SDE

Do you mean by SDE as Consultant.. From my experience as a consultant. Its a contract position where you get hired by a third party company and they outsourced you to some other company. You will be working with SDEs but the salary might not match with a full time SDE.. just sharing according to my own experiences. Don’t know if you are looking for something else

This question is meaningless if you don’t tell the company name. Each organisation has their own designation convention. But I am assuming you are talking about Microsoft, I too had got that question about Microsoft. So specific to Microsoft, SDE is core Developer or Software Engineering role, where you actually work on their core products. On the other hand, Consultant position is like a mix of Software Development and liaising with clients and BAs, it is a bit like Service Based companies’ tech roles, where you develop too, but you have lots of other meetings, client calls etc. From purely a tech perspective, SDE is a better role, than Consultant. P.S.- Please disregard this complete answer, if this question was not about Microsoft. P.P.S.- With advance apologies to Microsoft guys, in case I am wrong. I have never worked with the organisation myself.