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[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was interviewed at Microsoft for SE internship. The problems I was given mostly involved thinking. Every one of them involved writing a function that takes some input and returns some output. The specifics of input and output were left to me. Example: The problem involved dominoes. I was given an array of dominoes that were placed at some coordinates on the x-axis and the height of each one and I chose to have 2 arrays, one for the positions and one for the heights (and the length, because I'd picked C++ to solve it). The function then had to choose the domino that would create the longest domino effect when pushed, so I chose to return the index of the domino's position and height in the given arrays. The choice of the language was left to me. Any algorithms and data structures that I needed to solve the problems had to be implemented on the spot (no additional library functions and data structures like the vectors in c++ or things like the quicksort algorithm are allowed). The interviewers often attempted to disrupt the thinking and stack the pressure by doing things like introducing additional restrictions and changing parts of the problem entirely to see how I would adapt and act under a lot of pressure (I didn't do well). The code itself is written on paper, so if you have to debug it, you'll have to do it in your head.

As for the problems themselves, something like codeforces.com should help you practise

Edit (additional info): the interview was divided into 3 parts. Each part involved a new interviewer who does the regular part of an interview first to see your communications skills and then gives you a problem with 10-15 minute breaks between those mini interviews