Microsoft Backend Engineer interview questions and process

Updated 9 Oct 2026 · 9 sources

Hiring Pulse: where Microsoft candidates are right now

Dated status reports from public Reddit threads and anonymous PortLume reports, updated Oct 18. Not official Microsoft data.

17 status reports in the last 7 days
Not enough data yet: median from final interview to a decision shows at 5+ people (3 so far)
Latest movement: 2 offers, 1 rejection, 5 final rounds reported since Oct 11

Latest Microsoft hiring reports

Oct 17: Applied Aug 1 (r/csMajors)
Oct 16: Final round Oct 15 (r/leetcode)
Oct 16: Applied Sep 13 then Final round Sep 17 then No reply yet Oct 16 (r/recruitinghell)
Oct 16: Applied Sep 13 then Final round Sep 17 then No reply yet Oct 16 (r/recruitinghell)
Oct 15: Applied Sep 30 (r/internships)

Candidates rate the Microsoft Backend Engineer interview Medium-Hard: Reported loops combine a hard DSA round, a full LLD round, and an HLD round plus a senior behavioral/AA round, with downleveling risk even after clearing all rounds. Reports describe 5 rounds, from Codility / online assessment to AA (as-appropriate / senior behavioral round with a senior engineer), with about Reported waits of 2 weeks to over a month for feedback; one candidate got a docs-submission mail 3 days after the AA round. Treat 3-6 weeks as realistic. from first call to offer.

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Estimated salary: Senior SDE (L63) offer reported at 70L base + 15% bonus + ~43L/yr stock + 15L signing over 2 years, ~1.3 Cr first-year TC (Bangalore, Feb 2025)
Skills asked about: Data structures and algorithms, Low-level design (classes, components, caching, data stores), High-level/system design (event-driven architecture, scalability)

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Microsoft Backend Engineer interview rounds

Codility / online assessment: Codility screen reported for senior-level Microsoft loops; a Principal Engineer candidate listed Codility as round one.
DSA (data structures and algorithms)
LLD (low-level design)
HLD (high-level design / system design)
AA (as-appropriate / senior behavioral round with a senior engineer)

Questions reported in Microsoft Backend Engineer interviews

For experienced engineer, what\'s your current and past experience?
DSA round: a hard problem (exact question withheld under NDA by the candidate)
LLD round: an unseen low-level design problem, with follow-up discussion on load balancers, Redis, and other components
HLD round: design an event-based system

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Microsoft Backend Engineer interview: quick answers

How many rounds are in the Microsoft Backend Engineer interview?

Public reports describe 5 rounds for the Microsoft Backend Engineer interview: (1) Codility / online assessment, (2) DSA, (3) LLD, (4) HLD, (5) AA. Round 1: Codility screen reported for senior-level Microsoft loops; a Principal Engineer candidate listed Codility as round one.

Is the Microsoft interview difficult?

Public reports put the Microsoft Backend Engineer interview at Medium-Hard difficulty. Reported loops combine a hard DSA round, a full LLD round, and an HLD round plus a senior behavioral/AA round, with downleveling risk even after clearing all rounds. The process has 5 rounds, from Codility / online assessment to AA.

Does Microsoft ask DSA in Backend Engineer interviews?

Yes. Rounds that involve coding: DSA (data structures and algorithms). Structured multi-round loop (DSA, LLD, HLD, senior behavioral) with heavy emphasis on design discussion and past-work depth; feedback can be slow and leveling is not guaranteed even after a clean loop.

How long does Microsoft take to give results?

Time to a result for the Microsoft Backend Engineer process, per public reports: Reported waits of 2 weeks to over a month for feedback; one candidate got a docs-submission mail 3 days after the AA round. Treat 3-6 weeks as realistic.

What is the Microsoft Backend Engineer salary in India?

Estimated from public salary data: Senior SDE (L63) offer reported at 70L base + 15% bonus + ~43L/yr stock + 15L signing over 2 years, ~1.3 Cr first-year TC (Bangalore, Feb 2025). This is not an official Microsoft figure, and pay varies by level, city and experience.

Sources

Based on 9 public reports: LeetCode Discuss (6), 6figr (1), Medium (1), YouTube (1), last updated Oct 2026.

Compiled by Adarsh Sharma from public candidate reports. Unofficial guide: PortLume AI is not affiliated with Microsoft.

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