AWS Dublin || Sde2 interview experience March 2025

I received an interview opportunity at AWS Dublin for an SDE2 role via a referral. The extensive process comprised seven rounds, starting with an Online Assessment and a phone screen. Upon clearing these, I proceeded to five intensive onsite rounds, each lasting an hour. These rounds were distributed over two consecutive days: two on the first day and three on the second. A strong emphasis throughout the interviews was placed on Amazon's Leadership Principles (LPs), where I had to share specific past work experiences relating to various behavioral questions.

Round 1: Bar Raiser - LP & Coding
This round was conducted by a bar raiser, an interviewer not from my potential team. It involved two Leadership Principle questions and one coding question. The DSA problem asked me to identify the most frequent page switches from a given log entry. I believe my responses to the LPs went well, and I successfully provided the code for the DSA question.

Round 2: Data Structures & Algorithms
This round was purely focused on DSA. I encountered three questions, primarily based on arrays and matrices. I managed to solve the first two questions and explained their time complexity thoroughly. Unfortunately, I couldn't solve the third follow-up question, which was graph-based, due to time constraints. Overall, the interviewer seemed pleased with my performance on the solvable problems.

Round 3: LP & Object-Oriented Design
This round featured two Leadership Principle questions and an Object-Oriented Design (OOD) problem. The OOD question focused on evaluating the logical and maintainable aspects of my coding rather than specific DSA knowledge. I successfully provided all the required code and engaged in discussions about follow-up scenarios, including how to apply inheritance. The interviewer appeared quite convinced by my solutions and explanations.

Round 4: LP & High-Level System Design
I was tasked with the High-Level Design (HLD) of a weather forecasting website, along with two more Leadership Principle questions. I developed a good design solution relatively quickly, though I regretfully overlooked incorporating a load balancer. Despite this omission, the interviewer seemed largely convinced by my design choices and expressed satisfaction with my LP-related answers.

Round 5: Leadership Principles (Hiring Manager)
The final round, conducted by the hiring manager, was entirely focused on Leadership Principles. I faced three to four grilling questions and answered all of them honestly. I felt I performed very well in this round. It made me wonder why the bar raiser also asked a small coding question, given the strong emphasis on LPs here.

Currently, I am waiting for feedback from my recruiter. It's been three working days, and I anticipate a decision within a couple more days. My fingers are crossed for a positive outcome!