Had a microsoft onsite interview with 3 rounds:
Experience 13 years
Background Consulting
Applied for Senior
Round 1 was about print characters in a given string using a special character ($) something like:
$$$ $$$ $$$$$ $$$$$
$$$ $$ $$ $$
$$$ $$$ $$ $$
$$$ $$$ $$$$$ $$$$
I got the print correct in the second attempt. First choice was incorrect. Next was to extend it to a design of taking orders. Unfortunate that I didnt prese for more details on what was being expected on the design. Like any design question it can be very open ended and the interviewer was looking more details on performance. Didnt mention the demand he was expecting for the books to print in special characters and anything on the system itself. My solution was for a legitimate design of a system which does the job of printing.
I would have appreciated a little more from interviewer on the components to be designed as expected by the engineer. I come from a order management background and my answers around the systm for fulfillment of the order. Interviewer was expecting more from Printing of the books (hind sight i should have pressed for more use cases)
Second Question was around meeting rooms
Thirst question was around design of hashmap without the using chaining. Industry standard solution is around linear probing, however the response expected seemed to be a hybrid of chaining and a method to get the next free space.
Well not really an ideal question when collision resolution is to be used a approach. I blinked at this point because I was not clear on the question. I ideally should have pressed more to find out the problem better
Have given this like 15 days back. So most likely didnt make it