Recently, Microsoft interview activity has noticeably increased again. One thing that has always been true about Microsoft is that interview content heavily depends on the team — different teams test very different skills.

This time, all three of my rounds followed the pattern of resume deep-dive + coding questions, with no system design and no pure conversational round (although both are common in Microsoft interviews; I just didn’t get them this time).

⭐ Round 1: Resume Deep Dive + Coding (Stack → Queue)

My first interviewer seemed to be a team lead. We started with a detailed discussion of one of my projects, covering:

• technology choices
• implementation details
• trade-offs and reasoning

After that, he briefly introduced the team’s work and then moved straight into coding.

🧩 Real Problem 1: Implement Queue Functionality Using Only Stacks

Prompt:

Imagine you’re working in a language that only supports Stack,
but you need Queue functionality to fulfill the requirement.

This is the classic problem of using two stacks to simulate a queue — a very common foundational question.

Key points the interviewer assessed:

• how you implement enqueue / dequeue
• understanding the idea of lazy transfer
• explaining why amortized time complexity is O(1)
• whether your reasoning is clean and structured

The overall atmosphere was relaxed.

⭐ Round 2: Minimal Resume Discussion, Straight to Coding (JavaScript Type Comparison)

My second interviewer was an Indian engineer who arrived a little late. She didn’t ask much about my resume — after a brief introduction, we jumped directly into coding.

🧩 Real Problem 2: JavaScript Equality & Type Coercion

Given:

const a = 1;
const b = "1";

Determine the results of the following expressions:

a == b
a === b
!a === !b
a + b
a + +b

This round was less about getting every line correct and more about explaining your understanding of JavaScript:

• the difference between == and ===
• how unary + works
• what triggers type coercion
• how JS evaluates truthy vs falsy

This type of question is very typical in Microsoft interviews — testing language fundamentals + reasoning ability.

⭐ Round 3: Light BQ + Coding (Linked List Merge)

My third interviewer was a senior engineer. He opened with two light behavioral questions as a warm-up, then moved straight to the coding task.

🧩 Real Problem 3: Merge an Ascending List and a Descending List into a Sorted List

Problem Description:

You are given:

• L1: a singly linked list sorted in ascending order
• L2: a singly linked list sorted in descending order

Merge them into one ascending sorted linked list.

Constraints:

• Time complexity: O(M + N)
• Space complexity: O(1)

Example:

L1: 1 → 2 → 3
L2: 6 → 5 → 4

Output: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6

This round mainly tested your comfort with pointer manipulation.

Approach:

1. Reverse the descending list in place
2. Then merge the two sorted lists using the standard merge-sort merge step
3. No extra memory allowed — pointer operations only

The interviewer focused more on how I reasoned through the solution, rather than rushing for code.

❤️ Final Note

If you want to practice using the exact real interview questions or want a realistic mock interview experience with detailed feedback, feel free to reach out.
I only use authentic interview problems, never fabricated questions.

The VOprep team has long accompanied candidates through various major company OAs and VOs, including Google, Amazon, Citadel, SIG, providing real-time voice assistance, remote practice, and interview pacing reminders to help you stay smooth during critical moments. If you are preparing for these companies, you can check out our customized support plans—from coding interviews to system design, we offer full guidance to help you succeed.