🚀 Amazon SDE Interview Experience (4 Rounds)

I recently went through the Amazon SDE interview process, and here’s a breakdown of my experience.

Round 1: DSA (2 Problems)

1. Minimum Operations to Reduce an Integer to 0
   Solved using an optimal approach
   Focus was on choosing the right strategy (bit manipulation / greedy thinking depending on interpretation)
   Discussed time complexity and edge cases clearly
2. String Matching Variant
   Problem:
   Given a string and a list of strings, return all strings from the list that are present as substrings.
   Approach:
   Started with a straightforward substring check
   Discussed optimizations like:
   Hashing / set-based lookups
   Possibility of using Trie for scalability

Round 2: DSA + LLD

DSA Component:
Follow-up problem discussion based on optimizations and edge cases

LLD: Design a Stack
I was given full flexibility to design the system.
My Design:
Used Linked List as the underlying data structure
Implemented generic stack to support any data type
Covered:
push(), pop(), peek()
Error handling (empty stack)
Clean, extensible design

Round 3: Hiring Manager (HM Round)

DSA Problem:
Given k machines and n processes, assign each process:
- Start with machine i % k
- If busy → try (i + 1) % k, and so on
Return the machine handling the maximum number of processes.

Approach:
Simulated assignment with efficient tracking
Used appropriate data structures to manage availability and counts

Deep Dive on Projects
Extensive discussion on my past projects:
- Design decisions
- Trade-offs
- Challenges faced
- Real-world impact

Round 4: Leadership Principles (LP Round)

This round focused on Amazon’s Leadership Principles, including:

• Ownership
• Customer Obsession
• Bias for Action
• Dive Deep
• Deliver Results

I answered using structured examples (STAR format):

• Explained situations from my projects
• Highlighted decision-making and impact
• Showed accountability and problem-solving mindset