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Maximum Subarray (Kadane's Algorithm) at Microsoft — Interview Guide

How to approach Maximum Subarray (Kadane's Algorithm) in a Microsoft interview: the optimal approach, what Microsoft interviewers look for, and company-specific tips.

Updated 2026-09MediumDynamic Programming

The problem at Microsoft

Given an integer array, find the contiguous subarray with the largest sum and return that sum.

Microsoft uses this problem to assess growth mindset, collaborative, product-minded. Expect Microsoft-specific follow-ups that tie the solution back to production reasoning and the company's engineering bar.

Key concepts

Kadane: at each index, the best subarray ending here is either the element alone or the element plus the best ending at the previous index.
Track the running sum, reset to 0 when it goes negative, and keep the global maximum.
Divide-and-conquer gives O(n log n) and generalizes to 2D problems.

Approach

def max_subarray(nums):
    best = cur = nums[0]
    for x in nums[1:]:
        cur = max(x, cur + x)
        best = max(best, cur)
    return best

What Microsoft looks for

Growth mindset — learn from feedback and failure.
Collaboration — how you work across teams.
Customer and product focus — especially for product teams.
Solid CS fundamentals in coding and design.

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