Amazon | SDE 2 | Selected
Summary
I applied directly for an SDE 2 opening at Amazon and successfully navigated through an online assessment, multiple technical, system design, and behavioral interview rounds, ultimately receiving a job offer.
Full Experience
I had applied directly for an SDE 2 opening on the Amazon Careers portal.
Online Assessment
- 2 Hard DSA questions.
- Don't remember the questions.
- Passed 15/15 for the first one and 12-13/15 for the second one.
System Design questions on DB choices, batch execution vs async messages queues etc. This section was pretty straight forward.
Behavioural assessment containing standard questions which had to be answered using options from Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly Disagree.
Round 1 Interview
- https://leetcode.com/problems/copy-list-with-random-pointer
Solved in O(N) time and O(1) space. - https://leetcode.com/problems/first-unique-number/description/
Solved in O(N log N) time.
Leadership questions:
- Compromised quality to deliver quickly.
- Improved an existing process in your team.
Verdict : Inclined
Round 2 Interview
Design the classes and services for a Food Ordering system supporting search, sort, ordering and rating features.
Leadership questions:
- Owned a module end to end.
- Conflict with manager.
Verdict : Inclined
Round 3 Interview
High level design of a Vending Machine Leasing Company.
Leadership questions:
- Made something simple for a customer.
Verdict : Inclined
Bar Raiser
- Question very similar to : https://leetcode.com/problems/car-pooling
Instead of returning true/false, I had to return the maximum number of passengers in the car at any point.
Leadership questions:
- Went above and beyond to deliver for a customer.
- Delivered something impactful with vague requirements.
Verdict : Inclined
Final Result : Selected
Compensation : https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/7670203/amazon-sde-2-by-anonymous_user-jgx9/
Interview Questions (12)
Copy List with Random Pointer
A linked list is given such that each node contains an additional random pointer which could point to any node in the list or null. Construct a deep copy of the list.
First Unique Number
Design a data structure that supports adding new numbers and finding the first unique number in the queue.
Describe a time you compromised quality to deliver quickly.
Describe a situation where you had to compromise on quality to meet a tight deadline and deliver quickly.
Share an instance where you improved an existing process.
Tell me about a time you identified an inefficiency and improved an existing process within your team.
Design a Food Ordering System
Design the classes and services for a Food Ordering system supporting search, sort, ordering and rating features.
Describe owning a module end to end.
Tell me about a time you owned a module or project from conception to completion, end to end.
Describe a conflict with your manager.
Share an experience where you had a conflict or disagreement with your manager and how you resolved it.
Design a Vending Machine Leasing Company
Provide a high-level design for a Vending Machine Leasing Company.
Describe simplifying something for a customer.
Tell me about a time you simplified a complex process or product feature to make it easier for a customer.
Maximum Passengers in Car Pooling
Given a list of trips, where trips[i] = [numPassengers, start_location, end_location] represents the number of passengers and their start/end locations, find the maximum number of passengers present in the vehicle at any single point in time. This is similar to LeetCode's Car Pooling problem but requires returning the maximum capacity instead of a boolean.
Describe going above and beyond for a customer.
Share an example where you went above and beyond your standard duties to deliver exceptional results for a customer.
Describe delivering impact with vague requirements.
Tell me about a time you had to deliver something impactful despite having vague or ambiguous requirements.