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Hi there! 👋
This document is an unofficial, collaborative wiki created to share our learnings and interview experiences outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
Please feel free to leave comments on any information based on what you’ve learned throughout your interview journey. The goal is to help each other explore opportunities that align with our individual goals—and, hopefully, help others reach theirs as well.
Good luck, and happy interviewing! 🍀✨
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Since I was targeting non-junior roles, system design was where I spent most of my preparation time.
One thing I intentionally tried to do was avoid using Microsoft-specific cloud service names when explaining my designs. At the very least, I made sure I knew the equivalent AWS services or open-source alternatives, so I could clearly explain my ideas even if the interviewer wasn’t familiar with Microsoft’s ecosystem.
System design questions can feel overwhelming at first because of their wide scope, but once you start categorizing them by topic and recurring patterns, they actually become quite fun to work on.
Honestly, I found them far more practical and applicable than LeetCode problems, and I genuinely felt that I was learning real engineering skills during the process.
🔗 https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/introduction
Hello Interview was created by ex-Meta and Google engineering managers, and it’s an excellent resource for system design preparation.
Their videos are very high quality
Some content is available for free on YouTube
I eventually paid for the premium subscription and never regretted it
The sections I found most valuable were:
They also offer mock interview services (I didn’t try them personally).