The Four Programming Questions from My 1994 Microsoft Internship Interview (2023)

4 days ago

The author recalls their 1994 Microsoft internship interview, which included four programming questions, two focused on performance.
The questions ranged from basic tasks like rectangle and string copies to more complex ones like flood fill detection and circle outlining.
The flood fill question involved detecting a color in CGA mode with packed 2-bit pixels, requiring bit manipulation without SIMD instructions.
The circle outlining question tested knowledge of an integer-based algorithm, avoiding floating-point operations for performance reasons.
Reflections include the fun and educational aspect of such interview questions, despite their outdated style in modern contexts.

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