Morgan Stanley Interviews

Round 1 Online – Technical (Java + DSA + System Design Basics)

This round started with a deep dive into my resume, where we discussed my end-to-end projects in detail. Following that, I was asked questions on Data Structures and Algorithms, specifically regarding Anagrams and its variations.

The discussion then moved to Microservices concepts:

• How to track a request across microservices, focusing on Distributed Tracing.
• Questions about the build tools I have used in my projects.
• The flow of a CI/CD Pipeline.
• The responsibilities of an API Gateway in a microservices architecture.

Round 2 Offline – Technical + Low-Level Design + SQL

The second round, conducted offline, covered a broader range of topics:

• Explanation of SOLID principles and their real-world mapping.
• A comparison between Monolithic and Microservices architectures, including their pros, cons, and appropriate use cases.
• Another DSA question, this time on spiral printing of a matrix.
• Detailed questions about Kubernetes, specifically deployment steps, scaling strategies, and managing instances.
• A Low-Level Design (LLD) problem where I had to write a complete service on paper, detailing the flow from Controller to Service, DAO, and Entity layers.
• Two query-based SQL questions (details not specified).
• Discussions around UI Architecture.
• My latest project was also discussed, covering its architecture, my role, and the challenges I faced.

Round 3 – Advanced Java + Concurrency + Managerial

This round was split into technical and managerial sections.

Technical Questions:

• A multithreading scenario: find the highest number in a random matrix using multiple threads.
• Explanation of CAS (Compare-And-Swap) in Java.
• Discussion on transaction management in Java.

Managerial Questions:

• My reaction if I were asked to report to a junior colleague.
• How I would react if I was not promoted.
• My problem-solving approach: do I solve first and ask later, or understand from others and then solve?

SQL Conceptual:

• Given table1 (10 rows) and table2 (20 rows), what would be the output count of SELECT * FROM table1, table2?
• After deleting 10 rows from table1, what would be the expected output count from the same query?

HR Round – Discussion

The final round was a standard HR discussion covering:

• My basic details, current role, and responsibilities.
• My current residence and relocation preferences.
• My current and expected CTC.
• What I know about Morgan Stanley and their stock.
• Why I want to join Morgan Stanley, requiring justification.
• My willingness to move to Bangalore and the justification for it.

Exp: 4 years College: Tier 3 Current Role: SSE at product based- Backend development Tech Stack: Java, Spring Boot, Spark

Round1:

• Resume Discussion on one of the project
• Given an array Find next permutation
• LLD discussion of Snake and Ladder Game- classes , design patterns and OOP concepts

Round2:

• HLD discussion of one of the project in depth
• Given an array of heights, for each element find differences of indices to the next taller height. If no taller height, return -1 for the element.

Round3- Hiring Manager:

• Resume discussion
• Java17 features usage Discussion in real life.
• How to Migrate Java version without gradle- mainly challenges
• Discussion on Kafka- UI, usecase, partitioning and difference with MQ
• Scenario based question on Multithreaded batch processing- stuck in deadlock- Identify issues
• Some discussion on Caches and real-life implementation details (Since I used it so needed to explain that)
• Difference between Singleton and Decorator Pattern
• Checks before taking software to production
• Discussion on Exception handling
• How to identify and resolve if Database goes in deadlock situation
• Some Batch processing runs for 15 minutes now its time increases to 45 minutes. Identification and resolution discussion.

Round4: HR:

• Behavioural Questions
• Cultural Fit

One more round scheduled to check if I will be able to fit their Big Data Team.

Round5- Discussion with VP:

• Project discussion in depth
• Discussion on how well SQL and data based solutions I have worked on
• Discussion on What kind of Big Data Based problems currently they are working on.

Verdict: Selected. Waiting for final Numbers. Unofficial Numbers: https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/6958673/morgan-stanley-associate-offer-by-anonym-lsu4/

HackerRank Online Assessment Experience (Java + SQL + Debugging) The test had 4 sections covering MCQs, SQL, bug fixing, and coding. Time -> 70 minutes.

📌 Section 1 – Java MCQs (4 Questions) Mix of single and multiple-choice questions focused on core Java concepts:

1. Code snippet involving Stack vs Queue behavior. You had to predict the correct output based on insertion/removal order.
2. Difference between Vector and ArrayList – mainly around synchronization and performance.
3. Understanding the root cause of the Java Exception hierarchy – concepts of Throwable, Error, and Exception.
4. Basic Java Garbage Collection question – when objects are eligible for GC, and what makes them unreachable.

