Built by a hiring manager who's conducted 1,000+ interviews at Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Adobe.
Built by a hiring manager who's conducted 1,000+ interviews at Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Adobe.
Last updated: December 4, 2025
Microsoft has transformed its culture under Satya Nadella's leadership, emphasizing growth mindset, customer focus, and inclusive collaboration. The interview process evaluates candidates on technical competence, problem-solving ability, and cultural fit. Microsoft values candidates who are curious learners, customer-obsessed, and collaborative team players.
What to expect at each stage of the interview
Initial call to discuss your background, role fit, and interest in Microsoft. The recruiter explains the interview process and answers questions.
Technical or behavioral interview depending on the role. May include coding for engineering roles or case questions for business roles.
Practice these frequently asked questions to prepare for your interview
Tip: Microsoft specifically looks for growth mindset. Share a genuine failure, take full ownership, explain specific learnings, and most importantly - how you applied those learnings going forward.
Tip: Show your learning process. How did you approach the new skill or knowledge? What resources did you use? How did you measure progress? Demonstrate love of learning.
Understand the company culture to align your interview responses
Microsoft values learning over knowing. Show how you embrace challenges, learn from criticism, and persist through setbacks.
Put customers at the center of everything. Demonstrate how you understand and solve customer problems.
Microsoft values diverse perspectives. Show how you build inclusive environments and value different viewpoints.
Collaboration across teams is essential. Demonstrate how you work effectively across boundaries to achieve shared goals.
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person. Show how your work creates positive impact.
Trust is foundational. Demonstrate ethical decision-making and transparent communication in your examples.
Microsoft offers a collaborative, learning-oriented environment with world-class resources, strong work-life balance, and significant impact opportunities across diverse businesses.
Insider advice to help you stand out
Growth mindset is Microsoft's core cultural value. Prepare examples showing you learn from failures, embrace challenges, and continuously improve. This is assessed in every interview.
The "As Appropriate" interview is the final decision point. This senior leader reviews all feedback and assesses your long-term potential. Bring your best energy and examples.
Microsoft is customer-obsessed. Prepare examples showing you deeply understand customer needs and have created positive customer impact.
Built with extensive experience - conducting interviews and passing interviews at Google, NVIDIA, Amazon, Adobe and Remitly
Practice interview questions by speaking out loud (not typing). Hit record and start speaking your answers naturally.
Your responses are processed in real-time, transcribing and analyzing your performance.
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Explore interview prep for related companies
4-5 interviews with potential teammates and cross-functional partners. Includes the "As Appropriate" (AA) interview with a senior leader who makes the final decision.
Final interview with a senior leader who reviews all feedback and makes the hiring decision. This interview assesses overall fit and long-term potential.
Typical Timeline: 3-6 weeks from application to offer
Tip: Show customer empathy. Explain how you gathered feedback, what insights you gained, the changes you made, and the impact on customer experience. Include metrics if possible.
Tip: Demonstrate you value diverse perspectives. Explain how different viewpoints contributed to a better outcome. Show active inclusion behaviors.
Tip: Microsoft values cross-team collaboration. Explain the complexity, how you built alignment, your role in driving progress, and the shared outcome.
Tip: Show you understand the product and its users. Identify real user pain points, propose thoughtful solutions, and explain how you'd measure success.
Tip: Choose an achievement with clear impact. Explain why it mattered, your specific contributions, challenges you overcame, and quantifiable results.
Tip: Show you value feedback as growth opportunity. Explain what the feedback was, your initial reaction, how you processed it, and what changes you made as a result.
Tip: Choose an example showing clear ethical reasoning. Explain the situation, what made it difficult, your decision-making process, and the outcome. Show integrity matters to you.
Tip: Show comfort with ambiguity. Explain your process for breaking down unclear problems, gathering information, and making progress despite uncertainty.
Microsoft has shifted from a competitive to collaborative culture. Avoid "I" heavy answers - show how you work with and elevate others.
Know Azure, Microsoft 365, Windows, LinkedIn, and gaming. Understand Satya Nadella's vision. Be ready to discuss how you'd contribute to Microsoft's mission.
Microsoft interviewers ask detailed follow-up questions. Prepare to go deep on your examples - specific decisions, alternatives considered, and detailed outcomes.
Practice as much as you want until you're confident. Practice speaking out loud, privately, without the cringe.
Rome wasn't built in a day, so repeat until you're confident. You can become unstoppable.