly permitted. The process usually ends with an As Appropriate interview with a senior manager, and Microsoft's US postings print the base pay range for each band.

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01

Who Microsoft hires

Microsoft hires software engineers across Azure, Windows, Microsoft 365, GitHub, Xbox, Bing and its AI teams, in Redmond and other US offices and in development centres from Dublin to Hyderabad and Vancouver. It employed about 223,000 people on 30 June 2026, down from 228,000 a year earlier, and on 6 July 2026 it cut about 4,800 roles, 2.1% of its workforce, saying they were not being replaced by AI. Hiring continues in AI and customer engineering: the Frontier Company announced on 2 July 2026 has 6,000 engineers embedded with customers. Since the end of February 2026, employees within 50 miles of a Microsoft office in the Seattle area work there three days a week, with other locations to follow.

Wondering whether your resume reads like someone Microsoft hires? Get a free resume review.

Microsoft describes one hiring process on its careers site, but what candidates meet depends on the level and on how they were found: a single role, a team, or a hiring event. These are the versions most people reading this will meet.

  • Track · Intern

    Software engineering intern

    Microsoft's student page describes an initial interview and, if selected, a final interview, all virtual, with behavioural and technical questions. Intern candidates in October 2026 report an online assessment, then two 45-minute interviews with a break. Microsoft takes intern applications from September to April, posts pay monthly ($5,690 to $11,210 a month for a Cambridge, Massachusetts security intern posted on 21 October 2026), and says to allow up to 90 days for a decision.

  • Track · New grad

    New grad Software Engineer (IC2)

    An online assessment, a screen of 30 to 60 minutes, then the final interviews, as candidates report it. One new grad in April 2026 had an AI-assisted technical screen. Graduates join what Microsoft calls the Aspire Experience, a two-year programme of development and learning.

  • Track · Software Engineer II and Senior

    Software Engineer II and Senior (IC3, IC4)

    Candidates report three to five interviews of about an hour, usually virtual and often on one day, with coding in each, system design from IC3, and the As Appropriate interview last. In several 2026 reports the later interviews were scheduled only after the earlier ones went well. A recruiter's labels for one senior loop in October 2026: Culture and Coding, Collaboration and Coding, Problem Solving and Coding.

  • Track · Principal

    Principal Software Engineer (IC5, IC6)

    Few reports. One Principal mobile candidate in January 2026 was asked to design a rate limiter and browser history in the screen and was rejected; a level 65 candidate in March 2026 had design rounds on Bing Ads, a payment gateway and activity analytics. Expect design to carry more weight than at IC3 and IC4. Principal postings can sit at IC5 or IC6, with different pay ranges.

  • Track · Forward Deployed

    Forward Deployed Engineer

    Microsoft announced on 2 July 2026 a $2.5 billion unit it calls the Frontier Company, with 6,000 engineers embedded with customers to build AI systems. On 20 October 2026 it posted a Software Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer role in Redmond at band IC2. Expect the customer and ambiguity rounds that Forward Deployed loops use elsewhere, on top of Microsoft's coding rounds.

  • Track · Hiring events

    Hiring events and the talent pool

    Some teams interview many candidates in a day and match them to teams afterwards. A recruiter email quoted in August 2026 said the feedback was positive but there was no immediate offer, and that it would now be available to other teams; another candidate was told results stay valid for six months. One candidate was picked up by a second team almost two months after the first one closed the role.

From the founder

I was Director of Engineering at King from 2019 to 2026, including after it became part of Microsoft Gaming in 2023, and ran hiring there. King used its own interview process, not the one on this page, with no As Appropriate interview. If your role is in Microsoft Gaming, ask your recruiter which process you'll get.
Xiaochen Guo, founder of Calibrd, Director of Engineering at King 2019 to 2026 · King's own interview process →
02

What is the Microsoft interview process?

Microsoft lists its stages as explore open jobs, apply, application review, interview, offer, pre-onboarding and hired, and leaves the rest to the recruiter, who shares the timeline after the interviews. The rounds below follow careers.microsoft.com where it says something, and candidate reports from 2025 and 2026 where it does not; those are marked as reported.

01
Application
Online, per role

Your resume is read against the posting. Each US posting states the band, the base pay range and that it stays open for at least five days. Some postings cover two bands, such as Software Engineer or Senior Software Engineer.

