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Microsoft

Uploaded by

Prerna Bhandari

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The Microsoft data science interview process typically involves several stages,

designed to assess both technical and soft skills. Here’s an overview of what you
can expect:
1. Application and Screening
 Online Application: Submit your resume through Microsoft’s careers portal
or through referrals.
 Recruiter Call: If your resume is shortlisted, you will typically receive a call
from a recruiter who will ask about your background, experience, and
motivations for applying. This is more of a behavioral screening.
2. Online Assessment / Technical Screening
 Coding Test: This is often conducted via platforms like CodeSignal,
HackerRank, or similar. Expect coding questions, typically involving:
o Data Structures: Arrays, strings, lists, trees, and graphs.
o Algorithms: Searching, sorting, and dynamic programming problems.
o SQL: Expect queries to test your knowledge of joins, aggregations, and
complex data manipulations.
 Math and Probability: Questions on probability, statistics, and basic
mathematical concepts (e.g., distributions, hypothesis testing, regression).
 Data Science Concepts: There may be scenario-based questions to assess
your understanding of data preprocessing, feature engineering, and model
evaluation.
3. Phone/Video Interviews
 Technical Round 1: This round typically focuses on:
o Machine Learning: Expect questions related to supervised and
unsupervised learning, classification, regression, model evaluation, and
performance metrics (e.g., accuracy, precision, recall, ROC).
o Statistical Knowledge: Questions on hypothesis testing,
distributions, statistical inference, and their application to real-world
problems.
o Data Science Knowledge: Deep dive into your past projects and the
algorithms you have used, such as decision trees, random forests, or
neural networks.
 Behavioral Questions: The interviewer may also ask about teamwork,
conflict resolution, problem-solving, and your approach to handling ambiguity
in data science tasks.
4. On-site Interviews (if applicable)
This is typically a set of interviews where you will meet with multiple team
members. On-site interviews can consist of:
 Technical Deep Dive: Expect more detailed questions about algorithms,
data analysis, and modeling. You may be asked to solve coding problems on a
whiteboard or via an online shared coding platform.
 Case Study: You may be asked to solve a business problem using your data
science skills. This may include data exploration, feature engineering, model
selection, and communicating your results effectively.
 System Design: You might be asked to design a machine learning pipeline,
focusing on scalability, reproducibility, and handling big data.
 Behavioral Round: As a data scientist, Microsoft looks for individuals who fit
well within their culture. Expect situational questions to assess your
teamwork, leadership potential, and problem-solving abilities.
5. Final Round (Offer Decision)
 After the interview rounds, feedback is consolidated, and if successful, you
will be presented with an offer.
 Offer Discussion: The recruiter may reach out to discuss compensation,
benefits, and next steps.
Tips to Prepare:
 Technical Knowledge: Focus on core machine learning concepts, coding
algorithms, SQL, and statistics. Be ready to discuss your experience and past
projects.
 Mock Interviews: Practice with mock interviews (technical and behavioral)
to get comfortable with the format.
 Clear Communication: Microsoft values clear and structured
communication, especially when discussing your approach to problems.
 Problem-Solving: Practice solving real-world data science problems,
including dealing with missing data, feature engineering, model evaluation,
and optimization.
Let me know if you need help with specific aspects of the interview!