Microsoft SE2 (L61) Interview Experience — Offer Received (Jan 2026)
February 8, 2026 · 20 reads
Summary
I received an offer for the Software Engineer II (L61) role at Microsoft in January 2026 after completing a multi-round interview process that included coding, low-level design, and an AA round.
Full Experience
Background
- Backend engineer (Tier-2 company)
- 4+ YOE
- Based in Hyderabad
Timeline
Recruiter → Phone Screen → Virtual Loop (3 rounds) → Day 2: Docs requested → ~1 week later: OfferRounds
- OA: Q1 Medium (binary search / monotonic), Q2 Hard (DP + graph/state)
- Phone (60m): Medium (graph/tree BFS/DFS) + optimization/follow-up
- Loop Coding 1: 2 problems, mostly tree/graph (Medium–Hard)
- Loop Coding 2: DP/optimization (Medium–Hard)
- Loop LLD: Design a message queue (producer–consumer), deep dive on multithreading/concurrency (synchronization, mutex vs semaphore, deadlock prevention, trade-offs)
- AA: Quick discussion on queues/maps + project deep-dive using: clarify → propose → implement → test → trade-offs
Interview Questions (1)
1.
Design a Message Queue
System Design·Hard
Design a message queue (producer–consumer). The discussion involved a deep dive into multithreading/concurrency, covering topics such as synchronization, mutex vs semaphore, deadlock prevention, and trade-offs.