I applied online. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Pune) in Sep 2021
Interview
Status: Tech Lead in start up
Position: SDE2 at Amazon
Location: Banglore
Recruiter approached via email on Aug 2021
There were total of 5 rounds, in addition to the Online Assessment, testing coding, system design, etc.
Leadership Principle questions are important
After I responded, there was a 1 week of time to submit OA.
It was normal campus hiring event. First applied online though their website, then get OA with 2 algorithms problem. After that there was 1 round phone screening. Finally 4 rounds virtual onsite.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Grid bases BFS problem.
Design some kinds of chess game.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2020
Interview
The hiring and interview process started for me when a recruiter reached out to me about openings for SDE2 positions. I only had 1 year of experience, so I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to give the online assessment a try after some preparation.
The online assessment on HackerRank included two coding questions and a behavioral evaluation. The coding questions were the standard LeetCode, HackerRank, etc. type questions that you can expect from a big tech company with Amazon-like hiring practices. You also had to explain your approach. My assessment went to manual review because the second answer had a small bug that caused one test case not to pass, but I still passed.
After the online assessment, there was a virtual onsite interview. This was an interview loop with several people in four sessions. There were algorithms and data structures questions, general problem-solving questions, and questions based on the leadership principles.
The interviewing process was pretty enjoyable. I had the good fortune of having interviewers who were friendly and supportive, allowed me to get my ideas across, and answered any questions that I had thoughtfully without being dismissive. Some were not as open and friendly as others, but perhaps this was part of the process? Either way, I definitely got the sense that the people who interviewed me were the types of people that I would want to work with and that they were respectful of my time and ambitions.
I walked away feeling pretty good, but not 100% sure. I tried to stay optimistic during the process. I didn't quite have the experience of an SDE2, but I thought my knowledge of CS fundamentals and leadership principles (ownership, curiosity, openness to learning, etc.) would show. In the end, the feedback that I received was that my knowledge and skills were determined to be a good fit for Amazon, but that I lacked the experience required for an SDE2. I thought this was a fair assessment, being that an SDE1 position would have probably been better for me. So I was given an SDE1 offer, which I gladly accepted.
I have been blessed to have a great interview process. When I got to Amazon, I learned that Amazon focuses on making interviewing a great experience for everyone, where people can walk away still feeling good about Amazon as a company and future opportunities whether or not they receive an offer, and I think they are meeting this goal well. I hope Amazon can continue to make efforts (and they still have a long way to go in some regards) in hiring a diverse workforce with an equitable hiring process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Signed NDA and cannot disclose specific questions, but there were algorithms and data structures questions and behavioral questions about describing scenarios from experiences with emphasis on the leadership principles