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Summary
I successfully navigated a multi-round interview process for an SDE-1 role at Amazon, which included challenging Data Structures & Algorithms questions and a thorough behavioral round focused on Amazon's Leadership Principles, ultimately receiving an offer.
Full Experience
My interview journey for the SDE-1 role at Amazon began with Round 1. I was presented with two Data Structures & Algorithms questions. The first involved printing the largest valid parenthesis substring from an input string, and I admit I struggled a bit with it but eventually found a solution. The second question was to find the median from two sorted arrays, which I solved successfully. After clearing the first round, I was invited for Round 2.
Round 2 also consisted of two DSA problems. The first was a 'Stone Collision' problem, where the interviewer pushed me significantly for optimizations, leading me from an initial sorting approach to using a priority queue. However, he kept asking for further optimizations, which was quite challenging. The second problem was to construct a coins array given a DP array, where dp[i] represents the number of ways a sum i can be achieved (e.g., dp[2] = 5). Despite receiving numerous hints, I struggled considerably to solve this one. Initially, I felt certain I was rejected, but to my surprise, I received a call for the final round!
Round 3 was a Leadership Principle round, which heavily focused on behavioral questions, grilling my resume, and discussing past experiences. The questions seemed simple on the surface, but the depth of discussion required for each answer was intense. I was asked to explain a time when I learned something new and how I approached it, and another question was to describe a time when I stepped out of my comfort zone. I couldn't recall one more question. This round truly made me realize the significance of detailed, thoughtful answers. In the end, I cleared the final round and received an offer from Amazon!
Interview Questions (6)
Given an input string containing '(' and ')', print the largest valid (well-formed) parenthesis substring. For example, if the input is ()(()))))), the output should be ()(()).
Find the median of two given sorted arrays.
A problem related to stone collision, where the interviewer consistently pushed for further optimizations beyond initial approaches like sorting and priority queues.
Given a DP array where dp[i] represents the number of ways a sum i can be achieved (e.g., dp[2] = 5 means sum 2 can be achieved in 5 ways), construct the original coins array.
Explain a time when you learned something new and describe your approach to learning it.
Explain a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone and what the experience was like.
Preparation Tips
I had prepared extensively for these interviews. Based on other available interview experiences, Amazon typically asks well-known DSA questions. However, I found the specific questions I was asked to be quite challenging, leaning towards the harder side.