December Code

Microsoft · Microsoft SDE new-grad and intern hiring · pattern last verified 29 September 2026

Microsoft SDE hiring for freshers: the reported pattern, and how to prepare

Microsoft's early-careers page describes its internship programs, including a global university internship and the Explore program for students early in their degree, and says nothing about how it assesses candidates in India. The process is reported by prep sites and by the many candidates who write about it, and it is consistent in outline: an online coding assessment, sometimes a second written coding test on campus, a series of technical interviews that go from data structures to design to fundamentals, and an HR conversation. There is no aptitude section anywhere in it.

That puts Microsoft with Amazon among the programs on this site where what December Code covers is the reasoning behind the coding problems and the fundamentals the interviews ask, not a written test. The page marks each claim, prints the reports' figures where they differ, maps the stages to the subjects here, names what the site does not cover, and ends with a practice set from pages whose samples are already public.

December Code is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Microsoft. This page summarises how Microsoft SDE new-grad and intern hiring is publicly described, from the sources listed at the end, checked on 29 September 2026. Where a detail comes from prep sites or candidate reports rather than Microsoft itself, the page says so. The notification or test invitation for the drive you are sitting is the source of truth, and where it differs from this page, it is right.

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How the process runs

A round is marked official when Microsoft describes it on its own pages, and commonly reported when the description comes from prep sites and candidate reports.

  1. 1

    Application through campus or Microsoft careersofficial

    Microsoft's early-careers page routes students to its internship programs and job search; reports describe on-campus drives at selected institutes and rolling off-campus applications for the new-graduate software-engineer role, and name Explore as the pre-final-year internship at selected campuses.

  2. 2

    Online coding assessmentcommonly reported

    Reported as two or three problems of increasing difficulty in 60 to 90 minutes on a platform such as Codility: arrays, strings, linked lists, trees, dynamic programming and graphs. Some reports describe the problems as medium to hard.

  3. 3

    Written coding test (some campus drives)commonly reported

    Reported as an hour of coding problems and algorithm explanations on paper in some on-campus drives, and as usually skipped off campus.

  4. 4

    Technical interviewscommonly reported

    Reported as three rounds of 45 to 60 minutes each: the first on data structures and algorithms with live coding, the second on system or low-level design, the third on projects and fundamentals such as operating systems and DBMS. Reports describe trees, graphs, dynamic programming and low-level design as the recurring themes.

  5. 5

    HR interviewcommonly reported

    Reported as 30 to 45 minutes on motivation, career direction and projects, usually virtual.

What the test asks, and what prepares you for it

3 of 4 sections map to a December Code subject. The rest are named below, not glossed over.

SectionWhat it testsPrepare with
Online coding assessmentcommonly reportedTwo or three problems in 60 to 90 minutes on arrays, strings, linked lists, trees, graphs and dynamic programming, graded on test cases.DSAC++JavaPython
Written coding test (campus)commonly reportedCoding problems and algorithm explanations on paper in about an hour, where a drive holds it.DSA
Technical interviewscommonly reportedLive coding on data structures and algorithms, a design round, and a fundamentals round on projects, operating systems and DBMS; object-oriented design questions are reported in the design round.DSAOOPOperating SystemsDBMS
HR interviewcommonly reportedMotivation, career direction, projects and standard behavioural questions.not covered here

A process with no aptitude paper

Every stage reported for Microsoft is coding or conversation. The online assessment is reported at medium-to-hard difficulty, two or three problems in an hour or an hour and a half, which is a different level from the array-and-string problems of the service-company drives; trees, graphs and dynamic programming are named as families the problems draw on, not only as interview topics. A candidate who cannot solve a medium tree or graph problem in twenty minutes is not ready for the first stage, whatever their aptitude score.

That is also the honest limit of what this site does for Microsoft. December Code's DSA diagnostic shows which of those families is weak and its pages carry the questions with worked solutions, but the assessment executes code under time, and that is practice on a judge, not reading.

The interviews

Three technical rounds are reported, and their reported division is useful for preparation: the first is data structures and algorithms with code written live, the second is design, reported as low-level or system design depending on the role, and the third is the project and fundamentals, operating systems and DBMS among them. Object-oriented design, which the second round is reported to test, is the OOP hub's territory: what a class should own, how inheritance and composition differ, why an interface exists. Operating systems and DBMS have hubs and diagnostics here too.

Candidates report that the questions build on each other within a round, with follow-ups on complexity and on what changes if a constraint changes, so the preparation that pays is explaining a solution's cost and its alternatives, not only producing it. The HR round is described as conventional.

Eligibility, campuses and what Microsoft does not say

Prep sites print eligibility figures for Microsoft's Indian drives, class 10 and 12 percentages, a CGPA floor, no backlogs, and one of them also says Microsoft publishes no universal cut-off and that placement cells apply their own filters. Microsoft's early-careers page confirms none of it and describes the programs rather than the criteria. Reports also describe on-campus drives at a small set of institutes from August to December and off-campus hiring year-round, with an internship program for pre-final-year students at selected campuses. Treat all of it as report; the notice your placement cell forwards, or the live posting on Microsoft's careers site, is the criterion.

