Amazon | SDE 1 | Hyderabad | May 2022 [Offer]
Anonymous User
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AmazonIndiaOnsiteInterview

Status : Software Engineer at a product based company, 2 YOE , B.E in C.S.E from Tier-2 College
Offer Position : SDE at Amazon
Location : Hyderabad
Date : May 2022

A Hiring manager(Software Development Manager) from Amazon contacted me via LinkedIn. I gave him my contact details, he called and told that he was happy with my profile and would like to proceed with my candidature.

Total 5 rounds of interviews.

Technical Phone Screen:

Coding Questions.

  • A person can climb atmost 'k' stairs at a time. What is the number of ways he can reach 'nth' stair. (1 <= k,n < 10^5)
    Ex: k = 3 ; n = 4. He can reach 4th stair in 7 ways i.e (1,1,1,1) (1,1,2) (1,2,1) (1,3) (3,1) (2,2) (2,1,1).

  • [LC MEDIUM] https://leetcode.com/problems/coin-change-2/
    (Was asked to execute this using an online compiler instead of dry running it. I executed this in leetcode playground.)

Was asked time and space complexities for both the questions.
Was able to give optimal approach and write optimal code for both the questions.

Technical Onsite Round - 1 (1 hour)

Coding and LP Questions.

Was able to give optimal approach and write optimal code for both the questions. Although, I had some discussion with the interviewer regarding the second question and executed in leetcode playground and he was satisfied.

Technical Onsite Round - 2 (1.5 hour)

Coding and LP Questions.

  • [LC MEDIUM premium] https://leetcode.com/problems/analyze-user-website-visit-pattern/
    Was asked time and space complexity.

  • Add one to a number represent by a linked list. (ex: 12459 => 1-2-4-5-6, output is 1-2-4-6-0)
    (was asked to solve in <= O(2n) time complexity and O(1) space complexity, So I can't use stack or reverse the linked list)

  • Sort a linked list which is already absolutely sorted (ex: 1 -> -2 ->3 -> 4 -> -5, output is -5 -> -2 ->1 -> 3 -> 4)
    (was asked to solve in O(n) time complexity and O(1) space complexity)

Was able to give optimal approach and write optimal code for all the 3 questions but took some time for the second as it was very much tricky but could comeup with optimised solution.

Onsite Round - 3: (50 minutes)

Asked only LP questions for 40 minutes.

Hiring Manager Round:

Asked LP questions for 30 minutes and then asked to design Centralized Logging System of amazon scale. I was unable to design it properly as I wasn't expecting a Design question as I was told only DSA and problem solving would be asked in all the interviews and I was underprepared.

But the HM told me to not worry as the question was just asked for a formality and only coding and problem solving skills would be considered.

And after that he asked me some questions about my college life.

Verdict : I got a call from recruiter after 2 days and she informed me that I got selected. Then after 2 days, she came with the numbers and 1 week after that I have received the offer cum appointment letter.

MY JOURNEY :

I have started my job hunt exactly on January 12th 2022. Although I got this Amazon offer, I failed miserably many times while interviewing for many companies. Here is the list:

  • Service Now
    I have failed 3 times, I got 3 interview opportunites at this company in this 5 months span. There were total of 3 rounds each time and I was rejected in the 1st round , 2nd round and ghosted after last round respectively in those 3 interviews. (Along with problem solving, language specific questions were asked in which I was a bit weak)

  • Microsoft
    I got a call from recruiter. I completed my codility test and also all my onsite interviews. But I was put on hold for one month in which I had so much hopes as all my rounds went really well. I called them once every week and they didn't ghost me but were telling me my status is still on hold. But unforutnately this time, they only have called and rejected me on my birthday telling that I performed well but I only have 1.5+ YOE which left me really really heart broken .

  • Goldman Sachs
    I got 3 OA links from 3 different recruiters within 1 month span. I got ghosted by 3 recruiters but my candidature moved onto interviews stage by the remaining recruiter(belonged to 3rd OA). The funny part is that I successfully wrote the code for all the questions asked in those 3OAs passing all the test cases and the very funny part is that, the questions in the 2nd and 3rd OA were the same. Jokes apart, I got rejected in the 2nd interview out of 4 and this interview was on the day right after my microsoft rejection. I was asked a very popular question (https://leetcode.com/problems/median-of-two-sorted-arrays/) and I even know and coded the solution before but I couldn't even explain it or write the code or dry run it in front of the interviewer and I accept that it is my fault and defeat. I should have handled that microsoft rejection better.

  • Expedia Group
    I got an OA , cleared the OA and moved on to the interviews stage. In the first interview round, the interviewer asked me to solve the two sum problem and trapping rain water. I really nailed both the questions and felt that I was really lucky. But the thing is that there was no response till one month. I had numbers of 3 of their recruiters. 2 of them ghosted me very badly and the 3rd one lifted my call and told me that he would get back to me. I received a rejection mail after one day.

  • Arcesium
    I got an OA , cleared the OA and moved on to the interviews stage. In the first round, the interviewer asked me 2 problem solving questions which I have coded and then he asked me some language specific questions which I have bombed terribly as this area is my weakness. I got a rejection mail after 2 days.

  • D.E SHAW
    I got call from recruiters of this company twice. I shared my resume with them and candidature got rejected during resume filtering itself both the times and I don't know why.

  • Oracle
    I got a call directly for an interview in which they have asked JAVA related specific questions which I have bombed as expected and got rejected.

  • KLA Tencor
    I got an OA, completed the OA and moved on to the interviews stage. First interview was coding on hackerrank where you have to code and pass all available test cases in front of an interviewer and I was able to finish it. Second interview was problem solving where I had to write the approach in a text file for 2 questions. Third was an LLD round which I bombed as I was weak is design. As expected, I got ghosted.

Apart from the above, I also interviewed in some small companies and startups which rejected me, ghosted me and I didn't get selected in any one of them despite performing very well in some of the interviews and going past the HM round.

I had my fair share of ups and downs, mostly downs. I sometimes use to cry into my pillow very badly or wake up with tears in my eyes most of the days as everything was going wrong. With the passage of time, I understood that luck is very very very much important for any kind of interviews. I thought of stopping the job hunt after the end of may as I was very much exhausted, visited a psychiatrist and was worried that whole thing might take a toll on my mental health which I was not willing to risk. But fortunately, I got the offer exactly on the end of may.

So keep trying and remember that failures are just part of job hunt. If you feel good, then keep on hustling but if you feel exhausted by your job hunt, please take a break for a while as you deserve it and then after that you can start over again if you really want to. Nothing ismore important than your mental health. There are many quotes saying not to 'give up' no matter what, but sometimes, by doing that you are giving up the some of the most important things which are your peace of mind, mental health and health. So, please prioritize and thank you for reading my journey.

Compensation Link :
https://leetcode.com/discuss/compensation/2150325/Amazon-or-SDE-or-Hyderabad

If you have any questions please shoot.

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