Amazon SDE-1 Interview Experience

Amazon SDE Interview Experience (April 2026)

Online Assessment (OA)

• Coding: 2 Medium–Hard DSA questions

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Round 1: DSA (Onsite) – 6th April 2026 (1 hour)

1. Search in a Sorted and Rotated Array https://leetcode.com/problems/search-in-rotated-sorted-array/

2. Variation of Kadane’s Algorithm

   • Given a circular (rotated) array, find the maximum subarray sum.

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Round 2: DSA + Project Discussion (Onsite) – 6th April 2026 (1 hour)

• First 10 minutes: Discussion about my work experience.

DSA Questions:

1. Given an array and an integer k, find the maximum subarray sum from index i to j such that: |a[i] - a[j]| = k

2. Number of Islands https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-islands/

• Behavioral: 5 questions based on Amazon Leadership Principles.

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Round 3: Hiring Manager (Gen-AI Focus) – Onsite – 6th April 2026 (1 hour)

• First 15 minutes: Discussion on:

  • Usage of Generative AI tools
  • Experience working with AI tools
  • How do I verify the correctness of code generated by Gen-AI

DSA Question:

1. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree https://leetcode.com/problems/lowest-common-ancestor-of-a-binary-tree/

System Design:

1. Design a system to schedule processes.

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Round 4: Bar Raiser (Leadership Principles Focus) – Virtual – 14th April 2026 (1 hour)

• This round focused entirely on Leadership Principles (no technical questions).

Behavioral Questions:

• A situation where I had to deep dive into a problem (with follow-up questions)
• A situation where I had to convince someone of my approach
• Two additional Leadership Principles-based questions

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Overall Experience

The interview process was well-structured and covered:

• Strong DSA fundamentals
• Problem-solving ability
• System design basics
• Real-world project discussion
• Leadership Principles and behavioral skills
• Awareness and practical usage of Generative AI

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