Microsoft SDE Intern Interview Experience
💼 LTIMindtree Interview Experience (On-Campus) | Fresher | 2026
Salesforce SMTS | Interview Experience | Rejected
JPMC | SDE2 (Associate) - Java Backend - Interview Experience + Compensation
Microsoft - SDE2 - Coding Round
Intuit | SDE 2 | 2 years experience
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE 2 role at Intuit. The interview included a craft coding round with a unique problem involving musical instrument frequencies, but I was ultimately rejected.
Full Experience
Round 1: Craft Coding Round
Musical Instrument:
Context:
Musical Instrument works on frequencies.
A good Musical play is a one in which each note always emits frequencies which are never the
same. For simplicity we will assume frequencies to be the counts.
For eg:
{sa, re sa, ga,ma, ma, pa, ma}
Sa is repeated 2 times
Re -> 1 times
Ga -> 1 times
Ma -> 3 times.
The above example is not a Good play, because the frequencies emitted are 2,1,1,3 (1 is repeated
two times). To make it a good play, we have to the frequencies unique.
How to make it as a good play ?
For example: Remove 3 “Ma” and 1 “Re” (or “Ga”) . This becomes a good Musical play.But, Number
of removals is 2.
OR
if I remove 1 “Ga” . Then each is repeated uniquely which aren't the same. Number of removals is 1.
Minimum is min (2,1) = 1
Problem Stmnt
So given an array , you have to return the minimum number of removals needed to have unique
frequencies.
For example
S = [aaabbbcc]
1) You can delete 2 'b's resulting in the good string "aaabcc". Total: 2
2) Another way is to delete 1 'b' and 1 'c' resulting in the good string "aaabbc". Total: 2
Output: min (2,2) ~ 2
S= [abcabc]
You can delete 2 of either a, b , c and decrement the other by 1 (remove 2-a and 1-b) minimum
removals is min (2+1) = 3
Either remove 2a OR 2b OR 2c and decrement the rest by 1. So total is 3.
S = ["bbcebab"]
Output: 2
1 <= s < 10^5
S contains LowerCase letters only.
Verdict: Rejected
Interview Questions (1)
Musical Instrument: Context: Musical Instrument works on frequencies. A good Musical play is a one in which each note always emits frequencies which are never the same. For simplicity we will assume frequencies to be the counts. For eg: {sa, re sa, ga,ma, ma, pa, ma} Sa is repeated 2 times Re -> 1 times Ga -> 1 times Ma -> 3 times. The above example is not a Good play, because the frequencies emitted are 2,1,1,3 (1 is repeated two times). To make it a good play, we have to the frequencies unique.
How to make it as a good play ? For example: Remove 3 “Ma” and 1 “Re” (or “Ga”) . This becomes a good Musical play.But, Number of removals is 2. OR if I remove 1 “Ga” . Then each is repeated uniquely which aren't the same. Number of removals is 1. Minimum is min (2,1) = 1
Problem Stmnt So given an array , you have to return the minimum number of removals needed to have unique frequencies. For example S = [aaabbbcc]
- You can delete 2 'b's resulting in the good string "aaabcc". Total: 2
- Another way is to delete 1 'b' and 1 'c' resulting in the good string "aaabbc". Total: 2 Output: min (2,2) ~ 2 S= [abcabc] You can delete 2 of either a, b , c and decrement the other by 1 (remove 2-a and 1-b) minimum removals is min (2+1) = 3 Either remove 2a OR 2b OR 2c and decrement the rest by 1. So total is 3. S = ["bbcebab"] Output: 2 1 <= s < 10^5 S contains LowerCase letters only.