Microsoft Software Engineer Phone Screen Questions
214+ questions from real Microsoft Software Engineer Phone Screen rounds, reported by candidates who interviewed there.
What does the Microsoft Phone Screen round test?
The Microsoft phone screen typically lasts 45-60 minutes and evaluates core Software Engineer fundamentals. Candidates should expect 1-2 algorithmic problems, basic system design discussion at senior levels, and questions about relevant experience. The goal is to confirm technical competence before bringing candidates onsite.
Top Topics in This Round
Microsoft Software Engineer Phone Screen Questions
Microsoft Interview Experience for SDE
The interview process consisted of multiple rounds and was both challenging and rewarding. Round 1: Technical Phone Screen The first round was a technical phone screen conducted by an experienced engineer from...
Microsoft Phone Interview
Given an input string of size 2n, consisting of letter\'s "a" and "b" only, generate all the different permutation. Input string will always be even size and the number of...
Microsoft Phone Interview
Given a text T and a word W, find all occurrences of permutations of W in T. Example: W = abc; T = dacbeacfabc. W appears in T twice: at...
Microsoft Phone Interview
One hour interview: i) 10 mins introduction ii) 15-20 mins for coding question : Inorder traversal iterative method. iii) 30 min for system design : Design twitter
Microsoft Phone Interview
Design an API for callbackFunction(int t, Task scheduledTask); The idea was to design a basic function, which would trigger the callback function after time t sec. Any solutions appreciated.
What to expect in Microsoft Software Engineer II (IC3) Phone Screen round
Hey everyone, I have a 30-minute phone screen with Microsoft coming up and the invite only says “screening”. No other details given. People who’ve done this recently, what should I expect in this roun
[Microsoft] Core AI SDE2 Engineering Manager Pre-screen Expectations?
Hey everyone, I have an upcoming initial prescreen with an EM for the Microsoft Core AI Org (SDE 2). Does anyone have recent experience with this specific org? Trying to figure out what I should expec
Microsoft | L62 | Brain cooked
Previous company : Another FAANG Location : India Reason for change : Bad team, bad culture Interview Process feedback: My interviews were expected to happen in Feb 2024 start but it took them 2...
Microsoft SDE I/II Virtual Onsite
I had 4 rounds of interviews consisting of questions on Algorithms Round 1: Reverse words in a string. (No additional space should be used) Round 2: Given a string and the base,...
Microsoft | Phone/On-Site | New Grad - Offer (AI Platform)
I\'ve had a super hard time getting through interviews, so very fortunate that this interview went my way. Phone Chat Before the virtual on-site, I had a quick chat with a...
Microsoft Phone Assessment
I was contacted by the HR multiple times for a Software Engineer position at Microsoft Azure, so I took the interview with really less preparation. It was a telephonic round with...
Microsoft | SDE 2 | Hyderabad
Hello Eveyone, I had video round(MS Teams) few days back. Round 1: Longest Increasing Subsequence Task Sceduling based on dependency (simillar to this) Round 2: Linked List Sum pair...
Microsoft SDE
This position is for the Artificial Intelligence and Research team in Microsoft. The interview process started with a phone screening with the Manager: \t- Experiences and interests. Technical phone interview: \t- Some behavioral questions. \t-...
Microsoft SSE Phone Screen Interview Experience and Rejected Outcome
Got approached by recruiter. I have 7 yoe. Did OA OA consisted of 2 problems. One was DP (Similar to jump game) and Another one was LC Hard (Similar to Reroot DP problems). 80% of the test cases passe
MSFT IC2 phone screen next week, what to expect?
Anyone recently interviewed with them? How is your experience? Would appreciate any advice.
MSFT & Google Phone Screen in 15 Days (SWE2) – Need LeetCode + System Design Strategy (OPT crunch time)
Hi everyone, I have phone screening rounds coming up with Microsoft and Google (SWE2) in about 15 days. I’ve been doing LeetCode consistently for the past 3 months. I’m comfortable with most data stru
How are Microsoft Mobile Engineer interviews?
What to expect in the 45min Phone screening interview? How to best prepare for it
Microsoft IC2 Phone Screen Process
Hi folks, I have an upcoming 45 min assessment with a SSWE for a Microsoft IC2 position (Canada). My assumption is that it will be some portion of behavioral questions and a leetcode problem. I have b
Microsoft AI Backend Developer Phone Interview Experience and Unique Tree-Based Coding Challenge
I interviewed a backend programmer for Copilot. It seemed like they poached him from another company. 60 minutes. The conversation with the guy went well. But when it came to the coding challenge, I g
Current Company -> AWS YOE -> 3 Applied via referral PreScreening Round -> Number of Island and a follow up regarding the area of island and some questions around concurrency, http ,...
What to Expect in the Microsoft Phone Screen Round
The Microsoft Software Engineer Phone Screen round has a specific calibration purpose distinct from other rounds in the loop. Across 214+ verified reports on LeakCode for this exact round type, the consistent expectations: clear scoping of the problem before diving into a solution, explicit reasoning about complexity, structured handling of edge cases, and the ability to discuss trade-offs between two reasonable approaches.
Reports tagged with the Phone Screen round at Microsoft show recurring patterns in difficulty and topic distribution. The Phone Screen round is typically 45-60 minutes; the interviewer is calibrated against a specific rubric. The discriminator between candidates who advance and candidates who do not is rarely the final correctness of the answer. It is the path: did you clarify, did you verbalize your approach, did you handle edge cases, and did you communicate throughout.
How To Prepare for This Specific Round
Filter the questions below to the most recent reports (past 6-12 months). Questions tagged for this exact round type from this exact company at this exact role level are the highest-signal data available. Older reports may reference questions that have since rotated out of the company's pool.
Practice 4-6 representative problems from this set under timed conditions. The goal is not memorization (companies rotate questions); the goal is to internalize the patterns the interviewer typically reaches for and the depth of follow-up to expect. Reports on LeakCode also tag the typical follow-up depth at this round type, which is the discriminating signal between hire and no-hire calibration.
Phone Screen Round Timing and Format
The Phone Screen round at Microsoft typically runs 45-60 minutes. Use the first 2-3 minutes to clarify requirements; you should never start coding or designing without verifying the input/output format, constraints, and edge cases out loud. Use the next 5-7 minutes to verbalize your approach before writing any code. The middle 20-30 minutes are implementation. Reserve the final 10 minutes for testing with concrete examples and discussing optimization or trade-offs.
Time budget discipline is one of the most reliable senior-vs-junior discriminators in this round. Strong candidates verbalize where they are in their budget out loud ("I've used about 20 minutes, I have 15 minutes left for testing and one optimization"). This signals engineering maturity to the interviewer and creates positive feedback they can capture in writing.
Common Failure Modes in This Round
Reports tagged "no hire" at Microsoft Software Engineer Phone Screen commonly cite: coding silently without verbalizing approach, jumping to implementation before clarifying requirements, missing edge cases (empty input, single element, very large input), producing working code that the candidate cannot refactor when asked, and failing to test their solution with concrete examples before declaring done.
The single most predictive failure mode in 2025-2026 reports: not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers at all FAANG companies are explicitly trained to weight this dimension. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's notes.
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