I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in May 2017
Interview
I was reached out by a recruiter. One round of phone technical screening, very easy statistical questions and no coding questions...not even SQL or algorithm questions. Onsite interviews after two weeks, most of the time are chatting and introduce you their work and ask you, as a data scientist, what things you help in their projects?
I agree with other reviews and am very doubtful how they can select a qualified candidate based on the easy interview questions?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you detect if a new observation is outlier? What is bias-variance trade off ?
Feeling thrilled to have accepted the offer, I look back on this interview process as both challenging and rewarding. It began with a technical round where I tackled a complex A/B testing design question, followed by a SQL query on user retention. The final stages included a system design discussion that had me sweating, but honestly, the system design section on PracHub prepared me well. Each step pushed my limits, but the culmination was definitely worth it, landing me a role at Microsoft.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Design an A/B test to measure the impact of a new ranking change in Bing, and explain how you would handle network interference between treatment and control users.
Write a SQL query that computes 7-day rolling user retention from a daily events table, then flags cohorts whose week-over-week retention dropped more than 10%.
Phone screen with HR/recruiter. Less than 10 mins. Very basic mostly about role fit and my background and resume. Did not hear back from them at all. Very unenthusiastic during the call
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Hyderābād) in Feb 2026
Interview
Overall 3 rounds with 2 technical and 1 managerial. The 1st round was DS and ML heavy with some analytics. The 2 nd round was resume, SQL and causal /AB experimentation. The managerial round was resume related and some behavioural questions.
