Actual Microsoft Interview Questions

Posted on April 13, 2007 at 11:50 pm

Ohhhhh I don’t think I would be able to work at Microsoft after reading the questions they ask during the interview!! Well some of them are not too bad, but I hate those riddle type questions! I can never solve a riddle (ahem, no comment on that please)!!

Anyway, if you want to put yourself to the test, than you can check out some of the questions here. I’m not sure how legit these questions are, but by browsing through them it seems that these were not just made up by some random person.

Apparently, the questions are broken into 4 types: riddles, algorithms, applications, and thinkers. So basically, how smart are you! Shit, that’s why I don’t work there…

Here’s a sample riddle:

There is a room with a door (closed) and three light bulbs. Outside the room there are three switches, connected to the bulbs. You may manipulate the switches as you wish, but once you open the door you can’t change them. Identify each switch with its bulb.

If you had an infinite supply of water and a 5 quart and 3 quart pail, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts?

Woo hoo, I figured these out after like 30 minutes!!! I guess you would need to be like “Hmmm…here’s the answer” if you were interviewing!

Algorithms example:

Implement an algorithm to sort an array. Why did you pick the method you did?

Give me an algorithm to shuffle a deck of cards, given that the cards are stored in an array of ints.

Ok, these I did not fare so well on. How the hell are you supposed to just come up with that! I can TELL you about various algorithms to sort an array, but I can’t just conjure one up off the top of my head!

Applications example:

How would you redesign an ATM?

How would you build an alarm clock for deaf people?

Thinkers example:

If you had to learn a new computer language, how would you go about doing it?

Why is it that when you turn on the hot water in any hotel, for example, the hot water comes pouring out almost instantaneously?

More stuff at the site listed above! Good luck! And if you get in because of this blog, then definitely give me a call.