r/InterviewDB

Hey all, I'm an SDE (L59) at Microsoft going for an internal move to a different team (L59 still). The loop is two rounds, a technical one and an "AA" round, and I've already got a HackerRank invite (75 min, due in about a week). My hiring manager also said there might be a system design question.

I'm prepping in Python and don't want to grind 300 problems. For people who've done internal Microsoft interviews or similar HackerRank assessments:

1. What's the usual format? How many questions in 75 min, and how hard (easy/medium/mix)? Any MCQs or SQL?
2. Which patterns showed up most? I'm focusing on hash maps, two pointers, sliding window, intervals, BFS/DFS, heaps and stacks.
3. How were hidden tests and time limits handled? Is partial credit real?
4. For the system design, what level of depth is expected from an internal candidate? Is it more of a conversation, or a full whiteboard-style design?
5. Is the AA round mostly behavioral, or can it turn technical?
6. Is premium worth it for any of these platforms, or is free enough?

My plan is 4-5 problems a day on core patterns, one timed 75-min mock, and a few design mocks out loud. Does that sound right, or am I over- or under-preparing?

Appreciate any pointers, especially "don't waste time on X" advice. Thanks!

UPDATE:
The HackerRank round was cancelled. Proceeding to the next bit. Wish me luck. Thanks to all that commented.

Sharing a recent Ramp SWE interview experience from a candidate who went through the full process.

Initial recruiter screen was typical. He asked about motivations and interests and admin questions about the hiring process (sponsorship required, etc).

The first round was a technical coding interview. The question I got was the same as this one.

The next round was the onsite. The onsite included 4 interviews:

1. System design - The first half was a presentation on a project that you worked on yourself. I prepped a lot for the presentation, so I ended up talking for almost the entire first half and the interviewer didn’t have many follow-up questions. The second half was a relatively simple system design question about displaying the number of payments made on an admin dashboard used by a single executive. The interviewer then gradually expanded the requirements by increasing the frequency of updates and the number of users.

2. AI coding - The task was the same as described here. You’re given a repo. The interviewer is a software engineer acting as the PM, so they won’t answer technical implementation questions. The key is to have a back-and-forth with the interviewer to clarify the requirements and figure out the minimum product spec that solves the problem. From there, you use the coding agent to implement the solution.

3. Coding - I was asked this question.

4. Behavioral - Typical behavioral interview with "tell me about a time" questions. The interviewer seemed to value the ability to ship quickly and independently.

Sharing a recent Netflix SWE interview experience from a candidate who when through the full process.

R1 Phone Screen
Problem solving: Got this question. Only the third part was a little tricky; the other two parts were very easy.

HM: I don’t remember very clearly. I think they just asked about my experience and things like that. At the end, there was one BQ asking what my weaknesses were.

R2 VO
System Design: Design a job scheduler. I did very well in this round.

Problem solving: I was asked this question. I wasn’t very well prepared for this question, but I still managed to solve it in the end. At first I tried to solve it with a heap and got stuck for quite a while, so I didn’t have time to write tests or anything. The follow-up was multi-threading, and I verbally explained where I would add locks. The feedback I got at the end was that this round was a miss, though my multi-threading part was pretty good.

Partnership: This is basically a manager from another team that works with your team interviewing you. It was mainly BQ. I did just okay in this round as well. There were some questions I hadn’t prepared for and had to come up with answers on the spot, so I stumbled through them and didn’t answer very well.

There was a holiday break after the interviews. I followed up with HR afterward, and they told me I was moving on to the next round.

R3 VO
System Design: This was directly related to the team, designing one of their systems.
I thought I did okay, but when the feedback came back, I failed this round. The reason was that I didn’t complete the design within the allotted time. But I basically addressed all of the interviewer’s questions, and afterward I went through my proposal with AI and didn’t see any major problems with it either. The interviewer reminded me about the time at one point, so maybe I just didn’t manage my pacing well. The problem itself was very wide, and I probably spent too much time on areas that the interviewer didn’t consider that important.

HM: Met with the HM again, and this round was basically standard BQ. This time I was pretty satisfied with how I answered.

Overall, I feel like Netflix BQ puts a lot of emphasis on their culture, so read through it several times and avoid stepping on any landmines. Also, interview rounds with names like problem solving, [X] expertise, or partnership are essentially still coding, SD, or BQ, just with different names.

Yesterday I got the news that they were not moving forward, and I had a call with the recruiter to ask for feedback. I’m still pretty disappointed after going through all of this and making it to the final round without getting an offer.