Amazon Interview Experince

Summary

I had an SDE 2 interview experience with Amazon involving an Online Assessment, two technical rounds with DSA and behavioral questions. I was ultimately rejected but gained valuable insights and confidence.

Full Experience

Leetcode community helped a lot its time to payback.

Online Assessment (OA)

✅ Q1: Network of computers in a circular connection, sync them (Easy)
✅ Q2: Cost optimization – Sort costs, make all elements unique in an array (Hard)
✅ Work simulation questions – Answered instinctively

🔹 Outcome: Cleared OA, got an interview call in 2 weeks

Round 1 (Technical + Behavioral)

Started with introduction & work experience

Behavioral questions

DSA Question: Implement LRU Cache

Used Doubly Linked List + HashMap

Made some mistakes under pressure. I have solved similar question but fumbled under pressure. It was my first interview after long time. Should have had some mock interview before.

Round 2 (Technical + Behavioral)

Started with intro + behavioral questions

DSA Question 1: LCA-like problem (Solved well)

DSA Question 2: Find distance between two nodes in a binary tree

Gave a decent solution, but not optimal

More grilling on behavioral responses

Round went well better that first round.

📢 Result: Reject ❌, but recruiter encouraged reapplying after 3-4 months

Interview Questions (3)

Cost Optimization: Make Array Elements Unique

Data Structures & AlgorithmsHard

Given an array of costs, sort them and make all elements unique with minimum total cost/operations. (Original text: 'Cost optimization – Sort costs, make all elements unique in an array')

Implement LRU Cache

Data Structures & Algorithms

Implement the LRU (Least Recently Used) cache data structure.

Distance Between Two Nodes in Binary Tree

Data Structures & Algorithms

Find the distance between two given nodes in a binary tree.

Preparation Tips

Learnings & Takeaways

✅ Practice DSA with a stopwatch ⏳
✅ Do mock interviews beforehand 🎯
✅ Prepare structured behavioral responses 📝

Bright Side:

This interview helped to understand with some more pratice I can do it.

In just 2 weeks, I leveled up in DSA & System Design 💪

I was 80% there, and now, with this confidence, I'm actively applying! 🚀

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