Amazon Interview | SDE-1 | Selected
Summary
I cleared the Amazon SDE-1 interview process, which included an online assessment, several onsite rounds covering DSA, system design, leadership principles, and a bar raiser, and I was selected for the position.
Full Experience
Education: MCA (Top NIT), 2024 Batch
Experience: 1 year 7 months
Current Role: SDE, Product Based
Timeline:
1. Online Assessment (OA): 28 February 2026
2. Round 1 (Onsite – 13 March 2026)
- Data Structures & Algorithms
- Leadership Principles
3. Round 2 (Onsite – 16 March 2026)
- Coding (Logical & Maintainable Code)
- Leadership Principles
- Project Discussion
4. Round 3 (Onsite – 16 March 2026)
- GenAI Fluency
- Problem Solving
- Leadership Principles
- Current Work Discussion
5. Round 4 (Virtual – 06 April 2026)
- Bar Raiser Round
- 3–4 Leadership Principles with deep dives and extensive follow-ups
The Rounds:
Online Assesment - Medium/Hard (DP + Heap)
1. DSA Questions
- 2 coding problems (Medium–Hard + Hard)
- Topics:
- Heap-based optimization
- Dynamic Programming
2. Workstyle / Leadership Assessment (~15 min)
- Scenario-based questions
- Focus areas:
- Decision-making
- Prioritization
- Ownership
3. Workstyle Assessment (~60 min)
- Behavioral + personality-based
- Repeated themes in different forms
- Key: Consistency mattered more than “perfect” answers
Round 1 (In-Person) – Medium (Trees + DP)
The interview began with a brief introduction. The interviewer (SDE 2, ~6–7 years of experience) mentioned that the round would consist of two DSA problems.
The first problem was a variation of the Tree Path Sum type. It required performing a tree traversal (DFS) while maintaining certain conditions to compute the required result. Although similar to standard Path Sum problems, it involved additional constraints that required careful handling. I was expected to write a complete working solution on the whiteboard, including edge cases.
The second problem was based on the classic House Robber problem. After implementing the standard solution, I was asked a follow‑up: House Robber II, which introduces a circular constraint. This required modifying the approach to handle two cases (including/excluding the first element) and ensuring correctness for edge cases.
Overall, the round evaluated:
- Strong fundamentals in trees and dynamic programming
- Ability to adapt known problems to variations
- Writing clean, correct code without execution support
- Handling edge cases and explaining the thought process clearly
Round 2 (In-Person) – Medium‑Hard (Graph & DP)
The interview started with a project discussion. I explained one of my projects in detail, covering the problem statement, design, and my contributions. The interviewer asked follow‑up questions to understand my decisions and approach (~15 minutes).
This was followed by two DSA problems, where I was expected to write production‑ready code on the whiteboard.
- The first problem was similar to Number of Islands, involving graph traversal (DFS/BFS) to identify connected components in a grid.
- The second problem involved computing the maximum reachable index / number of jumps, requiring a dynamic programming approach with optimized transitions.
Overall, the round focused on:
- Graphs and dynamic programming
- Writing clean, complete, and correct code
- Explaining real‑world project decisions
Round 3 (In-Person) – Hiring Manager Round (Hard)
The interview began with an in‑depth discussion of one of my projects. I explained the end‑to‑end flow, including:
- Problem statement and motivation
- System design and architecture
- My specific contributions
- Technologies and design decisions
- Challenges and impact
The discussion went deep into implementation details and ownership (~30 minutes).
After that, I was asked a LeetCode Hard problem based on binary search and sorting, similar to Median of Two Sorted Arrays. I initially struggled but eventually arrived at a working solution. The interviewer discussed an alternative approach and challenged edge cases. I validated my approach through multiple dry runs, and it worked correctly.
Next, I was given a GenAI‑based scenario:
A critical production issue at YouTube needed to be resolved within one hour, with the option to use AI tools.
We had a detailed discussion (~20 minutes) around:
- Prioritization and debugging strategy
- Use of monitoring/logs
- How to effectively leverage AI without over‑relying on it
- Decision‑making under pressure
Overall, this round evaluated:
- Deep technical understanding
- Problem‑solving under pressure
- System thinking and practical decision‑making
Round 4 – Bar Raiser (Leadership Round)
This round was fully focused on Leadership Principles.
The interviewer asked behavioral questions and went very deep into each response with multiple follow‑ups. The focus was on:
- My exact contributions
- Decision‑making process
- Trade‑offs considered
- Measurable impact
I structured my answers around:
- Context and challenges
- Actions taken
- Outcomes and learnings
The interviewer consistently drilled into details to check for ownership, consistency, and depth.
Verdict: Selected ✅
Notes / Tips:
- Strong focus on DSA fundamentals (Trees, Graphs, DP)
- Be prepared for variations of standard problems
- Expect deep dives into projects and ownership
- Prepare Leadership Principles thoroughly (with real examples)
- Be ready to discuss GenAI usage in real‑world scenarios
Compensation: Click Here
Interview Questions (5)
Tree Path Sum Variation
Given a binary tree, find a root‑to‑leaf path whose sum satisfies additional constraints (e.g., the sum must be within a specific range or must meet certain node‑value conditions). The solution requires a DFS traversal while maintaining those constraints and handling edge cases.
House Robber II
Extension of the classic House Robber problem where houses are arranged in a circle. Compute the maximum amount of money that can be robbed without robbing two adjacent houses, considering the circular adjacency between the first and last house.
Number of Islands Variation
Given a 2D grid of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of distinct islands. An island is formed by connecting adjacent lands horizontally or vertically. The problem may include variations such as diagonal connections or additional constraints on island size.
Maximum Reachable Index / Minimum Jumps
Given an array where each element represents the maximum jump length from that position, determine the farthest index that can be reached or compute the minimum number of jumps needed to reach the end of the array. The solution involves a dynamic programming approach with optimized state transitions.
Median of Two Sorted Arrays (Hard)
Given two sorted arrays, find the median of the combined sorted array in O(log(min(m,n))) time. The solution uses binary search to partition the arrays such that the left halves contain the same number of elements as the right halves and all elements on the left are less than those on the right.