# Microsoft Final Round Interviews

## Microsoft Empowerment
*"Empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more"*

*"When smart, creative, passionate people get together, the result can be astounding and the opportunities limitless. Microsoft is empowering their customers to do more and achieve more."*

Mendoza, Argentina-based CONIN works to not only eradicate child malnutrition in Argentina but also to serve disadvantaged families at risk of falling through gaps in social services. With Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft cloud services, the nonprofit helps more children and families receive the resources they need to thrive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=OFht8Cg2yNw

A blind father uses accessible technologies like Office Lens and OneNote to quickly take control of a medical emergency involving his young daughter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=pw2e7qI90jI&app=desktop

Microsoft stumbled into the accessibility market about three years ago, with the launch of the Xbox One Elite controller. The Elite wasn't designed to help people with disabilities play video games -- in fact, it was built for hardcore players who wanted more mapping options by adding rear paddle buttons, more sensitive triggers and interchangeable analog sticks to the classic dual-grip Xbox gamepad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfnmCUFxZwA

## Microsoft Values

### Know our core competencies
* __Collaboration__: Communicating effectively within the team and across teams.
* __Drive for results__: Working tenaciously to deliver on commitments, constantly seeking bigger challenges, holding yourself and others accountable.
* __Customer focus__: Our mission at Microsoft is to empower every person and every organization to achieve more.
* __Influencing for impact__: Successfully persuading and influencing others with effective communication.
* __Judgment__ Effectively scoping complex problems and using business acumen to make knowledge-based decisions.
* __Adaptability__: Ability to deal with ambiguous and uncertain situations or problems with agility.


### Accelerate our culture
* __Growth Mindset__: True learners who can acquire new skills rapidly and connect with others to help bring big ideas to life.
* __Diverse & Inclusive__: Being open to learning about your own biases and changing behaviors accordingly. Value differences, seek them out, and invite them in.
* __One Microsoft__: Actively seeks collaboration with others and looks for common ground across differences, contributes to and builds on success of others, and prioritizes for customer and team within their role.
* __Customer Obsession__: The ability to learn about customers' perspectives, show empathy to their experiences, and incorporate these insights into their decisions and deliverables.
* __Values__: When we come together, we treat each other with respect, we act with integrity, and we are accountable to one another for our words and actions.
* __Manager Expectations__: Our Managers help bring our culture to life. As they model, coach, and care, they help reinforce our culture and create the environment where everyone can do their best work.


https://news.microsoft.com/life/

## Microsoft News and Ambitions

https://news.microsoft.com/fr-fr/
https://ambitions.microsoft.fr/hub/

Aspirateur à Carbon

__Ignite 2022__:
* Métavers
* Teams premium
* Microsoft Entra Identity Governance
* Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
* tableau de bord de l’impact des émissions pour Microsoft 365

## Attitude and Methodology

Attitude:

* Be yourself
* Demonstrate your thinking and curiosity
* Ask for clarification and question the interviewer

Questions sample:

* What has been your favorite project to work on?
* What do you like the most about your work?
* What do you find challenging about working here?
* After all these years that you have worked here, what are your favorite things about the company?
* Was has kept you all these years at the company?

STARR model:

* Situation
* Task
* Action
* Result
* Reflection

Défauts:

Malhonnêteté
Manque de respect
Tenir sa parole

## Digital Identities

White Paper:
https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE51YlT?culture=en-us&country=US

__Proof of concept__
__Microsoft Entra Verified ID__

* Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF)
* W3C Credentials Community Group
* wider identity community


__objectif__: centraliser la donnée au lieu d'avoir une pluralité de données.

__Empowerment & Inclusion__

Marché 23 milliards (2020) -> 59 milliards (2026)

* Quel est l'intérêt de microsoft sur un plan "business" ?
* Qu'est-ce qui a évolué depuis 2018 ?
* Y a-t-il un risque ? (métaphore du porte-feuille volé)

__5 pilliers__:

* Robuste et sécurisé
* Confidentialité, pouvoir supprimer ses données (blockchain + immutabilité ?)
* Accessible à tous (droit)
* Supervisable
* Respectueux de l'environnement (Pourquoi ? Blockchain polluante car volumineuse)

## Projects Recap

__42sh__:
* shell bash posix norm

What is your contribution?
       → Parsing and Lexing, Architecture, Built-in, Function def

What would you have done differently?
       → Not doing a feature entirely alone without reviews, use git branch more efficiently.