📌 Section 2 – SQL Query Two tables were provided:

• Table 1: id, email
• Table 2: id, date

Task: Write a SQL query to fetch email IDs where the associated date falls on a weekend (Saturday/Sunday). Required good understanding of JOIN, DATE functions, and filtering logic. My Solution ->

SELECT t1.email, DAYNAME(t2.date) AS day_name
FROM table1 t1
JOIN table2 t2 ON t1.id = t2.id
WHERE DAYOFWEEK(t2.date) IN (1, 7);

📌 Section 3 – Java Debugging Task You were given a small Java web application with:

Controller, Service, Repository, Unit tests

Objective: Fix the bugs in the code so that all unit tests pass. This tested understanding of Spring Boot annotations, dependency injection, and logic errors.

📌 Section 4 – Password Validation Coding Question You were given a list of passwords and had to filter valid ones based on specific rules:

• Password is valid if:
• Length is greater than 5
• It must not contain only characters or only digits

⚠️ Tricky part: Passwords with only special characters (like @#$%) were considered valid

Hi All,

Today I have given Morgan Stanley interview for Software Engineer postion. It was more of like a hiring drive.

Round 1:

Question1: Given an array of integers of positive numbers. Find the closest number with average of those numbers

Question2: Given the closing prices of a stock on a given day. Find the buying and selling day to maximize the profit. eg: 12, 5, 15, 22 output: [1, 3]

Then some Java related questions for around 10 mins

Then the interviwer asked for the stack implementation.

Verdict: Rejected.

Here's my anaysis what went wrong: Total Interview time: 45 mins Interviwer was in very hurry, firstly he joined 5 mins late for the interview. Then we greeted each other followed by introduction. This eat up around 5 more minutes. Total time left: 35 min Secondly the interviwer was not ready with questions itself, when i ask him some doubt eg: input can be pos/neg, sample input/output. He was taking sometime to give proper responses. He was in very hurry, i told him let me explain the approach first but he kept on insisting to code it. I mean why?? without discussing approach how do you even know solution will work or not, or can be furthure enchanced. When i coded the solution, he started pointing out minor details like loop can be started from index 1 not from 0 also, I agreed. But how does it improve Time complexity, I mean wtf is this? it seems he was just trying to be more smarter.

Then on the stack implementation, I provided him the code and he was like this is not traditional appraoch, I was like so..?? The code is correct it does the job and anyhow, i don't remember the actual solution, whatever is coming to my mind i'm coding it infront of you.

Overall I feel like a bad interviwer has just ruined an opportunity

I recently interviewed for a Frontend Developer role. The first round focused on JavaScript and React, while the second round involved a live coding task where I was asked to build a carousel. During the session, I was also presented with several JavaScript output-based questions, which I felt confident in answering.

Towards the end of the interview, I was asked how I would implement pagination—both infinite scrolling and numbered pagination. I explained multiple approaches, covering aspects such as state management, dynamic data loading, and overall user experience.

However, when I requested feedback, I was told that my “basics are weak” and was also criticized for not considering accessibility—for example, how someone who is visually impaired would interact with the pagination component.

While I deeply value the importance of accessibility and strongly believe in creating inclusive digital experiences, I was genuinely surprised by this feedback. Accessibility was never mentioned as a specific focus during the task. Had it been indicated as a requirement, I would have gladly addressed how to implement features like ARIA roles, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support.

As an engineer, I take accessibility seriously and care about building solutions that work for everyone. It was disheartening to be judged as lacking in this area simply because it wasn't part of my default explanation—especially without any indication that accessibility was being evaluated.

This experience reflects a broader concern: candidates should be evaluated based on clearly communicated expectations. Interviewers should provide guidance and context to enable fair assessments. When feedback is based on assumptions rather than what was actually asked or discussed, it risks overlooking capable and thoughtful developers.

Transparent and constructive interviews not only help candidates grow—they also strengthen the company’s reputation and ability to attract great talent.

I recently took the Morgan Stanley (Code to Give) Online Assessment. The assessment was structured into three distinct sections.

Debugging Section

This section comprised 10 questions that I had to complete within 20 minutes. The problems were primarily focused on easy syntax-related issues, including tasks like correcting code for matrix addition, bubble sort, selection sort, and string comparison. All of them required only minor adjustments.

Aptitude Section

The Aptitude section consisted of 24 general aptitude questions, for which I was allotted 40 minutes.

Coding Round

The final section was the Coding Round, where I had 60 minutes to solve 3 questions.

I applied to Morgan Stanley for the Summer Technology Analyst role via their careers page in October 2023, without a referral. My resume was shortlisted, and I received an invitation for the Online Assessment on February 12, 2024.

