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Microsoft Technical Program Manager Interview Guide
The role of a Microsoft Technical Program Manager
The American multinational technology company, Microsoft Corporation, creates computer software, home appliances, laptops, and related services. The Microsoft Windows family of operating systems, the Microsoft Office package, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers are some of its best-known software offerings.
Technical program management tasks in mid- to senior-level jobs support an organization's product goals. They frequently work with management and their own teams across organizational boundaries to oversee the production and release of goods.
You can apply for the Microsoft Technical Program Manager job on the career page of Microsoft.com or get a credible internal employee to refer you through Prepfully's Company Referral service, available here.
Role of a Technical Program Manager at Microsoft
- Oversee the tactical and strategic decision-making for a number of software projects.
- Organize resources, set priorities, and make trade-offs to achieve software delivery objectives.
- Compile information about software initiatives and give it to upper management.
- Participate in the development of sophisticated software projects.
Preferred Skills/Qualifications
- BS/MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, equivalent relevant discipline
- 3 years of experience in hardware programming or project management
- knowledge in at least one of the following fields:
- Designing hardware or software, sustaining engineering, evaluating dependability, and/or performing technical analysis
- Planning, creating and implementing change management with proven success in the management of complex, cross-disciplinary, technology projects
- Gathering, interpreting, and presenting data
- Development of highly sophisticated hardware programs
- Computer architecture system design with high-performance CPU/SoC
- Thinking strategically, speaking to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences clearly, effectively, and convincingly, and keeping full, timely records of work actions, progress, and necessary backup plans are all essential.
Microsoft Technical Program Manager Salary
The Microsoft Technical Program Manager's salary ranges from 20.8 Lakhs to 43 Lakhs per year.
Microsoft Technical Program Manager Interview Guide
The Interview Process for Microsoft Technical Program Manager:
The interview process for the Oracle software engineer role consists of 3 stages:
- Recruiter Interview
- Phone-screen Interview
- Onsite Interview
Here's a more detailed description of the Microsoft Technical Program Manager interview :
Check out video guide that delves into the interview process and provides valuable tips tailored to each round of the interview.
Recruiter Interview Round
Overview
A recruiter will contact you after you submit your application to learn more about your motivations. Expect to talk about your past experiences at a high level rather than in great technical detail. This conversation will be used to assess your ability to collaborate, communicate effectively, and fit into the Microsoft culture.
Interview Questions
- Why Microsoft?
- What draws you to a career in technical product management?
- Why do you wish to work here specifically?
Phone-screen Interview Round
Overview
After the recruiter round, you'll speak with your potential hiring manager for around an hour. If you're interviewing with a specific team, they will go over additional specifics about the position and your group while also asking you more behavioral questions. Although he or she will be attempting to get to know you, you can anticipate a more in-depth discussion of your experience.
Interview Questions
- Tell me about yourself
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- What’s your favorite Microsoft product? How would you improve it?
On-site Interview Round
Overview
The final on-site interview comes after the phone interview. Five back-to-back rounds, including a mix of technical and product questions, make up a typical on-site interview. A typical onsite interview will last an hour: The interview will last 45–50 minutes, with an additional 5–10 minutes towards the end for questions.
Following are the three technical rounds you will face:
- General systems design
- Data structures (techniques used for different applications, database questions, etc.)
- Data sourcing
Every interview will give you the chance to use a whiteboard.
The next two rounds will be more behavioral in nature. The first round will be with the hiring manager, and the second will be with the leader of the team that you are interviewing for.
Technical
TPMs, as you might expect, deal with more complex technical issues than pure product managers do. Coding and systems design are the two most common question categories at Microsoft. The interviewer, the team, and the sort of customer the team serves all have a significant impact on the technical difficulty of the questions.
Microsoft will frequently ask questions about infrastructure in addition to the typical questions about algorithms and data structures that many other firms will ask. Of course, you should research a handful of Microsoft's most important products. You ought to be able to describe the general operation of the particular technology.
Interview Questions
Technical Interview Questions
System Design
- What is the CAP theorem?
- How is horizontal scaling different from vertical scaling?
- What do you understand by load balancing? Why is it important in system design?
- How are performance and scalability related to each other?
- What do you understand by "content delivery network"?
Coding
- Given an array of integer nums and an integer target, return the indices of the two numbers such that they add up to the target. You may assume that each input has exactly one solution, and you may not use the same element twice. You can return the answers in any order.
- Given a signed 32-bit integer x, return x with its digits reversed. If reversing x causes the value to go outside the signed 32-bit integer range [-231, 231 - 1], then return 0.
- Given a string s, find the longest palindromic substring in s.
Behavioral
- Describe a time when you failed.
- How can you have an impact on team members without exercising direct control?
- Describe a situation when you had to handle a dispute.
- How should features be ranked?
- What resources did you employ as a PM?
- What is your management style?