American Express vs Microsoft Interview Questions
American Express lists 23 LeetCode interview questions while Microsoft lists 192. They share 9 problems — 39% of American Express's bank and 5% of Microsoft's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 14 American Express-only and 183 Microsoft-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 9 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both American Express and Microsoft.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add American Express-specific problems like Minimum Deletions to Make Character Frequencies Unique, Maximum Equal Frequency, Divide an Array Into Subarrays With Minimum Cost II and Microsoft-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: Microsoft skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
9 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both American Express and Microsoft.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Valid Anagram | Easy |
| Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Rotate Array | Medium |
| Permutations | Medium |
| Isomorphic Strings | Easy |
| Longest Common Prefix | Easy |
Unique to American Express (14)
Problems in American Express's list that do not appear at Microsoft.
Unique to Microsoft (183)
Problems in Microsoft's list that do not appear at American Express.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Merge Sorted Array | Easy |
| Add Two Numbers | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Single Element in a Sorted Array | Medium |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Group Anagrams | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Reverse Nodes in k-Group | Hard |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do American Express and Microsoft share?
American Express and Microsoft share 9 LeetCode interview questions. 14 problems appear only in American Express's list and 183 appear only in Microsoft's list.
What topics overlap most between American Express and Microsoft?
The most common shared topics between American Express and Microsoft are Array (6 shared questions), Hash Table (4 shared questions), String (4 shared questions), Sorting (2 shared questions), Two Pointers (2 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: American Express or Microsoft?
American Express has 8 Easy, 12 Medium, and 3 Hard questions. Microsoft has 55 Easy, 109 Medium, and 28 Hard questions. Microsoft has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both American Express and Microsoft?
Start with the 9 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 14 American Express-specific and 20 Microsoft-specific questions to round out your prep.