I interviewed for Amazon SDE2 position in US in December 2023. Below is my experience of interview loop.

Round 1:

• Basic standard 2 LP questions. Took me about 30 min
• 30 min coding, Medium level question (cannot disclouse the exact question)

Round 2:

• Basic standard 2 LP questions. Took me about 25 min. Absolutely half knowledge interviewer.
• HLD (weird question) never saw anywhere. Interviewer was not good. I feel if I had ask same question to her even she would not have been able to clear it.

Round 3:

• 2 standard LP questions.
• LLD again never saw this anywhere. Interviewer was very focused on writing main logic instead of OOPs principals or Design patterns. I felt that this was some DSA round rather than LLD

Round 4:

• again same standard LP questions. Took me around 25 min
• Medium level Tree based question. I think if you're good at solving medium level question then you should be confident for amazon's DSA rounds.

Conclusion:
Amazon maintains a stringent hiring policy for Level 5 (L5) positions, requiring candidates not just to meet but to exceed existing standards. This approach, however, can be challenging. Amazon often considers candidates with over seven years of experience for their SDE2 roles. These individuals, due to their extensive experience, are likely to demonstrate exceptional performance in Leadership Principles (LP) questions. Conversely, candidates with around three years of experience may struggle to showcase the same depth in their responses to LP questions, as they might not have encountered as many critical situations in their careers. Therefore, a more nuanced approach could be beneficial. Splitting the L5 level into two distinct sub-levels and setting appropriate expectations for each could lead to a more equitable and realistic assessment of diverse candidates.

Secondly, let's ponder on the current SDE-2s at Amazon who climbed the ladder internally. Rumor has it, if half of them were to go through the current interview process for SDE-2, success might be a distant dream. Yet, here we are, setting the bar sky-high for outsiders as if we're only dealing with geniuses in-house. Quite the irony, isn't it?

Finally, while I am grateful to have received an offer, I believe the process is somewhat inequitable for external candidates. The expectation for them to surpass the bar seems unfair, especially considering that over 50% of the current SDE-2 employees might not even meet the same standards if reassessed.

Feel free to poll your take, and thanks for reading. If you find this helpful please share with any Amazon managers you know so that they will also know the pain points of external candidates.

Best,