Microsoft behavioral interview¶

For Microsoft interns, new grads (level 59 or 60) and early-career engineers (61 or 62). You finish with STAR(R) stories for growth mindset and Microsoft's values, a strengths and weaknesses answer, and a plan for the behavioral minutes at the start of each round.

What Microsoft scores¶

Microsoft publishes two lists. Prepare stories for both.

Official list	Items	Where
Values	Respect, Integrity, Accountability	Microsoft About page
Culture	Growth mindset, Customer obsessed, Diverse and inclusive, One Microsoft	Microsoft Careers culture page

Microsoft's interview tips describe growth mindset as being "true learners who can acquire new skills rapidly" (interview tips). Make it the trait at least 2 of your stories show.

Trait	What it looks like in an answer	Story to prepare
Growth mindset	You learned something new fast, or changed after feedback or failure	Learned a new stack in [N] days and shipped with it
Customer obsessed	You started from what the user needed, not what was easy to build	Changed a feature after watching [N] users struggle
Diverse and inclusive	You made room for a quieter or different voice and the result improved	Brought a teammate's idea into a design review
One Microsoft	You helped another team or person succeed, beyond your own task	Unblocked another team's integration
Respect	You disagreed without dismissing the other person	Disagreement with a peer where you adopted part of their idea
Integrity	You told the truth when it cost you something	Reported your own bug before anyone noticed
Accountability	You owned a miss and fixed it, with no blame	A missed deadline you recovered from

Prep guides add a competency list: Collaboration, Drive for Results, Customer Focus, Influencing for Impact, Judgment, Adaptability (Aced, formerly Exponent). It is not on an official Microsoft page. Use it as extra rows in your grid, not as the main frame.

Watch out: Some prep sites cite "Create clarity, Generate energy, Deliver success" as what Microsoft looks for. They do not appear on Microsoft's About, careers culture or interview tips pages (checked Oct 2026). Do not build your prep around them.

STAR(R): Microsoft's own answer format¶

Microsoft's interview tips page recommends STAR(R): Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection. The extra R is what you learned or would do differently. Three more official tips matter here:

Ask clarifying questions and state your assumptions before you answer a scenario or write code.
Prepare questions to ask the interviewer.
Have a vision beyond the role you applied for. Microsoft says you can build a career across many teams.

Situation (1 to 2 sentences): [Where, when, what was at stake.]
Task (1 sentence): [What I personally owned.]
Action (3 to 4 sentences, "I" not "we"): [Step 1. Step 2. The hard choice and why.]
Result (1 to 2 sentences, with a number): [What moved, who benefited.]
Reflection (1 sentence): [What I learned, or what I would do differently next time.]

Round format¶

Microsoft usually has no single behavioral round. Behavioral questions are mixed into most interviews, often in the first 5 to 15 minutes before coding or design (Aced, candidate reports). Your stories have to be short.

Stage	Behavioral content	Source
Official structure	Most interviews include 2 to 4 conversations with potential teammates and cross-functional colleagues, each up to an hour	Microsoft hiring tips
Students (interns, new grads)	An initial interview and, if selected, a final interview. All virtual. Expect behavioral and technical questions in each. Aced says a student process can take up to two months	Microsoft student interviewing, Aced
Intern final round	Usually 2 technical interviews on the same day, with resume and project questions alongside coding. Some candidates get a third behavioral round (reported). Microsoft says to allow up to 90 days for a decision and that it cannot speed up review for competing offer deadlines	University internship FAQ, intern interviews
Full-time loop	Aced describes 4 to 6 back-to-back interviews of 45 to 60 minutes, each mixing behavioral, resume and coding or design. Many 2025 to 2026 candidate reports show 3 to 4, usually on Microsoft Teams	Aced, candidate reports
AA ("As Appropriate") round	A final interview with a senior person, usually only if earlier rounds go well. Mix of behavioral, project discussion and sometimes coding or low-level design (candidate reports, 2025)	GfG: SDE-1 Hyderabad, GfG: SDE II level 61

Three more facts shape how you prepare:

The process is mostly team-dependent, and interviewers are not given a shared rubric (interviewing.io). Expect different styles in each round.
interviewing.io calls behavioral the least important round at Microsoft. The screen is for friendly people who can do the work and do not blame others. A plain behavioral answer is unlikely to sink you alone. Blame or negativity can.
AI rule: show your own skills without outside help unless the interviewer explicitly allows it. Using AI to prepare is fine (Microsoft hiring tips).

