I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Istanbul) in Nov 2019
Interview
1) HR interview
2) Phone interview with engineer
3) Virtual onsite interview (5 sessions)
They have too many gotchas ("culture") to learn: 14 principles, shareholder letters, ceo's bio, a first dog in the office (died years ago), this and that...
I practiced for weeks before phone interview. Then i practiced for few more weeks before virtual onsite interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Phone interview:
1) What data structure would you use to represent building and doors
2) How would you find shortest path from any room to exit?
Virtual onsite interview:
1) Implement Unix find utility as a library API
- Inputs: Starting folder and user defined criteria to match lets start with a) name pattern and b) max size threshold
- Output: List of files matching the given criteria
- Looking for design of abstractions (inputs), implementation of the API itself and sample usage
2) Given a list of strings, determine if they are isomorphic and group them by isomorphism. Two strings X and Y are called isomorphic if all occurrences of each character in X can be replaced with another character to get Y and vice-versa. Consider the strings “ACAB” and “XCXY”. They are isomorphic as we can map ‘A’ -> ‘X’, ‘B’ -> ‘Y’ and ‘C’ → ‘C’. Mapping from a character to itself is allowed but two different characters may not be replaced by the same character.
3) Find the Balance point of an Array
// [3, -2, 0, 4, 6, -5] -> [3]
4) behavioral questions (actual interviewer didn't show up)
5) Mobile System Design
The recruitment process consisted of several stages:
Online coding – a one-hour session focused on solving programming problems and demonstrating practical coding skills.
Technical meeting – a two-hour in-depth discussion covering system design, problem-solving approach, and technical knowledge relevant to the role.
Soft skills meeting – a 90-minute conversation assessing communication skills, teamwork, and overall cultural fit.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
describe your current project, most interesting bug and feature.
the most important thing you are proud of.
slide-window algorithm, string parser
Tough interview.
The Process: Automated Online Assessment (OA) with 2 coding questions and a system simulation, followed by a 4-round virtual Loop. Every single round started with 20 minutes of intense, behavioral behavioral questions diving into Amazon's Leadership Principles, followed by 25 minutes of technical coding or system design.
Amazon interviews are a test of mental endurance because you have to switch from deep behavioral storytelling straight into complex coding which can be so difficult. I used Apex Interviewer to practice the cognitive context switch. Running through their live-coding workspace helped me ensure my technical communication and architectural structures remained sharp and automatic, even after spending the first half of the interview defending my past project metrics. I fed the practice AI questions I extracted from glassdoor and gothamloop.
In the end, the offer was way lower than I hoped.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design the backend inventory tracking and placement service for a global fulfillment network, ensuring strict transactional consistency across multiple regional warehouses during peak shopping events.
Initial screening call with recruiter followed by a 1 hr hacker rank question on DSA. The final round was a panel consisting of 4 interviews ranging from technical design, more DSA and behaviour questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when you disagreed with your team and how you resolved it