02
Online assessment
HackerRank, 75 to 90 minutes, as reported

Two problems in most reports, medium to hard, scored on test cases; one Bengaluru candidate had Codility. Microsoft's own pages do not describe an assessment. Partial passes are reported, such as one problem fully solved and none of the other.

Mostly interns, new grads and some IC2 and IC3 roles
03
Screen
30 to 60 minutes with an engineer, as reported

A coding problem, sometimes with a few behavioural questions. One new grad screen in April 2026 was AI-assisted.

Some roles
04
Interviews
Two to four conversations of up to an hour, on Teams, by phone or in person

Two to four is Microsoft's own count. Its technical page describes 45-minute rounds in a tool where you can run and compile your code, in the language you know best, with no pseudocode. Candidates at IC3 and above report a different count, three to five rounds, often on one day: coding in each, low-level and system design, and behavioural questions mixed in. In some 2026 loops one round is AI-assisted: CoreAI, GitHub and Software Engineer II loops and intern finals, as candidates report it.

05
As Appropriate (AA)
30 minutes to 2 hours, as reported

The last interview in many loops, with a senior manager, a director or the hiring manager, as candidates describe it. Mostly behavioural questions and deep dives into your projects; in three of five detailed 2025 and 2026 reports, a coding question as well, such as Find the Duplicate Number or a min-heap priority queue. Prep guides often say the AA interviewer has a veto, but candidates' posts do not, and Microsoft does not describe the round; one July 2026 candidate had good AA feedback and was still not selected. Prepare two projects you can explain end to end, and STAR(R) stories for conflict and failure.

Usually after the other rounds go well
06
Decision
The recruiter shares the next steps

Candidates in 2026 report anything from a decision in two days to weeks of silence, and rejections that appear only as a status change on the careers portal. Check the portal if you hear nothing.

07
Offer
From the recruiter

The base sits inside the posted range for the band; stock and bonus come on top. Ask the recruiter to set out the pay year by year.

03

Microsoft online assessment 2026: HackerRank problems and the AI round

2025 and 2026 candidate reports

The Microsoft online assessment for software engineers is usually two coding problems on HackerRank in 75 to 90 minutes, as candidates from 2025 and 2026 consistently describe it; one Bengaluru candidate in April 2026 had Codility instead, and one senior candidate in India had 135 minutes. Microsoft's own pages do not describe the assessment, so the details below come from candidates. Here is how each part works and how to approach it.

  • The two problems: Medium to hard, scored on hidden test cases. Reported problems include Asteroid Collision and a best meeting point variant, and one candidate found the problems on no LeetCode list. Get a correct solution to the first before optimising, and keep time for the second.
  • Partial scores: Candidates report moving forward, or not, with one problem fully solved and the other partly. A time limit exceeded on large tests costs points, so check the complexity against the input size before you submit.
  • An AI-assisted portion: One 2026 candidate described part of the assessment as AI-assisted, and said the assistant was there mainly to check syntax. Use only the assistant the platform gives you.
  • The rules: Microsoft encourages candidates to use AI to prepare, and says that during assessments and interviews they should show their own skills without outside help unless it is explicitly permitted. Treat any other tool, including a second screen, as off limits.
  • What happens next: Candidates report an interview invitation from three days to two weeks after the assessment. If the portal shows no change for weeks, the application may have closed without an email.

The format comes from candidates, and the mix differs by role, team and country. Your invitation email lists what you will get; it is the final word.

The rest of the loop depends on your role. Pick it, or paste the posting, and Calibrd predicts the rounds and questions you are likely to get at Microsoft.

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04

What Microsoft screens for

Microsoft says it looks for respect, integrity, accountability and growth mindset, and asks candidates to answer with STAR(R): situation, task, action, result and a reflection on what you learned. Its interview tips name growth mindset, inclusion, collaboration and customer obsession as topics to prepare. In 2025 and 2026 loops, these are the patterns the questions keep testing:

  • The reflection. Microsoft adds an R to STAR: end every story with what you learned and what you do differently now
  • Clarifying questions first. Microsoft's tips say to start by asking them and stating your assumptions, in coding and design alike
  • Code that runs. Microsoft asks for clean, concise and bug-free code in your strongest language, with no pseudocode, and its tool runs your code
  • Disagreement handled well. Conflict with a lead or an architect is the behavioural question 2026 candidates report most
  • Judgement with AI. Candidates report questions on how you use AI day to day and how you stop it hallucinating, and an AI round that watches how you prompt and check
  • Depth for the level. Rejected senior candidates most often report system design that was not deep enough
05

Microsoft interview questions

Candidate-reported themes

Behavioural questions come up in most rounds, not only in one, and the ones 2025 and 2026 candidates report most are about conflict with a lead or architect, a time things did not go your way, and how you use AI in your work. The questions here are reported by candidates; the technical themes follow the problems and design prompts they name.