__Chess AI__:
* Implementation of an autonomous chess engine using minmax, move ordering and Zobrist hashing strategies.

What is your contribution?
       → Perft(Move generation), Min-max, Zobrist hashing(hashmap with bits)

What would you have done differently?
       → Talk more about my work (zobrist key) to my mates, use bitboard.

__Peaceland__:

* Creation of a scalable Data pipeline on a distributed system using Scala, Kafka, Spark and Docker.

What is your contribution?
       → Architectuure design, Consumers, Kafka, Docker, Spark.

What would you have done differently?
       → Use batch for our S3, implement a dashboard.

__Azure Cloud__:

* Creation of an email spam classification pipeline using Azure ML, Data integration services and Computer vision.

What is your contribution?
       → Architecture, Scripts python to check if the word is contained in the dataset.

What would you have done differently?
       → Remove punctuation and stop-words. Fine-tune the model.

__Machine Learning and Cybersecurity__:

* Anomaly detection project which aims to identify attacks occuring on a network traffic using outliers detection algorithms.

What is your contribution?
       → Data processing, Plot 3D, Algorithm(Isolation Forest, Elliptic Enveloppe, Local Outlier Factor)

What would you have done differently?
       → Use batch to process all files. Have better metrics (only accuracy)

__Ship Challenge__:

* Built a neural network able to classify ships, using python and Keras (2 competitions: from scratch and from an existing model)

What is your contribution?
       → Metrics, try different layers.

What would you have done differently?
       → Benchmark models and chose the best. Fine-tune more.

__GEREP__:

* Fullstack development in an Agile environment using Java Spring/React for the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition.

What is your contribution?
       → Various features (front and back), dashboard verificateur.

What would you have done differently?
       → Have client's feedback. Participate at blueprint earlier.

## Potential Questions

#### Motivation

* __Why do you wish to join Microsoft and this particular role?__

Tout d'abord je pense être en phase avec la valeur de microsoft notamment le "growth mindset" et l'"empowerment". Le growth mindset parce qu'il correspond à ma manière d'agir: je vais toujours partir de 0 quand je ne connais pas un domaine et accepter que je ne connais rien. Accepter de ne pas savoir ce n'est pas accepter qu'on ne saura jamais mais plutôt qu'on ne sait pas au moment présent. Ce dont j'ai horreur ce sont les gens qui vont faire semblant de maîtriser un sujet pour rabaisser ou se vanter.

A côté de ça je pense avoir les compétences nécessaires pour travailler sur le projet (cloud, systèmes distribués, science des données) et je suis motivé à les développer davantage. Je pense que c'est important de s'épanouir dans ce que l'on fait et y'a pas de secret il faut aimer ce que l'on fait. Alors je ne sais pas si je vais aimer, je ne sais pas concrètement ce qu'on va potentiellement être amenés à faire mais aimer ça commence par être intéressé et le sujet de l'identité décentralisée me parle énormément, je pense clairement que c'est un sujet d'avenir, et ce qui est bien c'est qu'il fait écho aux valeurs de l'empowerment puisqu'on va octroyer le pouvoir aux gens de contooller leurs données et de l'inclusivité car c'est une technologie qui doit être accessible à tous.

