My Amazon SDE Intern Interview Experience
Summary
I interviewed for a 6-month SDE Intern position at Amazon, specifically for the Amazon Hackon S5 program. The interview involved two Data Structures & Algorithms questions: 'Next Smaller Element' and 'Topological Sorting', where I had to explain my approach, dry run, and code the solutions. I am currently awaiting the results of my interview.
Full Experience
I secured this internship opportunity through Amazon Hackon S5, which is a 6-month SDE Intern position for 2026. I received an email notifying me that my interview would be scheduled between September 8th and 26th, and it eventually took place on September 26th, 2025. My interviewers included an SDE 1 from Amazon Pay and an HR representative who was also a Data Engineer at Amazon. The interview started with mutual introductions, after which I was presented with two Data Structures and Algorithms questions. For both questions, I was required to explain my approach, perform a dry run, and then write the code. The interview concluded after these technical questions. I am now eagerly waiting for the results.
Interview Questions (2)
I was asked to solve the 'Next Smaller Element' problem. This problem typically requires, for each element in a given array, finding the first element to its right that is strictly smaller than it. If no such element exists, a specific value (e.g., -1) is usually returned.
The second question I was given was on 'Topological Sorting'. This problem involves finding a linear ordering of vertices in a directed acyclic graph (DAG) such that for every directed edge (u, v), vertex u comes before v in the ordering. I needed to produce one such valid ordering.