Amazon Imdb | L5 (SDE-2) | Bristol (UK) | Jun 2022 [Offer]
Summary
I successfully cleared my Amazon Imdb SDE-2 interview in Bristol, UK, which involved a phone screen and a four-round onsite, leading to an offer.
Full Experience
My Amazon Imdb interview journey for the SDE-2 role started with a phone interview. This round comprised 6 behavioral Leadership Principles questions followed by a coding challenge: a variation of the Two Sum problem where the input array was already sorted. Fortunately, I received positive feedback and was invited for the onsite interviews.
The onsite rounds were scheduled two months later, giving me ample time to prepare. The full day consisted of four interviews, each lasting an hour, structured as 30 minutes for Leadership Principles questions and 30 minutes for a technical problem.
The first technical round was a System Design interview where I was asked to design an online movie review system. Key requirements included enabling administrators to add new movies and allowing normal users to add reviews and star ratings.
The second technical round focused on Object-Oriented Design (OOD). I had to design a Deck of Cards, and then extend it to support the game UNO, including implementing a random shuffle function.
The third technical round was a Data Structures and Algorithms problem. I was presented with the exact LeetCode problem "Number of Islands".
The fourth and final technical round was another Data Structures and Algorithms problem. The initial question was "Course Schedule", and after discussing that, I was asked to update the logic to solve "Course Schedule II".
I considered myself quite lucky because I had extensively practiced all these specific problems. This preparation allowed me to navigate through the interviews with relative ease. Five days after my onsite, the recruiter contacted me with an offer. The total package was 100K Pounds, with a base salary of 80K and 20K accounted for by joining bonuses (spread over the first two years) and RSUs. I had anticipated a higher offer for an SDE II role at Amazon, but I suspect my current salary of 55K Euros or the Bristol location might have influenced the final number. Despite this, I was very happy to join Amazon and accepted the offer, starting in August.
Interview Questions (5)
Design an online movie review system. The system should support functionalities for administrators to add new movies and for normal users to add reviews and give star ratings to movies.
Design a Deck of Cards system. Extend the design to support the game UNO. Also, implement a random shuffle function for the deck.
Preparation Tips
My preparation primarily involved practicing the types of questions commonly asked at Amazon. I focused heavily on LeetCode problems, particularly graph traversal (like Number of Islands and Course Schedule variations), and brushed up on System Design and Object-Oriented Design patterns. My prior practice with these specific questions proved invaluable during the actual interviews.