Amazon SDE New Gard Interview - Interview Assistance

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SDE New Grad
July 26, 20256 reads

Summary

I successfully navigated a multi-round virtual onsite interview process for an Amazon SDE New Grad position, which covered coding (data structures), behavioral questions, and object-oriented design, receiving a positive outcome.

Full Experience

Due to the interviewer’s schedule, the VO slot was rescheduled several times, but the process went very smoothly and the coordination was great.

Round 1: This was pure coding. After a quick self-intro, we jumped straight into the problems—very tight timing.

Linked‑list cycle detection: Used the fast‑and‑slow pointer approach (fast moves two steps, slow moves one; if they meet, there’s a cycle).

Tree level‑order traversal: Implemented BFS for level‑by‑level traversal (O(n) time, O(m) space).

Round 2: This round combined Behavioral Questions (BQ) and Object‑Oriented Design (OOD). The interviewer was from the Bar Raiser pool; their accent wasn’t too heavy, and it went smoothly.

BQ:

How do you handle an urgent deadline?

If you have multiple tasks all with tight deadlines, how do you allocate your time and resources?

Describe a time you faced failure—how did you cope?

OOD: Design a Unix‑style file system:

Abstract an Inode base class

Derive File and Directory subclasses

Maintain parent‑child references and permission attributes

Round 3: This was pure BQ. The interviewer was very friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed. Our answers hit all their key points, and they seemed quite satisfied.

Tell me about a time when your decision conflicted with others—how did you resolve it?

Deep‑dive into one of your projects: what obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?

Describe a self‑learning experience you undertook.

How do you balance multiple high‑priority tasks?

We wove in our prepared stories with our actual experiences, and it went smoothly.

Interview Questions (10)

Q1
Linked-List Cycle Detection
Data Structures & Algorithms

Given a linked list, determine if it has a cycle in it. I used the fast-and-slow pointer approach.

Q2
Tree Level-Order Traversal
Data Structures & Algorithms

Implement BFS for level-by-level traversal.

Q3
Behavioral: Handling Urgent Deadlines
Behavioral

How do you handle an urgent deadline?

Q4
Behavioral: Prioritizing Multiple Tight Deadlines
Behavioral

If you have multiple tasks all with tight deadlines, how do you allocate your time and resources?

Q5
Behavioral: Facing Failure
Behavioral

Describe a time you faced failure—how did you cope?

Q6
Design a Unix-style File System
System Design

Design a Unix-style file system, including abstracting an Inode base class, deriving File and Directory subclasses, and maintaining parent-child references and permission attributes.

Q7
Behavioral: Resolving Conflicts in Decisions
Behavioral

Tell me about a time when your decision conflicted with others—how did you resolve it?

Q8
Behavioral: Project Obstacles and Resolution
Behavioral

Deep-dive into one of your projects: what obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?

Q9
Behavioral: Self-Learning Experience
Behavioral

Describe a self-learning experience you undertook.

Q10
Behavioral: Balancing Multiple High-Priority Tasks
Behavioral

How do you balance multiple high-priority tasks?

Preparation Tips

Think through each question deeply, stay calm, and you’ll do fine. Good luck with your offer!

Note: Lots of people ask about Amazon’s process—they tend to be very familiar with both the OA and VO. It’s wise to mock the full flow in advance, follow along closely, and get real‑time feedback.

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