Applied Scientist II applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 3.1 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 75% positive. To compare, the company-average is 66.3% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Applied Scientist II roles take an average of 150 days to get hired, when considering 16 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 30 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Applied Scientist II according to 16 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 27%
Phone interview: 24%
Skills test: 21%
Background check: 9%
Personality test: 6%
Group panel interview: 6%
Drug test: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Jan 2026
Interview
Hiring manager interview + 4 rounds team member interviews. Ask questions about resume, related work about the team focus. Also have coding questions. The structure may vary depending on the team.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Transformer architecture and implement self-attention from scratch
It was a great experience, we discussed my previous experience and then I was asked questions on post training, which is related to my previous projects. Waiting for the final results.
Leetcode + LLM knowledge
first a quick introduction from both sides
then one medium level leetcode question followed by a lot of LLM related questions, also asked about projects on resume
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode + LLM knowledge
first a quick introduction from both sides
then one medium level leetcode question followed by a lot of LLM related questions, also asked about projects on resume
I had a technical screen was for 30 minutes. Went over my resume, asked me questions In depth about my projects.
Interviewer was nice and friendly. Waiting for next rounds.