🎓 Interview Preparation
Interview Preparation Guide
80+ real interview questions from actual Microsoft 365 administrator interviews — organised by topic with detailed model answers.
How to Use This Guide
Follow this approach to get the most out of your interview preparation
1
Study by Topic
Start with your strongest area to build confidence, then move to weaker topics.
2
Understand the “Why”
Don’t just memorize answers. Understand WHY things work the way they do.
3
Practice Scenarios
Use the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result for behavioral questions.
4
Read the Articles
Each topic links to a detailed blog article for much deeper understanding.
5
Prepare Your Intro
Keep “Tell me about yourself” to 2-3 minutes with numbers and achievements.
6
Ask Great Questions
Always have 3-5 thoughtful questions ready to show genuine interest.
Interview Topics
Click any topic to explore the detailed guide and related articles
Microsoft Entra ID & Identity
- Hard match vs soft match in Entra Connect sync
- Password Hash Sync vs Pass-Through Authentication vs ADFS
- Conditional Access — configuring MFA and compliance-based policies
- Dynamic group membership rules and use cases
- Admin roles — least privilege, PIM, and administrative units
- Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) setup and authentication methods
- Identity Protection — risky sign-ins and user risk policies
- B2B collaboration, external guest access, and lifecycle management
Exchange Online & Mail Flow
- Email flow from cloud to internet and back
- Hybrid mail flow with 100,000+ mailboxes
- Centralized mail flow configuration
- Mail-enabled security group vs security group
- MX record configuration and hybrid impact
- Troubleshooting email not being received
- Accepted domains and authoritative domains
- Hidden Outlook folders and mailbox scenarios
DLP & Compliance
- What is DLP and how to configure policies
- Creating DLP policy to block random numbers
- Sensitive Information Types and Custom SIT
- Sensitivity labels — creation and auto-labeling
- Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) overview
- Behavior of Internal, Confidential, Public labels
- Blocking emails to external users via transport rule
- PII dashboard in Microsoft Purview portal
Microsoft Defender XDR
- Microsoft 365 Defender portal — navigation and workloads overview
- Defender for Office 365 — Safe Links, Safe Attachments, anti-phishing
- Zero-Hour Auto Purge (ZAP) and how it retroactively removes threats
- Defender for Endpoint — device onboarding and threat detection
- Incident and alert management across all Defender workloads
- Microsoft Secure Score — measuring and improving security posture
- Advanced Hunting with KQL in the Defender portal
- Attack Simulation Training — phishing campaigns and user reporting
Complete Administration Guide →Defender for Office 365 Deep Dive →
Intune & Device Management
- Configuration policies vs compliance policies
- Device enrollment process and prerequisites
- Types of policies available in Intune
- Troubleshooting device enrollment failures
- Device diagnostics and log locations in Intune
- MDM vs MAM explained
- Conditional access with device compliance
- Enrollment methods (Autopilot, DEP, BYOD)
SharePoint Online
- Team sites vs Communication sites
- Blocking external sharing of a specific site
- Restricting sharing to specific external domains
- Permission model — Owners, Members, Visitors
- Broken permission inheritance troubleshooting
- Hub sites — purpose and administration
- Unmanaged device access restrictions
- SharePoint admin roles and access levels
Microsoft Teams
- Teams architecture — SharePoint & Exchange backbone
- Standard, Private, and Shared channel differences
- External access (federation) vs Guest access
- Teams policy types and assignment
- Teams + Exchange integration for meetings
- Teams admin roles and least-privilege access
- Teams lifecycle — creation, expiry, archival
- Preventing team sprawl with governance policies
OneDrive for Business
- OneDrive vs SharePoint architecture
- Data recovery — recycle bin, restore, version history
- Known Folder Move (KFM) — deployment and options
- Departed user OneDrive retention configuration
- Restricting sync to managed devices only
- Files On-Demand — purpose and behaviour
- Storage quota management per user
- Purview retention policies on OneDrive
Sample Interview Questions by Round
Real questions asked in actual Microsoft 365 administrator interviews — click any linked question to jump to its detailed answer
Round 1 — Technical Screening
Common Questions in Round 1
- Introduce yourself — your experience and key technologies you work with daily
- What issues have you faced with AD Connect and how did you resolve them?
- What is hard match and soft match in Active Directory synchronization?
- What is the difference between Password Hash Sync and Pass-Through Authentication?
- What types of policies are there in Intune?
- What is DLP policy? Have you configured any? Can you walk me through it?
- What is the difference between a mail-enabled security group and a security group?
- What is ZAP in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and how does it work?
- What are the uses of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records?
- What does an SCL value of -1 mean?
Round 2 — Deep Technical
Advanced Questions in Round 2
- Brief introduction about the technologies you use in your daily activities
- If MX is pointed to Exchange Online, how does centralized mail flow operate in hybrid?
- In an environment with 100,000+ mailboxes, how does inbound/outbound mail flow for cloud users?
- How many Azure AD Connect servers are required for 100,000+ users?
- How do you troubleshoot if an object is not syncing? What services do you check?
- How does encryption work for data at rest and data in transit in Microsoft 365?
- What is a Custom Sensitive Information Type (CustSIT) and when would you use it?
- How does device enrollment work in Intune and what are the prerequisites?
- How do you block external sharing of a specific SharePoint site?
- What is the difference between external access and guest access in Microsoft Teams?
Round 3 — Scenario Based
Scenario Questions in Round 3
- Your organisation received 6,000 bulk phishing emails. Walk me through your response approach.
- We work with critical partners whose emails must be delivered. How do you ensure seamless delivery?
- If detection technology is “spam filter” and we don’t want it quarantined, where do you create the exception?
- What is the difference between soft fail and hard fail in SPF? Which should a new organisation use?
- A new organisation was acquired — what steps do you follow to allow email from their domain in M365?
- A user’s primary mailbox and in-place archive are both full with litigation hold enabled. How do you resolve this?
- A user permanently deleted all their files from OneDrive. What are the recovery options?
- Your organisation has 500+ Teams and no governance policy. How do you address the sprawl?
AI Mock Interview Call
Practice with a professional AI interviewer — voice-based, covers all M365 topics, 100% free, no login needed.
🎙️ Voice-based call
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Alex — Senior M365 Interviewer
Alex will run a full 8-question mock interview covering Exchange, Intune, Defender, Teams, SharePoint, Azure AD and more. Speak your answers naturally — just like a real call.
⚡ Best on Chrome or Edge · Microphone permission required
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Senior M365 Interviewer
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