This timeMicrosoft corporationThere were four rounds of virtual onsite, and the overall difficulty was not very high, but the distribution was quite representative: the first round was pure BQ, the second and third rounds were coding, and the last round was OOD system design. Each round has its own focus, and I encountered some stuck points in the middle of the round. Fortunately, Programhelp's remote voice assistance helped me quickly adjust my thinking, so my rhythm was not disrupted, and I eventually passed the four rounds without any problems. Here is a detailed description of the whole process.
Round 1: Pure BQ
This round was the purely behavioral side of things, basically asking questions around Microsoft's core values. Frequently asked questions like:
- "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with your teammate, how did you solve it?"
- "Describe a situation where you had to learn something quickly in order to complete a task."
At the beginning, I answered too fast-paced, a little bit did not lay out the scene. When the interviewer pressed for details, I blanked out for a moment, but fortunately the voice assistant immediately reminded me to go back to the STAR methodology: First, talk about the context and challenges, then what you did, and finally fall back to the results. The logic flowed much better after the adjustment.
Round 2: Coding + Follow-up
This round of coding was of medium difficulty, with a mix of string and array operations, similar to Leetcode's medium difficulty.
The initial version I wrote ran, but the complexity was on the high side, and the interviewer immediately followed up with, "Can it be optimized if the input size is larger?"
I was stuck in this moment for about 10 seconds, and the voice assistant prompted me to consider sliding window. after hearing the keyword, I immediately changed my mind and rewrote a version of the O(n) solution, and the interviewer was very satisfied with the optimization process.
There's a little follow-up at the end to deal with boundary cases. I almost forgot the null check, good thing the voice reminder was in place or I might have lost points.
Round 3: System design
This round is not a large scale system design, but closer to OOD + functional design. The topic is to design a small calendar/reservation system.
I started writing the class and went straight to defining the data structures, only to be interrupted with, "Can you draw the overall module first?"
Here I was obviously a bit panicked, but fortunately the voice assistants reminded me to start with the analysis of needs + core functionality points listed, then split into modules, and finally design classes. After reorganizing according to this rhythm, the logic was immediately smooth, and the interviewer nodded his head in recognition.
Round 4: Hybrid (Coding + OOD)
The last round was sort of a finale, with coding in the first half and OOD in the second.
The Coding section was a bit tricky, I didn't consider the corner case in my first writeup, and I was hanging on to a sample test. The voice assistant warned me about negative numbers and empty arrays, so I quickly added an if-check and the test passed.
The OOD section continued to test me on how to extend an existing system. I got bogged down in too many details and strayed from the question. My voice assistant reminded me, "Go back to scalability and extensibility", I immediately stopped and converged my answer to the general direction, and finally ended up with a more complete answer.
Overall feeling of the interview
The difficulty with the Microsoft VO is that All-around inspection:
- BQ See if you can tell the story;
- Coding Examines code skills + optimization skills;
- OOD is about how well you can articulate your design ideas.
What I found most helpful were the voice-assisted reminders. People are inevitably nervous in interviews, especially when being asked questions, and it's easy to get stuck for a while. The voice prompts helped me to get back to my thoughts quickly, so I didn't get stuck on key questions.
Let you in the interview less detour, efficiently get the preferred offer
Programhelp Our team specializes in technical interview and written test coaching for international students and overseas job-seeking groups, covering different aspects of OA (Online Assessment), VO (Video/Virtual Onsite), BQ (Behavioral Questions), etc. Our approach is not a "war of words", but based on the real question bank accumulated over the years + successful cases of students + dedicated practice drills to help you prepare efficiently. Our approach is not a "sea of questions", but based on years of accumulation of the real question bank + students' success stories + special simulation drills, to help you efficiently prepare for the exam.
Our core strengths:
- Remote unmarked assists: Help you keep a clear mind at critical moments with voice reminders, debug guides, and thought leadership in OA or VO sessions.
- one-on-one question and answer session: Provide customized preparation solutions for interview characteristics of different companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Financial Quantitative, Data Science, etc.).
- :Practice with real questions: Face-to-face experiences from hundreds of former employees and trainees are compiled and combined with the latest exam trends to take you through the most relevant simulation training.
- Full Process AccompanimentFrom resume optimization, OA training to VO practice, someone will help you control the pace and reduce the risk of detour.
If you are also preparing for OA/VO in big factories and don't want to go alone in the dark, you can come to Programhelp anytime, and we will give you the most suitable solution according to your background and target company.
