Amazon Software Development Engineer interview questions

I was recruited via Linkedin and invited to two rounds of phone interviews before being invited to an onsite interview in Seattle. Because I have signed a non-disclosure agreement so I can reveal the actual question. However, both phone interviews last about 90 min each and both have about 30 min to cover your background and career interest, about 10 min for my questions and the rest are technical questions. Technical questions aren't terribly difficult but you do have to brush up your college data structure. The real tricky part is you need to log in to an online whiteboard or you to demonstrate your coding solution. The whiteboard actually has a simplified IDE that can compile most of the common programming language. The interviewer from my second phone interview doesn't care too much about the actual compilation but the one from the first is a bit more particular on that. So if you are expecting just pseudo-coding you might be surprised. Regarding the on-site interview there are about five different sessions, each last about 50 minutes. All except one are one-on-one, the other have two interviewer. The questions can be divided into three categories 1) projects you have done before 2) behavioral questions and 3) technical questions. For category 1, they might concentrated on a certain project in your resume when going over your previous experience, so picking the right experience to prepare for interviewed will certainly help. There are plenty example online for category 2. For the technical questions, they are more or less the same as the phone interview, except you only need to do pseudo-code. They are mildly challenging and it shouldn't be overly difficult as long as you are reasonably apt at problem solving. The part I dislike the most is one of the interview session is done over lunch, so the interviewer will take me out to lunch and at the same time asking me questions. The Amazon facility in Seattle are right in downtown so my interviewer are juggling between finding the restaurant in the middle of the city, deciding what to eat and interviewing me at the same time. Even worse is a hobo came up to us on the street asking for a quarter for cup of coffee or something like that. So a lot of time the interviewer seemed to be lost in all these and I didn't feel like what I said had actually got through to him at time. Contrary to other's experience, all my interviewers do give me sufficient time to ask questions and I don't feel I was being rushed. However, it doesn't seem like they have a particular position in mind for me to fill, rather they are trying to see if I can be fit into any of their need, so I don't really have a clear idea what position I am actually apply for and thus it is hard to ask sensible questions Also they are very responsive throughout the entire interviewing process, most of the time they will get back to me within one day or two between each round.

You have to absolutely make sure that you prepare thoroughly before you do the online assessment, you study up on your fundamentals. All questions are data structure algorithm type questions. I would get one of those prep books for technical interviews. Make sure you are at a secluded place when you take the test. Those are my abominable mistakes. Good Luck!