Microsoft Program Manager Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 1,028 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Microsoft.
Microsoft
Program Manager
Intern Average Positive experience Accept offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Phone screen Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Behavioral Case Other
Three rounds of interview starting with a phone screening, then a middle round online interview, and a final round with three interviews all scheduled within a couple weeks. Interviews were first with Microsoft recruiters and then with employees.
Confirmed questions1 question
- If your boss told you to create a coffee machine in a car, how would you go about it?
Microsoft
Program Manager
Senior Average Positive experience Accept offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Onsite
Interview formats
Behavioral
I first talked with the hiring manager and then had 3 short interviews with 3 different people that I’d likely be working with regularly. The interviews were mainly about cultural attributes -- growth mindset, customer obsessed, diverse and inclusive, and One Microsoft.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Tell me about a mistake you made and what you learned from it.
Microsoft
Program Manager
Mid Difficult Neutral experience Accept offer 1 round
Interview process
Onsite
Interview formats
Behavioral Other
The interview process is grueling and I get why people do it, but it’s more awareness, know that you’ll spend an entire day and meet several people, so it’s important to be mentally and physically prepared. Eat a good breakfast but not heavy, stay hydrated. This was just for a PM role, it’s their standard process, I imagine executive level is another thing altogether.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Tell me about a time you didn’t agree with a stakeholder on your project and what you did about it?
- Tell me about a time your project wasn’t going to launch on its schedule.
Microsoft Program Manager Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Microsoft interview reports.
“If you have a grid labeled a-z, then aa-zz, then aaa-zzz and so on along the x axis, and the same style of labeling on the y axis, what would be the coordinates of the 2360th square if its y coordinate is ab?”
Read reports →“How would you find the last number in a linked list that doesn’t have a null at the end but instead points somewhere in the middle?”
Read reports →“Given 9 balls where one is heavier than the others and a scale, how can you figure out which ball is heavier using just 2 weightings?”
Read reports →“Implement a function that checks if a string or char array is a palindrome, and then consider how it changes if I say ignore case, and then if I say ignore spaces.”
Read reports →“You are Flipkart and notice customers visiting the site, checking products (window shopping) but not buying, instead purchasing from the same seller’s brick & mortar store. How do you activate or convert such customers for monetization?”
Read report →“You have a fine dining Punjabi restaurant in Koramangala. What KPIs would you track, and if visitors are constant but customers served are reducing per month and turn-downs are increasing, what could be the reasons?”
Read report →“When you are in a disagreement with someone who is sure they are right, what are your next steps to solve it and keep things moving?”
Read report →“If you were to come up with a totally new device/item/product that no one has ever made before, how would you justify going ahead with it?”
Read report →“Propose an architecture for a fail safe system that protects your office from all kinds of malware, virus, earthquakes, and similar attacks and failures – with data redundancy, backups, operational guidelines, firewalls, RAID etc. all considered passe. What can you do and how will you model it?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 1,028 Microsoft interview reports.