Behavioural & motivation

  • Why Microsoft?Listening for: Specificity · Connection · Research
  • Tell me about a time you disagreed with your lead or an architect. What happened?Listening for: What was at stake · How they disagreed · Result and reflection
  • Tell me about a time things didn't go your way, or a time you failed.Listening for: Owns it · What they did next · The reflection
  • How are you using AI in your day-to-day work, and how do you stop it from hallucinating?Listening for: Concrete use · How they check it · Where they don't use it
  • Tell me about a critical customer issue or escalation you handled under pressure.Listening for: The issue and the impact · What they did · What changed after
  • Why not move within your current organisation?Listening for: An honest reason · Towards this role · What they bring
  • What was the most difficult technical challenge you faced?Listening for: Why it was hard · Their part · Result with a number
  • Tell me about yourself.Listening for: Frame · Evidence · Length

Technical

  • Practice: implement an LRU cache where every entry also expires after a time-to-live, and make it safe to use from several threads.Coding: classic problems with a twist: Problems 2025 and 2026 candidates name include LRU Cache in four reports (with expiry and concurrency, distributed, or told as a story), Meeting Rooms II in two, Min Stack then Max Stack then thread-safe, Merge Intervals, Rotting Oranges, Word Search, a logger rate limiter and Find the Duplicate Number. One candidate's assessment problems were not tagged on LeetCode at all. A practice question in that styleListening for: O(1) core · Expiry · Thread safety
  • Practice: with an AI assistant, extend an unfamiliar service with a new endpoint and fix the failing test it exposes, explaining each suggestion you accept or reject.The AI-assisted round: Reported in some 2026 loops, not all: CoreAI, GitHub and Software Engineer II loops in the US and India, and intern and new grad finals. In VS Code with GitHub Copilot in one report, and with any tool in another; tasks reported include a load balancer with two heaps, an object-oriented design done with AI, and debugging an unfamiliar codebase. Candidates say the interviewer watches how you prompt, check and debug, and one was told not to paste the whole question into the assistant. A practice question in that styleListening for: Plans before prompting · Checks the output · Explains choices
  • Practice: design the classes for a text editor with undo and redo, and extend it so several edits can be grouped into one undo step.Low-level and object-oriented design: Reported prompts: a parking lot and a music player like Spotify (two reports each), an undo and redo editor, a vending machine, a job scheduler, a Windows notification system done with AI, and, for operating systems roles, implementing the Linux cp command. A practice questionListening for: Clean model · Grouped edits · Real code
  • Practice: design a configuration service that thousands of services read at start-up and that pushes changes to them within seconds.System design, from IC3: Reported prompts: a configuration service (two reports), a URL shortener, a distributed key-value store, alert monitoring, restaurants within 10 km, a job scheduler, a notification system and, for Azure Storage, file system internals. One candidate thought Microsoft is moving towards team-specific interviews. A practice questionListening for: Requirements first · Reads and pushes · Safe changes

These are the reported themes, and your loop is role-specific. Paste the actual posting and Calibrd predicts the questions for that exact role and level. How the questions are predicted →

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06

Pay

Software Engineer (IC2)$85,400 to $168,100 base a year, posted
Software Engineer II (IC3)$102,100 to $202,200 base a year, posted
Senior Software Engineer (IC4)$119,800 to $234,700 base a year, posted
Principal (IC5)$142,800 to $274,800 base a year, posted
Principal (IC6)$165,600 to $296,400 base a year, posted

Base pay ranges from Microsoft's own US postings, read on 24 October 2026; postings in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City list a higher range, from $111,100 to $183,700 at IC2 up to $220,800 to $331,200 at IC6. Stock and bonus come on top. For total pay, Levels.fyi's crowdsourced averages, which use its own numbering rather than Microsoft's bands, were about $170K at level 59, $205K at 61, $233K at 63, $271K at 64 and $343K at 65 in the United States, with an overall median of $222K, read on 24 October 2026; samples above 65 are small.

