I have a Microsoft interview for SDET in next few days.....Any help on what should I focus on for my prep?

Question

I dont know c, c++ much, but can read the code written in it.

Also I am studying the basic data structures in c#...I guess language is not very important... As you can implement the problem in any lang of your choice in the interview...

Any pointers on what should I prepare as I don't have much day left.. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I've heard they no longer ask riddles, so you don't have to worry about that. What they will ask is lots of questions on programming topics (non-language specific for the most part). Check out this link. Skip the riddles section, but the parts after would be things to train for.

Answer 2

The language does not matter. Just make sure that you know a programming language that can solve simple problems (most of the time <10 lines).

Check out common graphics, graph, & vector algorithms (Introduction to Algorithms 2nd Edition would be useful).

Prepare for common questions like "where do you see yourself in 5 years' time", "describe yourself in 1 minute".

Answer 3

As a SDET, you should know about different types of testing: - model based testing - white box testing - black box testing - regression testing - load testing - exploratory testing - ...

and things that can affect testing like cyclomatic complexity and other code metrics

Also you might want to show you are comfortable with developer testing frameworks like NUnit and maybe popular testing tools used by QA people.

I also imagine the book "How We Test Software at Microsoft" by Microsoft Press might be worth flipping through, as well as having some knowledge of combinatorics.

Hope This Helps!

Answer 4

The common pattern of the technical questions would be:

1. Write a program to solve this problem
2. Now give test cases (unit tests) to test your program

So make sure you practice both aspects. Also a SDET position is not a fully testing position. You will be writing automation scripts and/or developing automation frameworks.

Answer 5

C# is probably a fine language. If you only have a few days, you won't learn C++ well enough anyway. Other than brushing up on the language, here are a few pointers:

• Look at the interview-questions tag on stack overflow. If you can answer most of those questions, you'll be fine.
• Grab a book on testing (How To Break Software or How We Test Software At Microsoft) and read it. Understand the basic concepts. You don't need all the details.

The SDET role is a full dev role plus some of the typical QA role. As such, your interview will probably be about half coding and half testing. Anything you might be asked in a SDE (dev) interview is fair game. You'll likely be asked to test any software that you write. There may be testing-only questions too. Something like, "Test a pop machine." To answer the testing part of the question, think about the different major categories of tests such as:

1. Functional tests (does the pop machine take $.50 and give you a coke?)
2. Edge conditions (what happens if you put in Canadian money?)
3. Stress tests (How many pops can it dispense without breaking?)
4. Security (can you break into the machine?)

The important part is to thing is to think through the problem systematically. Don't just throw up random ideas. Use the categories to help organize and prompt your thinking.

Answer 6

In India, generally MS does not tell whether you are recruited for SDE or SDET before hand. So the written and interview process remains the same at least to the 2nd round of interview( I do not have much idea of later stages). MS interview guidelines mentions that it is ok to code in any language and it is the problem solving skills that matter. But everyone generally codes in C as it is simple and clean. You need to be comfortable with Data Structures and Algorithms. Also they will ask you questions that will involve basic data structures, and some additional thought. http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/105/ contains some good examples of such questions. They will make you write a program and then make you write the test cases for them. You are supposed to ask a lot of questions. At times all the data required to solve the problem is not given. Also asking questions is the only way to communicate your thought process and problem solving approach. You need to be good with puzzles. Since I am an Aerospace graduate, the interviewer had asked me the areas of Computer Science, where I considered myself weak and then questions related to those areas [:(]. But it may not be a generic procedure of elimination[:P].