Amazon SDE 2 Interview Experience

Hi All,

Time to give back to the community.

YOE - 3yrs 10months
Current Company - MNC (Bank)
Current CTC - 21.4 LPA + 10% Variable

Applied to amazon via a referral, Recieved OA link after 10days.

OA (27th April)
-Two medium questions (Dont rememeber exact questions) + Behavioural + Work Style Assesment.

Recieved a call from recruiter after 2 days to confirm the availability.

As i was going for 1 week vacation gave my availablity after 18th May.

First interview got scheduled on 19th, two interviews on same day were scheduled DSA + LLD. Both got rescheduled because of unavailablity of Interviewer. Though disheartened at that moment this worked out in my favour. As i wouldn't have been able to clear the System design at that time.

DSA Round (27th May)
- Only 1 interview was scheduled on this day.
- First 10-15 mins went for the LP discussion. Recuriter informed me which 2 LP i have to prepare, so formed the STAR pattern answers for 8-10 questions.
- 1st Question was variation of Max Island question, where we can change one 0 to 1 in the matrix and we need to find the largest island possible. Solved by finding all the components and greedily checked for each 0 what will the max island size if its changed to 1.
- 2nd Questions was simple hashing based, don't remember the exact question but we only had a discussion on this no implementation as time was over.
- Self Assesment - Hire/Strong Hire(Not sure because of the last question)

LLD Round (17th June)
- The round was initially scheduled for 10th but got rescheduled at the last moment.
- Recuriter informed the 2 LP i need to prepare, went with the same approach as last time.
- Initial 15 mins went in the LP discussion.
- I was asked to design the Issue management system(Different priority, Escalations, Wait Queue).
- Overall round went well and interviewer was satisfied with the solution.
- Self Assesment - Strong Hire

HLD Round (17th June)
- Because of multiple rescheds i asked recruiter to schedule both rounds on same day if possible.
- Recuriter informed the 2 LP i need to prepare, went with the same approach as last time.
- I was asked to design Parking Lot system.
- Since this was a HLD round and the question seems more like an LLD, i got a bit confused and ended up discussing the LLD, interviewer was supportive and still asked meaningful questions as per LLD.
- Last 15 mins were utilised for LP, this time i was asked 4 questions based on the 2 LP i prepared.
- Self Verdict - Lean Hire/Hire (Doubtfule because of LLD discussion in HLD)

Bar Raiser (23rd June)
- Got a mail after two days that a bar raiser is scheduled and it will be based on HLD. I expected the same because of the above reasons and was preparing for the same.
- First 10-15 mins went into LP discussion.
- I was asked to design Amazon Locker System. Next 40-45 mins went very well. I was designing it for the first time but bits and pieces which i learned from other systems all got utilised here. For eg : I learnt about proximity service in some other question and it just fit well in this problem as well.
- Interviewer asked few questions on the concurrency part and scaling, which i answered properly.
- Overall i was happy from my performance and interviewer also seems to be satisfied.
- Self Verdict - Strong Hire (Mostly because i was proud of what i designed)

Got the congratulation mail after 2 days.

Had verbal offer discussion two days after.

Verbal Offer:
Base Pay - 43
Bonus - 15.3 + 12
RSU - 210

Total First Year CTC - ~60

I feel like the offer is a bit low ball. Tried negotiating but recruiter is firm that they can't go over 61. I also had an offer with ~55LPA (Though i didn't liked the profile that much)

Location - Bangalore
Team - Amazon Fresh related Team (Please let me know the culture if someone is part of this team)
Also how do i comment anonymously :)