Amazon Software Development Engineer interview questions

Prior: The Cape Town offices of Amazon deal mainly with their Electronic Compute Cloud (EC2) product. I emailed my CV and was granted a telephonic interview. Telephonic Interview: The interview was conducted by the software development manager. I was asked about projects that I worked on and my roles within them. I was also asked why I want to work for Amazon. Questions regarding cloud computing then followed. Lastly I was asked to explain JavaScript. Post Interview: I was informed 2 days later that they did not wish to take my application further.

A friend put in my resume and I was contacted by phone about a week later by an HR rep. She was very short and was interested in only setting up the interview. She was reluctant to discuss the position or company. On the day of the interview the interviewer called me a few minutes late. He was friendly but seemed hurried. He asked me some questions about my most difficult project and the program I was most proud of. He asked some technical questions related to projects I was working on. He seemed uninterested in my work history. After about 10 minutes of talking he sent me a link to a window and gave me a programming assignment. I asked some follow up questions and began to write out an algorithm on a notepad nearby, talking through my thought process all the while. After 2 or 3 minutes he insisted I stop writing and begin coding. I feel like planning first is better but he was running the show. Know your data structures by heart and be able to code them in your sleep. Terminology is important too.