Amazon | SDE 1 | Interview Experience (Off Campus)
Summary
I recently interviewed with Amazon for an SDE 1 role, and after three intensive rounds, I successfully received an offer. My journey involved navigating technical challenges and demonstrating alignment with Amazon's Leadership Principles.
Full Experience
I secured an interview with Amazon for the SDE-1 role after receiving a direct call from their recruitment team. My journey started with a screening call from HR, who confirmed the job ID and clarified the interview style, putting me at ease.
My first round was a technical interview. The interviewer started with introductions and then shared a collaborative coding document. I was presented with a problem, which I quickly recognized as the Sliding Window Maximum problem, though it was disguised in a story-style format. I explained my approach, discussed the optimal solution, and then implemented the code. There was also a simple follow-up question related to the same problem. Throughout this round, the interviewer incorporated behavioral questions based on Amazon's Leadership Principles, which underscored the importance of being prepared for LPs at any stage.
Three days later, I received confirmation for Round 2, and HR helped finalize the slot. The second technical interview was more direct; the interviewer skipped introductions and immediately presented two problems. The first problem involved finding the index of a single unique element in a sorted array where all other elements occurred twice. I solved this using a Binary Search approach. The second was the classic Course Schedule problem, which I tackled with Topological Sort. Following the technical problems, I was asked two LP-based questions specifically related to my work at my current company.
The following week, HR informed me that Round 3 would be the Bar Raiser. This interviewer joined late but initiated the discussion with a casual chat about my current role. This round primarily focused on behavioral questions; I faced about 5–6 classic LP-style situational questions. I made sure to answer these by drawing upon real experiences from my work, structuring my responses effectively using the STAR method. My prior preparation of multiple stories for principles like ownership, conflict resolution, and delivering under pressure proved invaluable, allowing me to adapt them easily. This round also felt smooth.
The final verdict came the next week when I received a call from HR confirming that I had been selected. I was thrilled to get the offer!
Interview Questions (3)
The problem involved finding the maximum element within each contiguous subarray (or window) of a given size k as the window slides across an array. I recognized it as the well-known Sliding Window Maximum problem, often solved efficiently using a deque.
Given a sorted array of integers where every element appears exactly twice, except for one element which appears only once, the task was to find this single, unique element. A common approach involves binary search to efficiently locate it (e.g., [1,1,2,3,3,4,4,8,8] -> 2 at index 2).
This was the classic Course Schedule problem, which involves a list of courses and their prerequisites. The goal is typically to determine if it's possible to finish all courses (i.e., detect cycles in the prerequisite graph) or to find a valid order in which to take the courses. It's often solved using topological sort.
Preparation Tips
My preparation involved several key strategies. Firstly, I focused on developing clarity of thought, which I believe interviewers value significantly. I practiced articulating my approach, explaining my choice of data structures, and conducting complexity analysis before even starting to type code. Secondly, I diligently prepared 6–7 strong behavioral scenarios using the STAR method. These stories were flexible enough to be reused across various Amazon Leadership Principles, which was very helpful, especially during the Bar Raiser round. Lastly, persistence was crucial; I applied to numerous Amazon openings, and it was through multiple attempts that I finally secured an interview call. It's truly a testament to grinding through the process.