Interviewing at Microsoft Part II

So I knew that I had an interview coming in Redmond but was not sure exactly when the interview would happen. I found out the interview was on April, 19th and was ready to start studying. It was about a month or so away but I wanted to be really prepared because I had heard from a couple of friends who interviewed last semester that it was really tough, so I was going to get as far ahead as I could. I was being asked to come out and interview for the SDET position, which since I really had no idea about testing I was worried that I was at a severe disadvantage. In this post I will explain what I did to prepare for the interview.

The first thing I suggest when preparing for your interview with Microsoft is to start looking over C++ principles. You really need to understand the basic data structures that can be implemented, like arrays and linked lists. Most of the development across Microsoft is done in C++ so it is necessary to understand the principles thoroughly because you will be asked to code during the interviews. From what I have read and could tell in the interviews it really doesn't matter what you code in during the interview like Java, C, C++, or C#. However, I think that it probably shows that you need less training and time to adapt if you show you know how to use C++. If you know C# I am sure that would also look really good, because Microsoft is kind of transferring to C# as a programming language especially in the SDET position. So this would also show the need of less training and time to acclimate. I personally used a book called "C++ Primer
Plus" by Stephen Prata. The book is really good for both new programmers as well as a reference and reminder for experienced programmers. If you don't feel like spending the money for the book then a simple search online is all it takes to find information on C++, with plenty of tutorials and reference guides.

The next big thing I suggest studying if you are interviewing for a SDET position are testing principles. This is really big especially for college students because most curriculum do not cover this topic, well at least well enough to express the principles and know what you are talking about during the interview. I found most of this information online with a little searching. Here are a few of the sites I used as guides to learning the concepts of testing.

http://kuldeepse.wordpress.com/2007/05/18/beginners-guide-to-software-testing-i/
http://www.techinterviews.com/?p=115
http://www.emicrosoftinterview.com/Technical+Questions/default.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/testing/default.aspx

When you are learning these concepts, try to really concentrate on the different groups of testing such as functionality testing, border testing, memory testing, and internationalization testing. It shows a lot of potential during the interviews if you are able to be organized during your tests and are able to group your different types of tests into the different groups of testing.

The next thing I did is search for general Microsoft interview experiences online to gain a base knowledge of the types of programming questions I would be asked. There are hundreds of websites out there specifically geared towards the Microsoft interview process. As well as tons of blogs out there of individuals who have personally gone through the interview process. Below are a few of the websites that I used in order to gain this information.

http://helloani.blogspot.com/2006/03/microsoft-on-site-interview-031506.html
www.emicrosoftinterview.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/

These are just some of the sources I used while I prepared for the interviews. I think that anything that you can do in order to gain an edge for the interviews should be looked into. I mean you are going to be competing with other possible candidates from schools all over the world. Microsoft is looking for extremely talented people and therefore you really need be on top of your game in order to do the best you can.