07

How to prepare for a Microsoft interview

  1. Read Microsoft's hiring tips and technical interviewing pages, and the posting for your role: it names the band and the pay range.
  2. Ask your recruiter which rounds you will have and whether one is AI-assisted (only some 2026 loops have one), and for an assessment, which platform and how long.
  3. Practise two medium-to-hard problems in 75 minutes on HackerRank, in the language you know best, with code that runs.
  4. Drill the reported problems and their follow-ups: LRU cache with expiry and threads, Meeting Rooms II, Min Stack then Max Stack.
  5. Practise one task with an AI assistant in an unfamiliar codebase, explaining aloud why you accept or reject each suggestion.
  6. From IC3: practise one object-oriented design and one system design out loud, starting with clarifying questions and stating your assumptions.
  7. Write STAR(R) stories for conflict with a lead, a failure, a customer escalation and how you use AI, each ending on what you learned.
  8. Prepare two projects for the As Appropriate interview, deep enough to answer three follow-ups on every decision.
  9. Ask the recruiter for the offer year by year: base inside the posted range, the stock and how it vests, and the bonus.

This guide covers Microsoft's software engineering hiring, from interns to Principal, with notes on Forward Deployed Engineers and hiring events. The process wording, values, AI rule and pay ranges are quoted from Microsoft; the assessment, round contents and questions come from candidate reports and are marked so. Your recruiter's description of your loop is the final word. For management and leadership roles the loop is similar but the bar shifts to people, delivery and strategy, so pair it with the leadership interview prep hub. The bar for your exact role comes from the role-by-role guides, and the prep that actually transfers is spoken, so run a mock interview before the real one.

Also interviewing at Meta, Uber or DoorDash? Their guides follow the same format, from the first screen to the offer.

Knowing the questions isn’t the same as answering them out loud. Run a Microsoft mock: spoken answers, coached on the spot. Your first mock is free.

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08

FAQ & sources

What is Microsoft's interview process?

Microsoft lists its stages as explore open jobs, apply, application review, interview, offer, pre-onboarding and hired, and leaves the rest to the recruiter, who shares the timeline after the interviews. The stages, in order: Application; Online assessment; Screen; Interviews; As Appropriate (AA); Decision; Offer.

What does Microsoft look for in candidates?

Microsoft says it looks for respect, integrity, accountability and growth mindset, and asks candidates to answer with STAR(R): situation, task, action, result and a reflection on what you learned. The reflection; Clarifying questions first; Code that runs; Disagreement handled well.

What questions does Microsoft ask in interviews?

Behavioural questions come up in most rounds, not only in one, and the ones 2025 and 2026 candidates report most are about conflict with a lead or architect, a time things did not go your way, and how you use AI in your work. Technical themes: Coding: classic problems with a twist; The AI-assisted round; Low-level and object-oriented design; System design, from IC3.

What is on the Microsoft online assessment?

The Microsoft online assessment for software engineers is usually two coding problems on HackerRank in 75 to 90 minutes, as candidates from 2025 and 2026 consistently describe it; one Bengaluru candidate in April 2026 had Codility instead, and one senior candidate in India had 135 minutes. Microsoft's own pages do not describe the assessment, so the details below come from candidates. Covered on this page: The two problems; Partial scores; An AI-assisted portion; The rules; What happens next.

What is the As Appropriate interview at Microsoft?

The As Appropriate, or AA, interview is the last interview in many Microsoft loops, with a senior manager, a director or the hiring manager, as candidates describe it. It is mostly behavioural with deep dives into your projects, sometimes with a coding question, and candidates reach it only after the earlier rounds go well. Microsoft's careers pages do not describe it, and despite what prep guides say, candidates do not report a veto: a good AA interview is not a guaranteed offer.

How do I prepare for a Microsoft interview?

Read Microsoft's hiring tips and technical interviewing pages, and the posting for your role: it names the band and the pay range. Ask your recruiter which rounds you will have and whether one is AI-assisted (only some 2026 loops have one), and for an assessment, which platform and how long.

Interview processes change. This reflects widely-reported and sourced conditions as of 2026 — confirm specifics with your recruiter, and treat it as a map rather than a guarantee.

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