Tip: The AA round is not on any official Microsoft page. Do not ask "is this the AA round?". Treat every interviewer the same, and keep one fresh story in reserve for a senior interviewer in the last round.

Time budget inside one round¶

This is a planning guide, not an official split. It protects your coding time.

Part of a 45 to 60 minute round	Minutes	What you do
Intro and behavioral	5 to 15	60-second intro, then 1 to 3 stories of about 2 minutes each
Coding or design	30 to 40	Clarify, state assumptions, code, test with your own cases
Your questions	5	One or two real questions

If a behavioral answer passes 3 minutes, stop and ask: "Should I go deeper on any part?" Rambling here costs you coding time later.

Prepare in 5 days¶

About 6 hours in total.

Day 1 (45 min). Read Microsoft's interview tips and student interviewing page. Note the STAR(R) model and the AI rule.
Day 1 (60 min). List 8 stories from internships, projects, TA work, hackathons and clubs. Use the story bank method.
Day 2 (90 min). Rewrite each story in STAR(R). Add one Reflection line to every story: "Next time I would...".
Day 2 (30 min). Map one story each to Respect, Integrity and Accountability, and two stories to growth mindset (template below).
Day 3 (30 min). Write your strengths and weaknesses answer now. interviewing.io notes many candidates struggle with this question because they invent an answer on the spot.
Day 3 (20 min). Pick one Microsoft product you use and one concrete improvement. Aced lists "What's your favorite Microsoft product? How would you improve it?" as a Microsoft question. Template below.
Day 3 (20 min). Write "why Microsoft, why this team" (template below). Read the mission on the About page first.
Day 4. Say every story out loud, timed to 2 minutes. Cut setup to under 30 seconds.
Day 5. Do 1 to 2 mocks on Aced Practice (formerly Pramp; free monthly credits). Ask your partner to open with 2 behavioral questions, then give you a coding problem, like a real Microsoft round. Record it and check that the behavioral part stayed under 15 minutes.
Night before. Run the checklist at the end of this page.

Growth mindset: three stories to have¶

Story	What it proves	Weak version	Strong version
Learned fast	You pick up new skills quickly	"I'm a quick learner."	"I had never used [tool]. I read the docs for 2 evenings, built a toy version, then shipped [feature] in [N] days. It handled [number]."
Changed after feedback	You treat criticism as information	"I take feedback well."	"My mentor said my PRs were too large to review. For the next month I kept them under 200 lines. Review time dropped from [X] days to [Y]."
Failure with a lesson	You own misses and change	"I haven't really failed at anything."	"I promised a demo without testing on real data. It crashed. I told my lead the same day, fixed it in [N] hours, and now I test on production-like data first."

Strengths and weaknesses¶

Strength (pick one the job needs):
"One strength is [skill]. For example, in [project] I [action] which led to [number].
Teammates usually ask me for help with [specific thing]."

Weakness (real, not a disguised strength, with progress):
"Something I'm working on is [real weakness, e.g. saying yes to too many tasks].
In [situation] it caused [small, honest consequence].
Since then I [specific habit], and in [recent example] it meant [result]."

Watch out: "I'm a perfectionist" and "I work too hard" are disguised strengths, and interviewers recognize them. Pick a real one that will not stop you from doing this job.

Templates¶

Favorite Microsoft product and one improvement¶

"I use [product, e.g. VS Code / GitHub / Teams / Excel] for [real use], about [how often].
What works well is [specific feature].
One thing I'd improve is [specific friction]. I'd measure it by [metric], and I'd
start by [small experiment] before building anything big."

Why Microsoft, why this team¶

1. Product or platform: "I use [product] for [real use]. The part I keep noticing is [detail]."
2. Team problem: "This team works on [problem from the JD]. I worked on [related project],
   where I [action + number]."
3. Culture: "Microsoft talks about growth mindset. In [project] I [learned X fast / changed
   after feedback], and I want a team that works that way."
4. Beyond the role: "Longer term I'd like to grow into [area], and Microsoft has teams in [areas]."

Microsoft's interview tips ask for a vision beyond the role. Line 4 covers it in one sentence.

