Note that this is for the Fall internship
Applied online in the beginning of June for fun. Received the first coding test about a week later. First one was just 8 very simple debugging questions and a logical test. It’s basically a “do u know how to code test”.
Got the second test the very next day. Second was very easy too. Simple stack question and a string question.
Made it to the final phone interview round 2 days later and scheduled it the same week. The phone interview wasn’t bad at all. Just grabbing data from a list of strings and answering the original question. Got the offer two weeks after the phone.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1 - debugging/logical test
2 - coding test
3 - phone interview
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Amazon
Interview
The process started with a brief 30-minute phone screening with a recruiter, focusing on my background and resume.
After that, I was invite to a technical video interview with a senior engineer. This round lasted about 60 minutes, starting with a brief introduction, followed by a live coding challenge on a shared editor, and ended with a few questions about system design basics and my past projects.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Implement a function to find the first non-repeating character in a string and discuss its time and space complexity.
I got a take home exam on HackerRank that I did not do great in. I did not perfectly solve every problem. Then it was another problem with "AI assistance" except the AI seemed programmed to be as useless as possible, it's genuinely better to just not use it. Somehow I got the next interview anyways, who also asked me some leetcode style questions and asked my to explain my experience and then next day they rejected me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is the most complex problem I have encountered?
The interview process was straightforward with no surprises — three coding rounds (LeetCode medium difficulty), a system design round, and a cultural fit conversation. The interviewers were pleasant and the overall atmosphere was positive.
That said, it's worth noting that this format feels dated. Even before the rise of AI, LeetCode-style assessments were a questionable proxy for real-world engineering ability and cultural fit. In today's environment, where AI can solve most of these problems instantly, continuing to use this framework raises the question of what signal it's actually measuring.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
For coding it was ask very similar to number of islands (2D grid search) with a twist.
Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Amazon with 3.3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 48% positive. To compare, the company-average is 57.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 24 days to get hired, when considering 3,658 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Amazon overall takes an average of 28 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Amazon as a Software Engineer according to 3,658 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 30%
One on one interview: 18%
Skills test: 17%
Presentation: 10%
Personality test: 7%
Group panel interview: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 5%
Background check: 4%
Other: 2%
Drug test: 2%
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