Round-1 (Online Assessment)

I completed the Online Assessment on February 15. It consisted of three sections:

• Debugging Section: This section had debugging questions, to be solved in 20 minutes. I could choose any programming language. It was quite easy; a basic understanding of programming was sufficient to debug the questions.
• Aptitude Section: This section had 10 questions to be solved in 20 minutes, with a difficulty level ranging from easy to moderate.
• Coding Section: This section featured 3 programming questions, with a difficulty level comparable to LeetCode Easy-Medium. I was provided links for two of the questions: Merging Intervals and Level Order Tree Traversal. I managed to solve all three coding questions, and the debugging and aptitude sections also went well.

Round-2 (Technical Interview)

The very next day, on February 16, I received a call from HR informing me that I had cleared the Online Assessment. My technical interview was scheduled for February 20 at 2 PM. It was a Zoom call that lasted over 60 minutes, with two interviewers. They were friendly and made me feel comfortable. First, they asked me to introduce myself. Then, we moved on to SQL queries. They asked me 9-10 SQL queries, and since I had prepared well, I was able to write correct queries for almost all of them, which seemed to satisfy the interviewers. Next, they asked me a question related to C programming: they provided a piece of code, void func(){ int arr[10];}, and explained that this function was being called recursively an infinite number of times, given a system memory of 2 MB. They asked if this scenario would result in an error or a system crash. I was able to answer this question to their satisfaction. Following that, they asked about the difference between "call by value" and "call by reference," requesting an explanation with an example. Finally, they posed a medium-level DSA question, for which I successfully provided the logic and wrote pseudocode. The interviewers seemed happy with my approach. The interview concluded after they asked if I had any questions for them.

Round-3 (HR Round)

I received another call from HR the day after my technical interview, on February 21, with positive feedback from the panel. My HR round was scheduled for February 22. Before this round, I extensively read past Morgan Stanley HR interview experiences, researched the company and its core values, and prepared for common behavioral questions. The HR interview was also a Zoom call. The interviewer joined a bit late and immediately asked me to introduce myself. We then discussed a project mentioned on my resume, specifically why I chose MongoDB over a SQL database. Afterward, they asked several behavioral questions:

• What are your aspirations and career plans?
• Why do you want to join Morgan Stanley?
• What do you know about the business side of Morgan Stanley?
• What are the core values of Morgan Stanley?
• Given two teams, one working on Python and the other on C++, which team would I prefer to join and why?
• Could I describe a scenario where I had to sacrifice my ethics?
• Could I tell an interesting incident related to my project?
• Presented with a scenario: I'm part of a team tasked with delivering a product in one month, but some hypothetical bugs cannot be fixed within that deadline. My options are to deliver the product late or deliver it with bugs. What would I do?

The interview lasted about 30 minutes. The interviewer asked if I had any questions before it ended.

Exactly three weeks later, I received an email confirming my shortlisting for the Summer Analyst role at Morgan Stanley for the Summer of 2024.

I initiated my off-campus job search by sending direct inmails to various recruiters and talent acquisition managers at Morgan Stanley. This proactive approach led to a LinkedIn message from a recruiter regarding an open position. After sharing my resume and successfully passing the screening, I received an application link to their Careers Portal.

The application process involved creating an account on their student and graduate careers page, uploading my details, and submitting an updated resume. My resume strategy involved using a one-column format for better ATS scores, detailing experiences with metrics, target audience, and impact, and highlighting my top three experiences, key projects, and notable achievements. I utilized Overleaf for its ease of use in formatting.

Following the resume screening, I was invited to complete a HireVue Digital Questionnaire, which consisted of four behavioral questions with allotted preparation and recording time. Soon after, I was shortlisted for the next stage and attended an informative session detailing the job description and hiring process. This was followed by an Online Assessment on the SHL Testing Platform.

Online Assessment

The 90-minute assessment had three sections. The first covered aptitude questions, assessing logical reasoning and numerical ability. The second focused on debugging code snippets and determining program output. The final section featured three Data Structures and Algorithms questions of medium-hard difficulty. These were unique, scenario-based problems, not directly from LeetCode. I managed to solve two questions completely and passed most test cases for the third, failing only two hidden cases. It's worth noting that there was section-based timing.

Interview Rounds

I received notification for my interview rounds shortly after.

Round 1: Technical Interview

The first round began with a standard self-introduction, followed by a discussion about my preferred tech stack and architectural choices in my projects. The interviewer also questioned me on fundamental concepts like SOLID principles, ACID properties, the Publisher-Subscriber model, and Consistent Hashing.