#### Communication
* __Tell me about the most challenging situation that you have experienced, when you had to persuade someone to accept your point-of-view.__

       → 42sh

**Situation**: We had to reproduce a bash shell
**Task**: We didn't know how to start, which data structure to use, I did some researches and saw videos. I had to convinced to use trees.
**Action**: We did a meeting where I bring examples, we searched together for the best sructure.
**Result**: All was clear, we could create classes easily and we did a good project.
**Reflection**: use git branch and for myself communicate more about what I am doing it's important for the others to know all aspects of the project and so they could also help me or tell me what I am doing wrong (Implementation of functions)

* __Please describe a situation where you led a cross-functional task force or project team.__

       → Polyconseil

**Situation**: Internship at polyconseil, few months already.
**Task**: My manager asked me to help another intern on a backend issue. I wanted it to help him in the long run.
**Action**: I teached him, show him doc but didn't gave him the answer directly.
**Result**: He gained knowledge and was able to achieve the task, it also helpe me to improve my teaching.
**Reflection**: Focus more on tests.

* __Please describe a situation where you needed to convince a teammates to adopt a plan, strategy, or point of view.__

       → 42sh

#### Customer Empathy

* __Describe the strategies you have used to gather information that increased your understanding of current and future customer needs.__

       → Rezomont

**Situation**: Need to build a website for mu uncle's business center.
**Task**: I had to add relevant features.
**Action**: I searched on other sites for features (map, contact details)
**Result**: Website is still used.
**Reflection**: Be more interested in the business issue.

* __Describe a time when you were involved in the resolution of a complaint from either an internal or an external customer.__

       → Polyconseil - mail for a bug on déchets of the previous year. (remontée)

**Situation**: We received a feedback from the ministry.
**Task**: Some feature wasn't working well, it was a display.
**Action**: I checked all the years, reproduced the scenario. Pointed out what needed to be changed, check if it will modify the architecture(DTO)
**Result**: The patch has been added to the next deployment.
**Reflection**: Speak directly to the client after the patch.

* __Tell me about a time when you fell short of meeting a customer's needs.__

       → OCR

**Situation**: We had to made an OCR, we split in 2 groups.
**Task**: We had no Makefile, the training had one in two chances to fail. We had no metrics.
**Action**: We wrote the make commands by hands, we explain how we would improve our OCR, our metrics.
**Result**: We got away with it. Did not wanted to make the same mistake. Not saying its not my work. It was our work. it was our thinking. Its more important to convey ideas.
**Reflection**: Plan the project, hold regular meetings.

#### Detailed Design
* __Tell me about the most unusual or creative idea that you’ve come up with.__

       → Minecraft Server

Microsoft front end power pages / nothing fancy, free account

**Situation**: Friends asked me to play at Minecraft again. We started a moded server on a free host but after some times it crashed.
**Task**: Find a way to play on a stable server.
**Action**: I read AWS documentation, learned how to use instances, optimize costs.
**Result**: I spent more time configuring than playing but the server worked well.
**Reflection**: Improve backups.

* __Tell me about a time you were assigned a project you had to complete very quickly, yet you did not have all the information you needed.__

       → Rezomont

**Situation**: During holidays my uncle asked me to do a website.
**Task**: I had 3 weeks to do the website because after I had piscine. I had carte blanche.
**Action**: I did some research about which language to use. Which features to add.
**Result**: I did a great job but I wanted to do more and haven't had time at the end.
**Reflection**: Ask for clarification, for a guideline.

#### Design/UX instincts

* __Tell me about a product you like. Why do you like it?__
* What would you do to improve it?
* You have 3 months to do it, what would you do first?
* How would you measure the improvement?

       → Linkedin

Filtrage des recherches amélioré avec plusieurs localisations

* __Imagine you had to build an elevator system for a tall building. How would you go about doing it?__
* Imagine you have less time now. How would you evaluate what to change?
* How do you measure the success/failure of your design?

       →

* __Describe a time when you had to complete a project in which you were provided with very little information or guidance.__

       → Rezomont

**Situation**: My uncle asked me if I could do a website. All I knew was ocaml, tree traversals but I was interested in how to do a website.
**Task**: I had carte blanche to design the website. The purpose was to highligght the business center.
**Action**: I saw a lot of videos, learn HTML and CSS, took me a lot of time. At the end we had to do it on Wordpress.
**Result**: The result was good, today the site still have the same design.
**Reflection**: Have a guideline, use other frameworks: Typescript, React.

