Amazon SWE 2 Interview | Verdict : [Rejected]
Summary
I underwent a 5-round interview process for a Software Engineer 2 position at Amazon, which included DSA, LLD, HLD, and behavioral questions. Despite my best efforts, I was ultimately rejected, but I remain committed to improving and grinding for future opportunities.
Full Experience
Will keep it short. There were 5 rounds in the process.
1st OA: 2 medium/hard DSA questions
2nd DSA Round:
1st question → Sliding window optimized approach (Brute force: recursion/DP).
2nd question → 2D DP.
Verdict: +ve
3rd Round (LLD + DSA): Designed a Rate Limiter (gave the sliding window solution; for million users, missed Token Bucket) + Monotonic Stack question
Verdict: -ve
4th Round (HLD): Designed a CheerCoin system (I didn't understand what went wrong, but I saw this question for the first time. Might have missed something.)
Verdict: -ve
5th Round (Bar Raiser): 30 mins LP questions with deep grilling about past projects + LLD round to design max concurrent users logged in at the same time
Verdict: +ve
Good experience, although I felt I gave my best. Didn’t get the offer this time, but will keep grinding until then!!
Interview Questions (5)
Design a Rate Limiter
I was asked to design a Rate Limiter system. I proposed a sliding window solution; however, I realized I missed discussing the Token Bucket approach, which would be more suitable for handling millions of users.
Monotonic Stack Question
I was given a Data Structures & Algorithms question that specifically required the application of a Monotonic Stack.
Design a CheerCoin System
I was tasked with designing a CheerCoin system. This was a new problem for me, and I felt I didn't fully grasp what the interviewer was looking for, potentially missing key aspects.
Leadership Principles and Past Projects
The Bar Raiser round included 30 minutes of Leadership Principles (LP) questions, which involved deep grilling about my past projects and experiences.
Design Max Concurrent Users Logged In
In an LLD round, I was asked to design a system capable of tracking and managing the maximum number of concurrent users logged in at any given time.
Preparation Tips
Preparation strategy:
DSA: LeetCode
LLD: Studied using ChatGPT
HLD: HelloInterview
Practice mocks: TryExponent
All the best everyone!!