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Home / Compensation / Microsoft / SRE / DevOps
Total compensation for a Microsoft SRE / DevOps ranges from about $145K at the entry level to $1.2M+ at the most senior bands, with a typical mid-level package around $335K. Below is the full breakdown by level - base salary, annual equity, and bonus - from public-source data.
Public-source estimates (Beta). Last updated 2026-05. Figures are annualized USD.
| Level | Years | Base (p50) | Equity/yr (p50) | Bonus (p50) | Total (p25-p90) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 (SRE)Site Reliability Engineer (New Grad) | 0-2 YOE | $130K | $18K | $15K | $145K - $205K |
| 60-61 (SRE II)Site Reliability Engineer II | 2-5 YOE | $170K | $38K | $22K | $190K - $315K |
| 62-63 (Sr SRE)Senior Site Reliability Engineer | 5-9 YOE | $215K | $88K | $38K | $275K - $495K |
| 64-65 (Principal SRE)Principal Site Reliability Engineer | 9-14 YOE | $260K | $195K | $55K | $405K - $790K |
| 66+ (Partner SRE)Partner Site Reliability Engineer | 13+ YOE | $315K | $315K | $95K | $570K - $1.2M |
Entry-level SRE. Strong Azure infra focus.
Mid-level. Bands track SDE II closely.
Senior IC.
Principal IC. Cross-org reliability ownership.
Partner SRE. External hires extremely rare.
Microsoft uses 'Service Engineer' / 'Site Reliability Engineer' titles on the same numeric levels as SDE. Azure infrastructure orgs hire heavily; bands track SDE within ~3-5%.
7 rounds. 6 of them can be practised here - each one below links the rep that trains it.
Other levels: SDE / SDE I · SDE II · Principal SDE / Lvl 65-66 loops →
Recruiter screen
30-45 minutes. Background, level calibration (SDE II vs Senior is contested), team interest, scope of past work. Recruiter often probes cross-team impact stories early.
Phone screen (technical)
60 minutes. One coding problem at Medium-to-Hard difficulty plus 2-3 behavioral questions with senior framing. Pass to advance to onsite.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: Coding round 1
60 minutes. Algorithmic problem at Medium-to-Hard. Edge cases and clean code expected as table stakes; the differentiator is depth on follow-ups.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: Coding round 2 (sometimes)
60 minutes. Some Senior loops include a second coding round; others replace it with a design or applied round. Often more open-ended (system design lite, OOD problem, or extending an existing system).
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: System design 1 (product/applied)
60 minutes. Senior-scope service design: notification system at scale, distributed key-value store, basic search, recommendation system. Drive the conversation, defend tradeoffs explicitly.
Free rep: Design walkthrough: Design a URL Shortener (bit.ly) →Onsite: System design 2 (infra/architecture)
60 minutes. Lower-level design: distributed cache, rate limiter, log aggregation, message queue. Azure depth (Service Fabric, Cosmos DB, Service Bus) helps for cloud-adjacent teams.
Free rep: Design walkthrough: Design a Distributed Cache (Memcached / Redis Cluster) →Onsite: As-app (hiring manager)
60-75 minutes. Senior IC behavioral signal. Stories about technical leadership, mentoring SDE IIs, navigating cross-team disagreement, recovering technical decisions. Growth Mindset at senior scope.
Free rep: STAR answers: Learning from Failure →The full Microsoft prep pack → what they value, topic emphasis, and the questions candidates ask.
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