Amazon SDE-1 Interview Experience (India, 2026)

Application & Online Assessment (OA)

I applied for a Java-based SDE role.

Within around 10 days, I received the Online Assessment. As soon as I received it, I completed it without delaying much.

OA Details:

2 DSA-based coding questions were asked:

1. Binary Search on Answer (Medium)
2. Greedy problem involving a Priority Queue (Medium)

In addition to coding questions, the OA also included Leadership Principle-based questions.

From my previous attempts (I had taken the OA multiple times before), I realized that I had underestimated this section. This time, I consciously aligned my responses with Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

I focused on highlighting:

• Teamwork and collaboration
• Reliability and ownership
• Leadership and initiative

I believe this alignment made a significant difference, and I was fortunate to clear the OA this time.

About a week after completing the OA, I was informed that I had cleared it and was invited for the onsite interview rounds.

Onsite Interviews

There were 3 rounds in total.

Round 1 – DSA Focused

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Question 1: 1D DP Problem

Standard dynamic programming setup similar to House Robber.

• I initially approached it using a recursive solution.
• Then optimized it using memoization (top-down DP with caching).
• Converted it into a tabular (bottom-up) DP solution with O(n) space.
• After that, the interviewer asked me to further optimize it to O(1) space.

Discussion points:

• Transition from recursion → memoization → tabulation
• Why only previous states were required
• Whether overwriting values would affect correctness
• Time and space complexity trade-offs

Question 2: CP-Style Problem on Arrays

The solution required using data structure something like:

HashMap<Integer, Stack<Integer>>

• Felt similar to structured problems seen in competitive programming.
• The key was identifying the correct data structure quickly.
• Focus was on correctness, clarity, and explaining thought process and then coding it up.

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Round 2 – Project Discussion + 4Sum

The interviewer initially mentioned he would ask 2 DSA questions.

However, after my self-introduction, he became very interested in one of my projects (which has real users and a decent scale).

We discussed the project in depth for about 40 minutes:

• Architecture decisions
• Data storage choices
• Verification logic
• Edge cases
• Scalability concerns
• Failure scenarios
• Possible improvements

In the last ~15 minutes, he asked me to solve the 4Sum problem.

Focus areas:

• Avoiding duplicates
• Sorting + two-pointer approach
• Time complexity reasoning
• Clean implementation

I believe this was intentionally a good opportunity to test implementation clarity under time pressure. I first explained the complete approach clearly (around 10 minutes), covering edge cases and complexity. Then I implemented the solution in roughly 7 minutes.

Although the handwritten code was not the absolute cleanest, the logic was correct, edge cases were handled, and the interviewer seemed satisfied with the overall approach and execution.

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Round 3 – Leadership + Tree DP

First ~40 Minutes: Leadership Principles

• Deep dive into past experiences
• Ownership examples
• Conflict resolution
• Handling failures

This was the toughest round for me. The interviewer maintained a neutral (poker-faced) expression throughout and did not give any indication of whether my answers were satisfactory.

He went very deep into each situation, asking multiple follow-up questions and challenging my decisions from different angles. It felt like he was intentionally testing:

• Depth of understanding
• Consistency in responses
• Patience under pressure
• Ability to stay calm
• Honesty and authenticity

The discussion required breaking down situations clearly, justifying decisions with data or reasoning, and maintaining composure throughout.

Structured and genuine answers helped me navigate the round.

Last ~20 Minutes: Binary Tree Cameras

Essentially a DP on trees problem.

Discussion points:

• Defining clear states
• Bottom-up recursion
• Why greedy alone wouldn’t work
• Handling leaf and null nodes carefully

I was not able to fully complete the solution within the initial 20 minutes. However, the interviewer was kind enough to extend the discussion by around 10 more minutes.

With the additional time, I clarified the state definitions properly and completed the approach. The discussion was collaborative, and the interviewer focused more on the correctness of reasoning than just speed.

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Other Questions Reported in Similar Interviews

Some other questions that were reportedly asked in related rounds (either follow-ups or variations across interviews):

• Topological Sort (Course schedule 1 and 2 )
• Binary Search on Answer (Capacity To Ship Packages Within D Days)
• Find Median from Data Stream
• Logger-rate-limiter
• 0/1 Knapsack (DP) (Target Sum)
• LRU Cache
• Prefix Sums based problems (Subarray Sums Divisible by K)

These are fairly standard but require strong fundamentals in data structures, state design, and clean implementation.

Verdict: Selected

Hope this helps someone preparing.

Happy to answer questions!