Microsoft SDE Intern Interview Experience
💼 LTIMindtree Interview Experience (On-Campus) | Fresher | 2026
Salesforce SMTS | Interview Experience | Rejected
JPMC | SDE2 (Associate) - Java Backend - Interview Experience + Compensation
Microsoft - SDE2 - Coding Round
Amazon SDE 2 (Interview + Compensation)
Summary
I interviewed for an Amazon SDE 2 role and received a 'Hire' call after a process that spanned over two months. The interview rounds included coding challenges on data structure optimization and a LeetCode problem, system design for 'Notify Me' functionality, and a low-level design for a 'Parking Lot', alongside extensive Amazon Leadership Principles questions.
Full Experience
🧑💻 Background
Education: B.Tech from IIT Years of Experience: 4 years (2021 grad) Prior Experience: Fintech MNC Current CTC ~ 30L Applied via a LinkedIn job post shared by a recruiter, Got OA link on the same day.
✅ Online Assessment (OA) Date: 18th April 2025 2 Leetcode Medium coding questions in 90 mins Followed by System design scenario-based questions + Behavioural questions Got the call for interviews after 3 weeks.
🔹 Round 1 – Coding (With SSE) LP Focus: Deep Dive, Invent & Simplify LP Questions: Tell me about a time you worked in a complex scenario Tell me about a time you had to deep dive into a problem Tell me about a time you set a new standard in your team
Design a data structure to optimize storage for array of Booleans, I used bits of an Integer to store Booleans efficiently. Also had a couple of basic Java questions.
🔹 Round 2 – Coding (With SSE) LP Focus: Insist on Higher Standards, Earn Trust LP Questions: Tell me about a time where trust broke between you and your team Tell me about a time you insisted on higher standards for a feature
https://leetcode.com/problems/top-k-frequent-elements/ (Tie-breaker: return smaller element) First gave an O(N log N) solution, then he asked to improve to O(N log K) so I gave and implemented a priority queue + comparator based solution. Follow-up: Optimize when range of array elements is [0, 10000], couldn’t finish as time ran out.
🔹 Round 3 – HLD (With SDM) LP Focus: Think Big, Earn Trust LP Questions: Tell me about a time when you convinced your team about something technical Tell me about a time when you convinced your team about something behavioural
Design Notify Me functionality for out of stock products, Received a Bluescape whiteboard link beforehand, clarified requirements, spoke out my thoughts then drew a design diagram, missed one functional part of the system initially, but covered it once the interviewer pointed it out which led to time loss. Discussed trade-offs, DB choices.
🔹 Round 4 – LLD (Bar Raiser) LP Focus: Deliver Results, Learn and Be Curious LP Questions: Tell me about a time you delivered under a tight deadline Tell me about a time you had to learn something new quickly to deliver
Design a Parking Lot, Designed class structure, the interviewer told to implemented method to assign nearest parking spot, I used BFS to solve it, then later extended the solution to support multiple floors.
Verdict: The recruiter reached out the same day to share that it's a "Hire" call.😄
💡 Thoughts
- My interview was easier than most, my HLD round didn't go as well as I would have liked.
- Be very thorough with LP prep, all rounds started with 2-3 questions with counter questions taking 20-25 mins of time, don't repeat same stories.
- Clarify requirements and speak out loud during design rounds, even if you make a mistake, showing recovery and adaptability counts.
- The whole process took over 2 months, with interviews getting rescheduled 5-6 times which was a bit frustrating.
Interview Questions (13)
Tell me about a time you worked in a complex scenario
Tell me about a time you had to deep dive into a problem
Tell me about a time you set a new standard in your team
Design a data structure to optimize storage for array of Booleans, I used bits of an Integer to store Booleans efficiently. Also had a couple of basic Java questions.
Tell me about a time where trust broke between you and your team
Tell me about a time you insisted on higher standards for a feature
https://leetcode.com/problems/top-k-frequent-elements/ (Tie-breaker: return smaller element) First gave an O(N log N) solution, then he asked to improve to O(N log K) so I gave and implemented a priority queue + comparator based solution. Follow-up: Optimize when range of array elements is [0, 10000], couldn’t finish as time ran out.
Tell me about a time when you convinced your team about something technical
Tell me about a time when you convinced your team about something behavioural
Design Notify Me functionality for out of stock products, Received a Bluescape whiteboard link beforehand, clarified requirements, spoke out my thoughts then drew a design diagram, missed one functional part of the system initially, but covered it once the interviewer pointed it out which led to time loss. Discussed trade-offs, DB choices.
Tell me about a time you delivered under a tight deadline
Tell me about a time you had to learn something new quickly to deliver
Design a Parking Lot, Designed class structure, the interviewer told to implemented method to assign nearest parking spot, I used BFS to solve it, then later extended the solution to support multiple floors.
Preparation Tips
I started serious preparation in Jan 2025. For Java and LLD, I used Shrayansh Jain’s Udemy course, and for System Design, I followed Jordan Has No Life’s YouTube Systems Design 2.0 playlist 🐐. My DSA foundation was strong, so I focused on practicing problems and solving tricky interview problems. For LP, I practiced with ChatGPT, asking it to generate questions and help format my answers using the STAR method. Before Amazon, I faced 4 rejections from Samsung, Goldman Sachs, Cohesity, and Rubrik which helped me identify the gaps.