* __Describe a time when you proposed a major change in your work process or job duties. How did others respond to your proposal?__

       → PFEE

**Situation**: My group tend tto work late.
**Task**: It wasn't possible we weren't productive.
**Action**: I talked with them about my difficulties to work late.
**Result**: We found a compromise where I work earlier then we work a bit together and they continue.
**Reflection**: Talk directly about my preferences we all are differents, and find a solution together.

* __Tell me about a time when you had to change your priorities in response to the demands of a changing situation.__

       → GEREP interconnection GUN

**Situation**: We were working on a feature
**Task**: We had to stop a feature to start a new one.
**Action**: We had to revert all code.
**Result**: We revert sucessfuly and started the new feature, but we wasted a lot of time.
**Reflection**: Always show great communication during an interconnection and ensure that the other party is ready. Otherwise both works are meaningless.

#### Partnering / Conflict resolution

* __Tell me about a time when you experienced conflict with a team member.__

       → Balanced Game

**Situation**: We had to create a video game.
**Task**: One of the member did nothing during the semester. I was a bit angry. I was to blame too, I was pragmatic and would do his task instead.
**Action**: I had a discussion with him. We tried to fix everything before the deadline.
**Result**: Our project was correct.
**Reflection**: Show greater communication. Do regular meeting. Involve and include everyone. You can't do everything alone.

#### Drive for Results
* __Tell me about a time when you successfully removed an obstacle that interfered with your ability to complete a task effectively.__

       → GEREP

**Situation**: It was almost the end of my internship, I had to complete a task that was prioritized but I was already on another task. We were understaffing.
**Task**: The task I was doing changes the architecture thus it couldn't be done during the campain while the new feature could be done during the campain.
**Action**: I asked my manager to change priorities.
**Result**: Both tasks were completed.
**Reflection**:

* __What has been the most difficult assignment or task in your career so far?__

       → Certification AWS

**Situation**: During holidays, I challenged myself to pass the cloud practitioner certification.
**Task**: I gave myself 2 weeks of preparation.
**Action**: I followed the mooc, white paper, documentation, did prep exams.
**Result**: I obtain the certification on the first try.
**Reflection**: Asked help of Jacques (but I wanted to make a surprise)

#### Influencing for impact
* __Tell me about the most challenging situation that you have experienced, when you had to persuade someone to accept your point-of-view.__

       → GEREP

**Situation**: Dashboard
**Task**: Had to create a dashboard with a possibility to sort on a field.
**Action**: Talk with dev that it would modify too much our architecture, we proposed another alternative instead.
**Result**: Task was done
**Reflection**: I tried a bit too much to do exactly what was expected.

* __Describe a time when you had to persuade someone to complete a task, but had no formal authority over their work.__

       → GEREP Dashboard vérificateur

**Situation**: I was working on dasboard verificateur.
**Task**: I had to complete the feature but my code needed to be review first.
**Action**: I asked them to do reviews.
**Result**: They did it. I was able to improve my code and finish the task.
**Reflection**:

#### Planning, Organizing, and Executing
* __Tell me about a time when you aligned multiple stakeholders to achieve an objective.__

       → GEREP Dashboard vérificateur

**Situation**: The vérificateurs had a list of déclarants but could not see all tthe établissement at once. I decided to implement a dashboard.
**Task**: I had to split the task into small features (front, back), designs tests.
**Action**: I implement features step by step ask some colleagues to help me too.
**Result**: We had a dashboard which worked pretty well.
**Reflection**:

* __Tell me about a time when you did not meet a planned milestone.__

       → Balanced Game, Multiplayer.

**Situation**: We needed to add a multiplayer feature but it didn't work.
**Task**: Find a way to not talk too much about multiplayer (AI)
**Action**: We emphasis on AI.
**Result**: We had a good grade.
**Reflection**: Offer help beforehand, sometimes the task is too hard for only one person.