Amazon | SDE1 | India | April | Update(Rejected)

I recently interviewed for an SDE1 position at Amazon in Gurugram, India. I hold a B.tech from a Tier-2 College and have 1.6 years of experience in a Service Based company, plus a 6-month internship at a startup.

Application Process

I received an email for an online assessment, followed by two subsequent interview rounds. I was initially waiting for the results, which later turned out to be a rejection.

Round 1: HackerRank Test

This round consisted of two coding questions:

• Q1. Array Based - Find Minimum Groups: This was an array-based problem focused on finding the minimum number of groups.
• Q2. String Manipulation: A LeetCode Medium level problem involving string manipulation, which I approached with a DP-based solution.

My suggestion for this round is to comment everything thoroughly and use proper variable names for clarity.

Round 2: Technical Interview (Senior SDM)

This round was taken by a Senior SDM and also featured two technical questions:

• Q1. Sort Names with Salutations: I was given a list of strings containing names and asked to sort them lexicographically. The challenge was to print the answer while preserving all original salutations (like Mr., Mrs., etc.).
• Q2. Smallest Subarray with Sum Greater Than X: I had to find the smallest subarray with a sum greater than a given value `x` from an array of positive integers. I discussed a BFS-based approach for this problem, although I was not able to provide a complete solution during the interview.

There were no Leadership Principle (LP) questions in this particular round.

My advice for this round is to not start coding immediately. It's crucial to discuss your solution thoroughly first and only then proceed to write code. Even if you know the optimized solution, try to demonstrate your thought process and how you arrived at that solution.

Round 3: Technical Interview (Two SDE1s)

This round took place on the same day as Round 2 and was conducted by two SDE1s.

• Q1. Twisted Binary Search Tree Check: I was asked to check if a given Binary Tree was a "Twisted Binary Search Tree."
• Q2. Knight's Shortest Path on Chessboard: The problem involved a square chessboard, where I was given the initial position of a Knight and a target position. I needed to find the minimum number of steps the Knight would take to reach the target.

This round also included Leadership Principle questions:

• Q3. Project Contribution and Challenges: I was asked to describe a project where I contributed significantly, elaborating on the challenges and problems I faced.

My suggestion is to write production-ready code, taking care of all edge cases.

Outcome

I was waiting for the result after the interviews and later received a rejection email.