I was then given two LeetCode-style problems. For the first, similar to LFU Cache, I drew upon my experience with LRU Cache to devise a solution. The interviewer provided three test cases, and I successfully performed a dry run, matching the expected outputs. For the second problem, similar to Count the Number of Ideal Arrays, I initially proposed a recursive solution with poor time complexity. The interviewer hinted at a mathematical approach, and while I attempted to pivot to a DP solution, it didn't seem to fully satisfy them.

Round 2: Technical and Behavioral Interview

The second interviewer was very supportive. They presented a problem similar to Palindrome Partitioning, with additional constraints: all palindromes had to be distinct and non-overlapping. After I presented a satisfactory approach, a further constraint was added: each partition should be of a specific length 'p'. We discussed the time complexity of my solution, and I performed a detailed dry run with test cases. A key strength during this round was my constant communication, explaining my thought process, problem-breaking strategy, and reasoning behind my chosen approach.

Subsequently, the discussion shifted to C++ memory management, including questions on structs, unions, and object-oriented concepts like Pure Virtual Functions and Friend Functions. I also clarified the differences between void and NULL. The round concluded with general HR questions, which I addressed without difficulty.

I went through an interview process with Morgan Stanley for a Software Engineer role in Bangalore. My professional background spans approximately 3 years, comprising 1.5 years at a product-based startup and 1.4 years at a service-based MNC.

The entire process was structured into four distinct rounds.

Round 1: Online Assessment

Round 2: Technical Interview I

• Find a loop in a Linked List, with a follow-up to remove it.
• Check if a Linked List is a palindrome.

• Explanation and code implementation of the Singleton design pattern.
• Detailed discussion of OOPS concepts with examples.
• The differences between String and StringBuffer.
• The internal working mechanism of HashMap.
• SQL queries, specifically for finding the 3rd highest salary and general join-related questions.
• When to choose NoSQL databases over SQL databases.

Round 3: Technical Interview II

• Finding the starting point of a loop in a Linked List.
• Identifying the first non-repeating character in a string.
• Sorting an array after squaring its elements.
• Finding the longest common prefix of an array of strings.

• The internal working of both HashMap and HashSet.
• Strategies for handling a large number of incoming requests in a system.
• Discussion on different memory areas within the JVM.

Hiring Manager Round

• A brief discussion on my projects.
• Justification for using particular technologies in my projects.
• How I implemented fallback mechanisms in my systems.

Hi Leetcoders,

I recently started my job search last month and applied for the Web Developer (Application Development) role at Morgan Stanley. After about a week of applying, I received an invite to attempt their Hackerrank assessment.

Online Test

Section 1

This section contained 10 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) covering Basic Programming, SQL, Javascript snippets, and CSS output. I remember that 5 out of the 10 questions were specifically focused on CSS properties.

Section 2

This section presented two easy/medium LeetCode-style coding questions. A crucial detail was that there was a restriction to write code in Javascript only.

• Q1: This was a classic 0/1 Knapsack problem.
• Q2: The second question was described as a modification of the standard Trapped Rainwater problem.

I managed to attempt all the questions of the test within the given time. However, I still haven't received any response from them. I've been wondering if this has happened to anybody else as well?

I interviewed for the SDE - II role at Morgan Stanley in July 2021. I have 4.5 years of experience as a backend developer. The interview process consisted of 4 rounds.

Round 1: Hacker Rank Online (1 Hour)

This round included a mix of MCQs and one medium-level coding question.

Round 2: Technical (1 Hour)

This round primarily focused on Core Java and Multithreading. I was asked two data structure questions:

• The classic House Robber problem (medium difficulty).
• A problem involving searching in a matrix sorted by row (medium difficulty).

Round 3: Technical (1 Hour)

This round covered Core Java and Spring topics. I also solved one data structure question:

• Removing consecutive characters in a string (easy difficulty).

Round 4: Technical + Managerial (50 minutes)

This was a comprehensive round combining technical and managerial aspects. I faced system design problems, specifically discussing how to remove duplicate lines from a 10 GB file with only 2 GB of memory. Other topics included basic memory management, garbage collection, detecting performance issues in production, and discussions related to my projects. Additionally, there was one data structure question:

• Given an input array and a desired output array, I had to return the sequence of stack operations to transform the input to produce the output. For example, for an input [2,3,4,5,6] and output [3,4,5,2,6], the answer would involve operations like [push-2, push-3, push-4, pop-4, push-5...].

After successfully completing all these rounds, I received an offer.

I was contacted by Morgan Stanley HR regarding a requirement in their Strata team, which focuses on building software for MS trading platforms. This involves very high traffic from all share markets, with lots of real-time data processing, where both availability and consistency are mandatory. Each interview round lasted 30 minutes.

