MICROSOFT INTERVIEW GUIDE
Microsoft Interview Questions, Process & How to Prepare
Updated September 2026 · ~6 min read
- Common roles
- Software engineer, program manager, cloud solution architect, sales specialist
- Interview style
- A mix of role-specific technical or scenario rounds and behavioural interviews, often with an "as appropriate" final conversation
- Focus
- Growth mindset, customer impact, and collaboration across teams
Microsoft interviews tend to blend craft depth with how you learn and work with others. Interviewers frequently probe how you handled being wrong, how you brought in other teams, and what a customer got out of your work. Loops and stages vary by organisation, role and level, so treat any published description, including this one, as a starting point to confirm with your recruiter.
The Microsoft interview process
- Recruiter screen on background, motivation and level.
- A technical or role-specific interview, often remote.
- A loop of several interviews covering craft depth, scenarios and collaboration.
- A final conversation with a senior leader in some loops.
- Debrief and offer discussion with the recruiter.
Stages vary by role and year — confirm with your recruiter.
Common Microsoft interview questions
- Tell me about a time you were wrong about something important.
- Describe a project where you had to bring another team along. How did you do it?
- What is the most customer-facing impact you have had, and how do you know?
- Walk me through a technical design or plan you owned and what you would change now.
- Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly to unblock your work.
- How do you decide what not to do when everything is urgent?
What Microsoft is really looking for
- Growth mindset: you talk about what you learned, not only what you delivered.
- Customer impact: you can connect your work to someone outside your team.
- Collaboration: you give credit accurately and describe friction honestly.
- Craft depth: you can go deeper on the technical or functional detail of your own work.
- Clarity: you can explain a complex thing to a non-expert.
Get a game plan built for Microsoft
Likely questions for your exact role, what to prepare first, and what to research — free.
Get my free Microsoft game plan →How to prepare (the STAR method)
Behavioural answers land when they follow a shape the interviewer can score. STAR gives you that shape:
- Situation — the context in two sentences: where you were, what was at stake, who else was involved.
- Task — what you specifically were responsible for, not what the team was handed.
- Action — the bulk of the answer: the decisions you made, the tradeoffs, and what you did when it went sideways.
- Result — what changed, and how you know. Only claim a number you can actually explain; if you cannot break it down under a follow-up question, leave it out.
Prepare six to eight stories rather than one per question. Strong stories get reused across ownership, conflict, failure and delivery prompts.
Research checklist for Microsoft
- Read about the specific organisation you are interviewing with, not just Microsoft overall.
- Prepare one story where you changed your mind because of evidence.
- Review the product or service in the posting and note how it is priced or sold.
- Check recent announcements for that product area.
- Prepare a question about how the team measures success.
Frequently asked questions
This guide is an independently written resource and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.