Status: 2.4+ YOE at Product based MNC
Date: Oct 21
A recruiter reached out to me regarding an opening for SDE2 position.
Round 1 : Online Assignement (OA )
2 LC medium questions with follow up questions on LPs, design questions.
Onsite Loop rounds (Virtual)
Round 1 ( DSA Round )
The interviewer started with LP question on Customer Obsession and Ownership.Then moved on to below :
Q1. https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-islands/
Q2 . https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-distinct-islands/
Q3. Given a binary tree, find the position of right most node in last level of complete binary tree.
I solved Q1 with optimal solution, then the interviewer followed up with Q2. Came up with the optimal solution. Was writing the code for Q2 , but the interviewer was keen on asking Q3, to which I said okay. I gave a brute-force O(n) solution, but he wasnt satisfied and wanted an optimal one. I couldn't come up with the final optimal solution and it was past 1 hr already. Hence in this round already my code for Q2 ( Q1's solution included ) was incomplete and I couldnt write code for Q3 anyway by the time.
The interviewer was very nice & friendly and I really enjoyed the problem-solving.
Lesson Learnt : Please ensure that you have written a complete working code for atleast 1 problem with optimality, then proceed to next question.
Round 2 ( HM Round )
The interviewer started with LP question on Customer Obsession & Bias for Action.
I was asked to design Instagram. I was expected to come up with requirements & an HLD adressing the tradeoffs, etc. It was a very engaging interview and the interviwer was very nice and friendly.
Lesson Learnt : Even though I was driving the designing round by the 80-20 rule , I could have definitely faired better.
Interview Feedback :
The overall process was smooth. I received the rejection over a mail after a week. Yet to receive a constructive feedback on my areas of improvement.
I am planning to take the interview again next year. Hope this post helps folks planning to take the Amazon interview.