An Interview Experience with Microsoft R&D

One of my close friend recently joined Microsoft R&D as a “Senior SDE (Software Development Engineer). He was very excited as it’s his dream place to work and he also wants to share his interview experience with Microsoft R&D. Here is the overall process in his own words.

I have got a call from Microsoft division and told me that they have got my profile from a job portal and wanted to check with me if I am looking for job change.

I said yes to proceed ahead. 3 days later I got a call from MS staff and I need to go through a general discussion. A telephonic interview scheduled and it went on for 45 Min. Discussed about my experience, projects, technology, current role etc.

Later 3 days I was informed that my profile got shortlisted and scheduled a face to face interview.

I have reached MS OFFICE on time, given my profile, got Microsoft visitor Badge and was being waiting for the interview call.

Someone from staffing team came to me and took me to the Interviewer cabin.

He introduced to me to the Interviewer.

Day – 1

Technical Interview – 1

Interviewer: This is XXXXX, how are you doing?

Me: I am very fine and actually excited as this is the first time and I am giving my interview

Interviewer: That’s ok, you just relax we’ll start with a general discussion. Can you tell me about your experience?

Me: Have explained how I have been handling projects, how good I am in coding, designing and troubleshooting and given brief details about my current role and previous experience.

“He didn’t interrupt me till I finish this”.

Interviewer: What are you more interested in? Coding, designing or troubleshooting? You can choose anything where you feel more comfortable……

Me: Well, I am good in database development and MSBI stack.

Interviewer: Have you ever tried to know the SQL Server architecture?

Me: Yes! I have an idea on component level architecture.

Interviewer: Ohh that’s a good to know, can you tell me why a SQL developer or any DB developer should know the architecture? Means what is the use in getting into architecture details?

Me: I have given the answer why a sql developer or a DBA know architecture and taken an example. “A simple requirement comes and a SQL Developer needs to write a stored procedure”, I have explained how a person who understand architecture deals the requirement.

Interviewer: What is latch Wait?

Me: Answered!

Interviewer: What is column store index? Have you ever used it?

Me: Explained!

Interviewer: What is the difference between Delete and Truncate commands?

Me: I have given basic differences….

Interviewer: Is Delete and Truncate are DDL or DML?

Me: Delete is DML and TRUNCATE is DDL

Interviewer: Why TRUNCATE DDL?

Me: Given the answer

Interviewer: In application one of the page is giving timeout error, what is your approach to resolve this?

Me: I answered by giving detailed information on how to find the actual problem, have to quickly check and confirm with which layer the problem is with: Application, Webservice, Database services and we can provide resolution based on the problem.

Interviewer: Ok, you confirmed that Application and webservice are fine and the problem is with database server. Now what is your approach?

Me: Quickly check few primary parameters “Services”, “Memory”, “CPU”, “Disk”, “Network”, “Long Running Queries” using DMV’s, Performance monitor, performance counters, profiler trace or if you are using any third party tools.

Interviewer: Ok, all parameters are fine except there is a procedure which is causing this problem. This procedure was running fine till last day but it suddenly dropping the elapsed time. What are the possible reasons?

Me: A data feed might happen which causes a huge fragmentation, or nightly index maintenance might failed, statistics might be outdated, other process might be blocking

Interviewer: Ok, all these parameters are fine, no data feed happened, no maintenance failed, no blocking and statistics are also fine. What else might be the reason?

Me: May be due to a bad parameter sniffing

Interviewer: What is bad parameter sniffing?

Me: Explained what the bad parameter sniffing is

Interviewer: What is your approach incase of bad parameter sniffing?

Me: Answered the question

Interviewer: Ok, it’s not because of parameter sniffing, what else might be causing the slow running?

Me: Explained scenarios from my past experience. There are few “SET” options also might cause the sudden slow down issues.

Interviewer: All required SET options are already there, are there any other reasons you see?

Me: ……!!! No I am not getting any other clue

Interviewer: That’s ok no problem

Interviewer: Can you draw SQL Server Architecture?

Me: Have drawn a diagram and explained each component

Interviewer: You joined a new team. There are a lot of deadlocks in that application and you are asked to provide a resolution. What is your approach?

Continue reading →