Amazon SDE 2 interview experience | Rejected

Applied through: Referral Process: After being referred, I received an email from the recruiter asking for a few details. Within 2–3 days, I got a call from the HR saying I had an interview scheduled for the next day.

Round 1: DSA Round

The interviewer was friendly and made me feel comfortable. He asked one data structures and algorithms question based on the two-pointer approach.

Problem Statement: You need to buy monitors for m desks. Each desk can have at most 2 monitors. You’re given a list of monitor prices, and for each desk, the total price of monitors should not exceed a given budget X. Find out how many monitors you can buy.

Example:

X = 100
m = 3
n = 6
arr = [50, 60, 40, 70, 20, 90]

One possible allocation:

• Desk 1: 50, 40
• Desk 2: 60, 20
• Desk 3: 90 (We can’t pair 90 with 20 as 90 + 20 > 100)

My approach: I used a two-pointer technique and explained my solution. The interviewer was satisfied with my approach.

Leadership Principles Questions:

• 2 behavioral questions (don’t remember exact wording)

Got a call from HR the same day — I had cleared the round. HR scheduled two more interviews for the next day: one DSA + one System Design.

Round 2: DSA + Leadership

DSA Question: Count Square Submatrices with All Ones – LeetCode I initially provided a brute-force O(n^3) solution, but the interviewer was expecting an optimized O(n^2) solution. He gave a hint, and I was able to complete the problem with guidance.

My thoughts: This round didn’t go as well as I had hoped since I needed a hint to solve the problem.

Leadership Principles Questions:

1. When was the last time you worked outside of your comfort zone?
2. How do you manage and adapt to new tasks?

Round 3: Low-Level Design (LLD)

Problem: Design an online food delivery system like Swiggy/Zomato. I explained the architecture, components, and interactions. The interviewer seemed satisfied.

Leadership Principles Questions:

• Two behavioral questions (specifics not recalled)

Final Outcome: After 2–3 days, I followed up with HR. She said the update was still pending. The next day, I received a rejection email.