Amazon L5 (SDE II) | Bangalore | May 2025

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SDE IIBangalore
July 15, 202516 reads

Summary

I shared my interview experience for an SDE II (L5) position at Amazon in Bangalore, which included an Online Assessment, DSA, LLD, HLD, and a Bar Raiser round. I successfully navigated most coding and HLD challenges but struggled with the LLD of a Network Request Cache, particularly the LRU cache implementation.

Full Experience

OA:

Coding There were 2 coding problems on Hackerrank. I managed to solve the first one completely and got about halfway through the second.

HLD & LLD Questions: Custom Amazon portal where situation was provided and you have to answer based 4 5 design based questions on the situation. there were 6 7 situations in total.

I got a call from recruiter after completing the online assessment on Hackerrank regarding next interviews.

Round 1 (DSA):

Q1: Similar question but different context: Koko Eating Bananas – Solved it fully. Link: https://leetcode.com/problems/koko-eating-bananas/

Q2: Group Anagrams: https://leetcode.com/problems/group-anagrams/description/ Solved Completely

They also asked me 2 behavioural questions based on Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

Round 2 (LLD):

Network Request Cache LLD This was the round where I messed up. I explained all the classes and mentioned using LRUS cache but didn't write the implementation of LRU cache in my LLD. After the interview when I researched online, I realized it was the main point of discussion for any cache LLD

2 Behavioural questions based on Amazon LPs.

Round 3 (HLD):

2 Behavioural questions based on Amazon LPs.

I was asked to draw HLD for Amazon website which can handle the Diwali shopping load.

This round went well. I managed to draw the HLD completed the following:

  • Functional Requirements
  • Non Functional Requirements
  • DB Schema
  • Services

I was also questioned on choice of DB, Design and multiple failure scenarios which I was able to answer.

Please read Designing Data Intensive Applications book by Martin K. It's really helpful for HLD foundation

Round 4 (Bar Raiser):

2 Behavioural questions based on Amazon LPs.

1 coding question where he gave the brute force code of a problem. I had to recognize what the code did and then optimize it.

It was related to finding triplets in 2nd array given some index condtion in first array.

Interview Questions (5)

Q1
Koko Eating Bananas
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMedium

A coding problem similar to Koko Eating Bananas, which I solved fully.

Q2
Group Anagrams
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMedium

A coding problem to Group Anagrams, which I solved completely.

Q3
Network Request Cache LLD
System Design

I was asked to design a Network Request Cache using LLD principles. I explained all the classes and mentioned using LRU cache but didn't write the implementation of LRU cache in my LLD. I realized post-interview that the LRU cache implementation was a main point of discussion.

Q4
Design Amazon Website for Diwali Shopping Load
System Design

I was asked to draw HLD for the Amazon website which can handle the Diwali shopping load. I managed to draw the HLD and completed the following: Functional Requirements, Non Functional Requirements, DB Schema, Services. I was also questioned on choice of DB, Design and multiple failure scenarios which I was able to answer.

Q5
Optimize Code for Finding Triplets with Index Condition
Data Structures & AlgorithmsHard

I was given the brute force code of a problem and had to recognize what the code did and then optimize it. The problem was related to finding triplets in a second array given some index condition in the first array.

Preparation Tips

To prepare, I read Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin K., which was really helpful for HLD foundation.

For Amazon LPs, I studied from a few GitHub repos with around 50-60 Amazon LP questions. Other sources I used include: generating 3 questions on all 16 LPs using ChatGPT, and researching "Scarletink Amazon Leadership Principles" which I found to be a really good article.

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