Microsoft | SDE 2 | Interview Experience | Hyderabad | Rejected
- Location
- Hyderabad
- Experience
- 4 years
- Posted
- 16 Jan 2026
Summary
I had an interview experience with Microsoft for an SDE 2 role in Hyderabad, which included rounds on DSA, LLD, and HLD, but I was ultimately rejected.
How it went
Date of Interview : Dec 2025
YOE : 4 years
I had recently appeared for interviews with Microsoft and felt like sharing my interview experience
Round 1 : DSA
- https://leetcode.com/problems/letter-combinations-of-a-phone-number/description/
- https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-islands/description/
Round 2 : LLD
Design a job posting service which can include any type of job with the following features:
- Recruiter can post job openings.
- Candidates can apply for the job postings.
- There should be a candidate profile which can include skills, YOE, etc.
- The recruiter must be able to see the top candidates for any job posting
- The candidate can see the top jobs for which he is eligible.
The code must be executable. He was very much interested in the matching logic for the recruiters and the candidates.
Round 3 : HLD
Design a Board Game for Ludo
This was supposed to be an HLD round, but the interviewer was interested in the LLD approach and asked me to code it.
Verdict : Rejected
Questions asked (4)
- 01
Letter Combinations of a Phone Number
Data Structures & Algorithms · Medium
Open the problemGiven a string containing digits from 2-9 inclusive, return all possible letter combinations that the number could represent. Return the answer in any order. A mapping of digit to letters (just like on the telephone buttons) is given below. Note that 1 does not map to any letters.
- 02
Number of Islands
Data Structures & Algorithms · Medium
Open the problemGiven an m x n 2D binary grid which represents a map of '1's (land) and '0's (water), return the number of islands. An island is surrounded by water and is formed by connecting adjacent lands horizontally or vertically. You may assume all four edges of the grid are all surrounded by water.
- 03
Design a Job Posting Service
System Design · Hard
Design a job posting service which can include any type of job with the following features:
- Recruiter can post job openings.
- Candidates can apply for the job postings.
- There should be a candidate profile which can include skills, YOE, etc.
- The recruiter must be able to see the top candidates for any job posting
- The candidate can see the top jobs for which he is eligible.
The code must be executable. He was very much interested in the matching logic for the recruiters and the candidates.
- 04
Design Ludo Board Game
System Design · Hard
Design a Board Game for Ludo. This was supposed to be an HLD round, but the interviewer was interested in the LLD approach and asked me to code it.