What December Code covers here, and what it does not

The diagnostic and practice cover DSA, OOP, Operating Systems, DBMS, C++, Java, Python: the subjects behind 3 of the 4 sections above. It does not cover the following, and no page here pretends to:

  • The coding assessment's execution: two or three medium-to-hard problems on a judge, and live coding in the interviews. December Code prepares the data-structure reasoning in MCQ form and does not run your code.
  • System design, which the second interview round is reported to test for full-time roles and which December Code has no subject for.
  • The HR interview and the behavioural parts of every round.
  • Eligibility, campuses and dates: reports describe them, Microsoft's pages do not.

What could not be confirmed from Microsoft

  • The assessment's problem count and duration (two or three problems in 60 to 90 minutes) and the number and length of interview rounds are prep-site and candidate reports; Microsoft describes none of it publicly.
  • Whether the written campus test still runs in any drive.
  • Every eligibility figure prep sites print.

A practice set for Microsoft SDE new-grad and intern hiring

Topic pages in the subjects this process tests, each with the questions interviewers ask and one question from the bank exactly as the diagnostic asks it. Nothing is published for this page: every sample was already public on its topic page.

DSA9 pages
  1. Binary tree and BST interview questionsTrees are named among the assessment's problem families and the interviews' recurring themes.
  2. Graph interview questionsGraphs are the second named family.
  3. Dynamic programming interview questionsDynamic programming is the third, and the one most candidates fail on.
  4. Linked list interview questionsLinked lists are reported in the assessment and the first interview.
  5. Array and two-pointer interview questionsThe easier assessment problems are arrays and strings.
  6. String interview questionsThe other family of the easier problems.
  7. Hashing and hash table interview questionsThe tool most medium problems need to reach the intended complexity.
  8. Time and space complexity interview questionsEvery interview follow-up is about cost.
  9. Recursion and backtracking interview questionsThe bridge between trees, graphs and dynamic programming.
OOP3 pages
  1. Classes and objects interview questionsLow-level design starts with what a class should own.
  2. Interface vs abstract class interview questionsThe design round's reported object-oriented question.
  3. SOLID principles interview questionsThe vocabulary a design discussion is judged in.
Operating Systems1 page
  1. Process synchronization interview questionsThe operating-system topic reports name for the fundamentals round.
DBMS1 page
  1. Database indexing interview questionsThe DBMS question that connects to performance in the fundamentals round.
C++1 page
  1. C++ STL interview questionsFor candidates who code in C++, the containers and algorithms the problems need.
Java1 page
  1. Java Collections interview questionsFor candidates who code in Java, the collection behaviour the problems depend on.
Python1 page
  1. Python lists, tuples and sets interview questionsFor candidates who code in Python, the container behaviour the problems rely on.

How the diagnostic asks it

One public question per subject, the same one its hub shows. The answer is marked because these are public; in a sitting you choose first, then see why each option is right or wrong.

DSA · Arrays & Two Pointers · easyDSA-032

Which of the following operations on an unsorted array of n integers takes O(n) time in the worst case?

  1. 1Finding the maximum elementcorrect
  2. 2Appending an element at the end when spare capacity already exists
  3. 3Reading the element at index k
  4. 4Reading the array's length

In an unsorted array the maximum could be anywhere, so every element must be examined: O(n). Indexed reads are O(1) because the address is computed from the base and the index; appending into existing spare capacity just writes one slot, O(1); and the length is stored, so reading it is O(1). Only a sorted array would let the maximum be read directly.

More on this topic: Array and two-pointer interview questions

OOP · Inheritance · easyOOP-004

What is 'inheritance' in object-oriented programming?

  1. 1A mechanism where multiple methods share the same name but different parameter lists.
  2. 2A mechanism where a new class acquires the properties and behavior of an existing class.correct
  3. 3A mechanism where a class is prevented from being instantiated directly.
  4. 4A mechanism where an object's internal data is hidden from other classes.

Inheritance lets a derived (child) class reuse and extend fields/methods of a base (parent) class, promoting code reuse and establishing an 'is-a' relationship. Several methods sharing a name with different parameter lists is overloading; hiding an object's internal data from other classes is encapsulation; and preventing a class from being instantiated directly describes an abstract class.

More on this topic: Inheritance interview questions

Measure it

Knowing the pattern tells you what is coming. A diagnostic tells you what you would get wrong.

10 DSA questions across its topics, easy to hard, about fifteen minutes. You get a readiness figure with the arithmetic shown, the topics you missed named, and a practice set sized for today. Free: 1 diagnostic a month and 15 problems a day. No card.

Start the free DSA diagnosticor try 3 questions first →

What the readiness test measures · how the score is computed

Sources, and when they were checked

Pattern last verified 29 September 2026, against the pages below. Patterns change between drives and cycles; when a source changes, this page changes and the date moves with it. A source marked official is Microsoft’s own; the others are the established prep sites and candidate reports the “commonly reported” details come from.

By Harshit · updated