Current profile - SDE in a product based non-FAANG company
YOE - 0-1 year
[December 25, 2021]
Round-1 [OA] [Duration: 1.5 hr]
There were two questions:
- A tricky array based problem based on Range Update Query in constant time
- A heap based problem LC medium-hard level problem (can't remember what exactly it was)
Along with this, I also had to explain my solutions and write the time and space complexity. There was also a behavioural
questionnaire to be completed quickly.
On January 31, I got a call from recruiter that they want to schedule my interviews next week. They scheduled three rounds for me right away.
In this time I did a lot of past interview problems and grinded well on their leadership principle questions.
[February 7, 2022]
Round-2 [Technical Round - 1] [Duration: 1hr]
This round was taken by a very friendly and experienced SDE-2. It started with a couple of behavioral questions, which I could answer satisfactorily, after which he jumped onto coding questions.
There were two coding questions:
- A graph problem similar to 01 Matrix although it was heavily modified version of the same.
- A array based problem based on binary search. This was similar to leetcode weekly contest problem Minimum Time to Finish the Race
The interviewer told me that the second problem is a hard level question. I was able to solve both the questions and the interviewer was very impressed (as he told me himself)
[February 7, 2022]
Round-3 [Technical Round - 2] [Duration: 1hr]
This round was taken by a SDE-2 along with a SDE-1 shadowing them. The pattern was same as that of previous round, it started with a couple
of behavioral questions after which two coding questions were asked.
- Linked List question similar to Sort LL on absolute values
- Minor Modification of Rotting Oranges
I fumbled a bit in the first question but was able to gain momentum and quickly solve both. Both the interviewers were satisfied
[February 8, 2022]
Round-4 [Hiring Manager Round]
This was taken by a senior TPM at amazon. It was completely based on leadership principle questions and the interviewer
was asking the minute details for every answer. I had grinded pretty hard on all LPs, so I was able to handle the questions well.
One simple hashset based question was asked, but no code was expected, just the logic.
Overall this round went good and the interviewer was satisfied.
After this round, there was a long wait as I did not hear anything from the recruiter. I kept pinging the recruiter but did not get any response. After a whole month of waiting, my next round was scheduled on March 7.
And this was the round where things went downhill
[March 7, 2022]
Round-5 [Bar Raiser Round] [Duration: 1hr]
This was taken by a SDEM at Amazon. It started with a quick introduction and the intervier told me that this round will comprise of two coding
questions + LP and I am expected to solve coding questions in 40 mins.
He directly jumped to the questions. Now here comes the bummer, both the questions were DP Hard level questions.
- This was similar to the Trapping Rainwater problem but he made many modifications to it
- DP problem which uses some concepts from Maximal Square problem several constrains, modifications, and change in the answer conditions were introduced, making it a hard level problem.
For the first question, his explanation was very ambiguous with use of vague terms (like "vertically adjacent"). I was bashed on asking any clarifying questions or asking any doubts. I took some time to understand the question and then
proceeded with the coding part. I used two arrays, and the interviewer was unhappy about it, After some thinking I was able to come up with a single array solution but it took me around 26-27 min to complete this problem. The interviewer told me that I was very slow.
I was not allowed to explain my code, and was being interrupted every 10 seconds.
We then proceeded to the second problem. I told my solution but the interviewer was not willing to listen to my solution at all and he was cutting me off every 10-15 seconds. With great difficulty I explained him my approach and went on to code. To top it all, I had a power cut for 3-4 mins, but I was able to finish the code within 10 mins. I do not know if he was satisfied. He then proceeded with LP questions which I was able to answer well, and then the round conculded.
I do not mean to be salty about it, but I was very disheartened that this was not about my competence. This round was hard, if you expect me to solve LC-hard question (which I have never seen before) in 20 mins to the most optimized approach. If I was allowed to explain my stuff a little better, not being cut-off every time, and was not being passed mean comments on, I am sure I could have done much better.
The non-responsiveness from the recruiter all this while made the experience all the more worse for me. As expected, I received a rejection mail approximately 2 weeks after the BR round.
Learnings:
-> Grind hard on LP, you will be asked that a lot
-> BR round can be unpredictable, so be prepped for the worse
-> BR and Hiring manager rounds are the most important rounds, do not bomb your BR round at any cost (like I did)
-> Amazon process is very slow, so be patient, and meanwhile keep applying to other companies
-> Grind as much as you can on DSA. Graphs and DP are important topics