Microsoft Software Engineer interview experience

Instead of pure coding, they had me work through case studies and they also used puzzle-like prompts and situation-based questions. The main theme across both rounds was that they wanted to understand how I reasoned, not just the final answer.

The first round leaned more toward situations, and the second round shifted into visual and UX design topics. It was a different pace than an algorithm-heavy loop, and I remember having to switch modes quickly—going from reasoning about scenarios to thinking more about interface and user experience.

I ended up with an offer. Honestly, what surprised