Background: I’ll be graduating in June 2021 with majors in CS from India.

Apple:

• Apple visited my college for placements in November 2020.
• Online coding round - This round had 1 coding question and 1 sql query question. I was able to do both.
• Onsite Round 1: The round had 2 LC medium coding questions. The interviewer also asked a puzzle and was impressed with my coding skills. The interviewer was friendly and made sure I was calm before starting the interview.
• Onsite round 2: The round also had 2 LC medium coding questions along with behavorial and project based questions. I was able to come up with solutions really fast for both of the questions but I messed up the questions related to the project as I hadn't revised my project before the interview.
• Result: Rejected

Amazon:

• Applied on the company website in December 2020.
• Online coding round: The round consisted of code debugging section (20 minutes), coding test (70 minutes), a workstyles assessment (20 minutes) and a reasoning ability section (35 minutes). The coding questions were of LC easy/medium level.
• Onsite round 1: The round consisted of 2 LC medium questions. I had solved both of the questions on LC so I was able to come up with the solution pretty fast but I had trouble explaining my approach to the interviewer.
• Onsite round 2: This round also consisted of 2 LC medium questions. I got super nervous during this interview. I was able to come up with the solution of both questions but had hard time explaining my approach.
• Onsite round 3: This round started with Amazon LP questions. The interviewer also asked 1 LC medium coding question
• Result: Rejected.

Google:

• Recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn in January 2021 and asked me to book a slot in the calendar. The recruiter told me a little about the role and asked me some simple questions on time and space complexity, favourite coding language basics, and a puzzle. The recruiter also asked me to rate myself on a scale of 1-10 on my knowledge of few technologies. Based on my answers, I was moved to the telephonic screening round.
• Telephone Screen: The interviewer started with a LC medium question which I coded pretty fast and then she asked me a follow up on the same which increased the complexity of the problem but I was able to code that as well.
• Onsite Round 1: The interviewer gave me a hard question. I started this round by making the mistake of not clarifying my doubt so I spent a lot of time worrying on cases which were definitely out of the scope of the interview. The interviewer realized that and asked me to not worry about those and code my approach. I was able to come up with the most optimal after that.
• Onsite Round 2: There were 2 interviewers in this round and started by giving me a question of medium difficulty, I was able to come up with the solution and then they modified the question which made the question of hard difficulty. I was able to code that as well.
• Onsite Round 3: This interview was my worst interview at Google. Just before this interview, I got the email that I was rejected at Amazon so I was extremely disappointed and became extremely nervous. The interviewer gave me a question to which I explained him my approach. He wanted me to decrease the time complexity of the operation. It took me a little time for me to figure out the approach and code it. The code I wrote was a little lengthy and overcomplicated so he asked me to modify it. I was already stressed so I messed up that part and deleted an important part.
• Onsite Round 4: After round 3, recruiter reached out to me that I would have to perform really well in the 4th round to have a strong application. The round started with a LC hard question. I had seen a similar problem earlier but still it took me a little time to figure out the approach and code it. The interviewer gave me another problem. We were running out of time so he just asked me to explain the approach and not to code it.
• Onsite round 5: This was googliness and leadership round. To my surprise, this round was also taken by a SWE. This round went really well.
• Result: Selected

My learnings

• Be confident: I am a little underconfident. The nervousness killed my ability to articulate well during the Amazon interviews. You can also go through mock interviews but I feel a little intimidated by those. I was a lot more confident during my Google interviews as I thought I'll never get selected there but I realized that confidence can make a lot of difference during the interview process.
• Prepare Well: There are a ton of resources available on the Internet. Find the one that suits you.
• Be self aware: Know your shortcomings and work on those.
• Ask clarifying questions: The interviewers often ask questions which are vague and want to think about your thought process. Do ask them clarifying questions so that you both are on the same page.