First Round

The first interviewer was from London, a Cambridge graduate and a veteran in technology with 14 years at Morgan Stanley. The round started with an introduction and a discussion about my future prospects and plans. He then provided an overview of the MS team and their products, followed by a discussion on my language proficiency and current tech stack. Two specific questions were asked:

1. What is a percentile, how do you calculate it? Given a list of marks with role numbers, find a given role number's percentile. We discussed related complexity and optimization.
2. Given a 3x3 grid, count the number of ways to fill numbers 1-9 uniquely in the grid.

We also talked about my current project, its shortcomings, and areas for improvement. Database discussions included 'Mongo vs Postgres: what's the flaw with Mongo vs Postgres?', 'How can concurrency be achieved in Mongo?', and 'What is the single granular level of concurrency at the DB level we can target to achieve?'

Second Round

This 30-minute round was conducted by an interviewer from the Hong Kong office. After an introduction, I was asked a question about API optimization:

1. In an API, how can we optimize sending a large amount of data efficiently? The API's efficiency relies on the size of the data sent in the response. The data being sent is a stream of numbers, in sorted order, e.g., 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,9,9, 13,13,13,...

Following this, we discussed what I look for while reviewing a PR and multiple ways to optimize code. The interviewer also gave an overview of their product, codebase, and internal tech stack. We talked about how things work internally at Morgan Stanley and the responsibilities and use cases of the Strata team. There were some more questions, but I don't recall them now. Overall, this round went very well, and the interviewer seemed completely satisfied.

The verdict for the second round was positive, and I am currently waiting for the third round. The total process consists of 5 rounds, so I have 3 more to go.

Third Round (Edit)

The third round, lasting 30 minutes, was with the global head of the Strata team, based in the London office. He introduced himself, his team, how various teams are connected globally, their tech stack, and team size. He then inquired about my background, projects, tech stack, and particularly my interest in moving towards the finance domain in technology. I was asked if I was aware of any finance-related terminologies:

1. What's a bond? (I could provide a basic answer).
2. Types of bonds? (I had no answer for this).

He then asked about my favorite languages (I mentioned Java, PHP, JavaScript, but he noted Python from my resume). We then delved into Python specifics:

1. Difference between tuple and list and their use cases.
2. Types of data we can store inside a tuple and list.

I was asked what things I would optimize first in an application for a better user experience, to which I mentioned space and time. He then dug deeper into Python lists and tuples:

1. Among tuple and list, which one is more memory efficient and time efficient, and how?
2. How is memory allocation done for list and tuple?

My knowledge of tuples and lists was basic, so he continued to dig deeper. He asked if I knew NumPy (I said no), then pivoted to Java:

1. What is method overloading and overriding in Java?
2. Public and private specifiers in Java and their use cases with an example.

The round concluded with an opportunity for me to ask questions.

Fourth Round

This 30-minute round took place with an interviewer from the Luxembourg office. After introductions, I was asked why I was changing jobs. The technical part included two brainteasers:

1. A 10-step ladder: a person can move one or two steps at a time. Count the number of ways they can reach the 10th step.
2. Current time is 3:00 PM in a clock. At which time will both the minute and hour hands meet? Calculate.

Followed by Java-specific questions:

1. Time series data `{timestamp: array of numbers}`: how will you store this data?
2. What does the `==` operator check?
3. Method overloading vs. overriding.
4. Does Java support multiple inheritance? Why or why not? How do you resolve the multiple inheritance problem in Java?

And a Data Structures question:

1. Given an array of numbers and a number X. Find a subarray whose sum is greater than X. We discussed this in detail.

I then asked about how things operate within their team, including tasks, projects, releases, and other activities, which she explained thoroughly. The interviewer was very helpful and cooperative, making it a good experience.

Fifth Round

The final 30-minute round was with an interviewer from the Budapest office. He introduced himself and discussed the team structure. The round started with a brainteaser:

1. There are 7 people and a 6-faced dice. We need to pick a loser with a roll of the dice. How do we pick? Follow up: Suppose there is a cost of rolling a dice, so we have to pick the loser with minimum rolls of dice.

Followed by a Computer Science question:

1. Given two arrays, find their intersection. I initially proposed an O(n^2) solution, then optimized it to O(n) using a hashset. The interviewer gave follow-ups:
   • What if both arrays are sorted? I mentioned a solution similar to merging two arrays in merge sort, achieving O(m+n) time and constant space.
   • What if one array is significantly larger than the other (e.g., one has 1 million elements, and the other has only 20)? I mentioned performing a binary search for each of the 20 elements, which would result in O(20 log 1 million) complexity.

The round concluded with an opportunity for me to ask questions.