I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2024
Interview
I am describing the Online Assessment.
2 coding challenges hosted on hackerrank.com. Given 1.5 hours to complete both problems. This process assesses your ability to solve a difficult brain teaser and then write code to execute your solution. Writing the code is the easy part; coming up with the solution is the hard part. Imagine if you were asked to write code to solve a Rubik's Cube without already knowing or being told the algorithm for solving a Rubik's Cube.
I've read other reviews of Amazon's Software Development Engineer interview process here on Glassdoor and it seems others got much easier questions than I did. Could be based on the seniority of the role applying for or could be some random factor involved.
After the 2 questions was a work simulation in which you read simulated emails from coworkers describing to you their requirements for new development projects. You're given a list of 5 or 6 technologies or next steps and asked to assign a ranking to each one based on how effective those technologies or next steps would be. For example, you're told you need to develop distributed storage of thumbnail images. How effective would cloud storage be for solving this requirement? How effective would elastic search be? Etc.
This portion of the interview is not timed.
The final portion of the online assessment is where you're shown 2 sentences describing different ideologies or behavioral traits and you must say whether one or the other Best Describes you or Better Describes you. This portion was also not timed. It took about 20 minutes to complete.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given an array of integers, write code (you choose the language) that will return the minimum number of elements that must be changed such that every subarray of a given length will have the same sum.
Surprisingly easy — I expected tougher questions, but the coding round felt more like a warm-up. The main challenge was a DSA problem about counting islands in a 2D grid, which led to a discussion on DFS versus BFS and handling large grids. Funny enough, I had revisited that exact type of question while prepping on PracHub, which made me feel more confident. The interview wrapped up with a behavioral round, and I accepted an offer, but ultimately decided to decline it for another opportunity. Overall, it was a smooth experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Number of Islands — given a 2D grid of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of connected islands. Walk through DFS vs BFS, and discuss how to avoid revisiting cells (in-place mutation vs visited set) and what changes if the grid is huge and must stream from disk.
It started with an OA, and then after a few weeks, I got invited to four rounds of interviews: technical and behavioral at 3 of the 4, and behavioral only at one.
Um teste de código online, se aprovado, vai para o loop. O loop é 4 entrevistas seguidas, duas em inglês e duas em português. 3 entrevistas técnicas de código, todas as 4 têm pergunta de liderança.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Pergunta historicas baseada nos principios de lideranca da amazon.