Question bank¶

#	Question	Trait it tests	Source
1	Tell me about yourself.	Communication	Aced
2	Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone. How did you resolve it, and what did you learn?	Respect, reflection	Aced
3	What do you do if your team is blocking you?	One Microsoft	Aced
4	Why would you be a good fit for Microsoft's mission?	Motivation	Aced
5	Describe a time when your project failed.	Accountability	Aced
6	Tell me about a time when you gained trust.	Integrity	Aced
7	What is one of the biggest risks you have taken?	Judgment	Aced
8	Tell me about a time when you showed a growth mindset.	Growth mindset	Aced
9	Tell me about a time you helped someone else succeed.	One Microsoft	Aced
10	Where do you see yourself in five years?	Vision beyond the role	Aced
11	What's your favorite Microsoft product? How would you improve it?	Customer obsessed	Aced
12	What are your top 2 strengths and weaknesses?	Self-awareness	interviewing.io
13	What was the most challenging part of your project, and how did you solve it?	Problem solving	Candidate report, level 60 loop, Feb 2026
14	What exactly did you build on this project, and what was the measurable impact?	Accountability	Candidate report, 2025 to 2026
15	Tell me about your hackathon experience.	Growth mindset	Candidate report, AA round, level 60, Nov 2025

AI practice: Jugal's prompt "Give me 5 PM interview questions for Microsoft." works for any role. Swap PM for SWE, then use "Critique this answer: Tell me about a time you failed." on your own written answer (The job hunt I didn't burn out doing).

Edit what it gives you. Jugal's rule: AI gets you a 70% draft, and the last 30% that makes it true is your job (tool stack post).

Red flags¶

Red flag	Why it hurts at Microsoft	Fix
Blaming a teammate, manager or school	interviewing.io says the screen is for people who do not blame others	Describe what you did and what you learned
Negativity about past teams	Same reason	One neutral sentence about the problem, then move to your actions
No Reflection line	Microsoft's own format asks for it	End every story with "Next time I would..."
Inventing a weakness live	Sounds fake, and interviewing.io calls it out	Write it before the interview
Jumping into a scenario without questions	Official tip: clarify and state assumptions	Ask 1 to 2 questions first
5-minute stories in a coding round	Eats your coding time	Two minutes, then offer more detail
Saying "nothing" when asked for questions	Official tip: prepare questions	Bring 2 real questions

Questions to ask your interviewer¶

"How does the team show growth mindset in code reviews or postmortems?"
"What would someone joining at my level work on in the first quarter?"
"How does this team work with other Microsoft orgs day to day?"
"What did the last new grad on this team find hardest in their first 3 months?"

Night-before checklist¶

Resources¶

Resource	What it is	How to use it
Microsoft About page	Mission and the three values	Prepare one story per value
Microsoft Careers culture	Growth mindset, customer obsessed, diverse and inclusive, One Microsoft	Map at least two stories to growth mindset
Microsoft interview tips	Official STAR(R) model and interview advice	Add a Reflection line to every story
Microsoft hiring tips	Official process overview and AI rule	Read the AI rule before your loop
Microsoft student interviewing	Intern and new grad process	Expect behavioral and technical questions in each interview
Microsoft university internship FAQ	Official intern FAQ: virtual interviews, referrals not required, up to 90 days for a decision	Read before you follow up with a recruiter
Microsoft students page	Internships, Explore, Discovery and other programs	First and second years: check Explore
interviewing.io Microsoft guide	Team-dependent process and behavioral weight	Read the behavioral section, then write your strengths and weaknesses answer
Aced: Microsoft interview process (freemium)	14 behavioral questions and a competency list	Drill the questions out loud
GfG: Microsoft SDE-1 Hyderabad	Candidate report naming the AA round (Jul 2025)	Read to see how a final AA round can mix coding and behavioral
GfG: Microsoft SDE II level 61	Candidate report, 60-minute AA round (Oct 2025)	For 1 to 3 year candidates targeting 61 or 62
Jugal: Behavioral interview preparation	STAR basics, 2 to 3 minute answers, company question lists	Use the timing rule. At Microsoft aim for the low end
Jugal: Craft the elevator pitch	6-step pitch	Use steps 2 to 4 for "Tell me about yourself"
Aced Practice (freemium)	Peer mocks (formerly Pramp), free monthly credits	Run one mixed behavioral plus coding mock
Free Mock Interview	Free AI voice mock with a report	Find where you ramble past 2 minutes
Tech Interview Handbook: final questions	Questions to ask, grouped by topic	Pick 2 per interviewer, different for each round

Related pages: Microsoft company guide, behavioral basics, story bank, low-level design (for 61 and 62 loops).

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