Amazon | SDE-1 | India | March 2022 [Offer]

I started my journey by applying for relevant positions on Amazon's job portal on December 2, 2021, after unsuccessful attempts at securing referrals. Despite being a 2021 graduate from a Tier-3 college with only seven months of experience in a fintech role, I was determined to break into a product-based company.

Resume Shortlisting & Online Assessment

Just a few days later, on December 6, I received an email confirming my resume had been shortlisted and providing an OA link. I completed the Online Assessment on December 11, which consisted of two coding questions (an Array-based and a String-based LeetCode Medium problem, both of which I passed all test cases) and over 50 Leadership Principles-based slider questions. I was thrilled to learn on December 21 that I had cleared the OA and would proceed to four interview rounds.

Technical Round - 1

My first technical round took place on December 29, 2021, with a newly promoted SDE-2. After a 15-minute introduction and two Leadership Principles questions, I was presented with a very difficult DP/Greedy-like problem. Initially, I felt panicked, but I pushed myself to think out loud, eventually hitting on the correct direction. The interviewer was impressed and encouraged me, leading me to a solution which I coded and dry-ran. This question took about 40 minutes. Following this, I was given a stack-based LeetCode Medium problem. I coded the solution but missed a minor edge case which the interviewer pointed out. We discussed time and space complexities for both problems. This round lasted 80 minutes, and I left feeling proud for having tackled the challenging first question successfully.

Technical Round - 2

The second technical round on January 4, 2022, was with an SDE-2 with seven years of total experience. We began with a 25-minute introduction and three Leadership Principles questions. He then posed a tree-based LeetCode Medium question. I knew the optimal solution but was asked to come up with an alternative approach, which I did using pen and paper. I coded one of the solutions and discussed complexities. This took 30 minutes. Next, he asked a unique sliding window problem that I hadn't encountered before. I gave an approach that he seemed to find interesting, and after discussing complexities, I coded it. This question took 20 minutes. The round concluded in 70 minutes, and I felt relieved that it wasn't as mentally draining as the first.

Hiring Manager Round

On January 27, 2022, I had the Hiring Manager round with two experienced Software Development Managers. After a brief introduction, they fired a series of questions that combined theoretical computer science concepts with coding implementations. For example, I was asked, "Can we run a program of 4 GB on a 2 GB RAM?" This led to a deep dive into OS concepts like Demand Paging, Page Replacement Algorithms, and the implementation of LRU Replacement. Many questions followed this pattern, starting with a theoretical concept and moving into coding or explaining implementations on an online whiteboard. Leadership Principles questions were also integrated throughout. I answered most questions, though I admitted ignorance on one small concept. The round was intense, lasting 60 minutes, and I had mixed feelings afterward, wondering if they were testing my ability to handle pressure.

Bar Raiser Round

After a delay and some follow-ups with the recruiter, my Bar Raiser round finally took place on February 28, 2022. There was a slight hiccup with the meeting ID, but I quickly joined the correct one. After a 2-minute introduction, I spent about 25 minutes answering numerous Leadership Principles questions, often requiring more than one real-life scenario. Following this, I faced a very hard tree-based question, an advanced variation of a problem that is itself marked as Hard on LeetCode. I took my time to think, explained my approach, and then coded it. This problem took 25 minutes to solve. The round concluded swiftly in about 60 minutes, and I felt confident and happy with my performance.

Offer

The recruiter called me on March 3, 2022, with the great news – I had received an offer! I was overwhelmed with excitement, practically speechless. We shared a quick, joyful conversation. The compensation details followed on March 4, marking the culmination of my interview journey with Amazon.