Google - Amazon | L4 - L5 | Seattle | Jan 2020 [Offer]
Anonymous User
6075

I posted on the Compensation board but after many edits I think my post could apply here as well :)
Link

Overview
I was luckily contacted by two sources from both Google and Amazon in October of 2019. I ended up getting offers from both companies.

Experience
Status: 4 years industry experience, BS CS Top 20 CS school
Position: SDE 2 at another top tech company
Location: Seattle, WA

Preperation
Non-LeetCode

LeetCode
I purchased premium (do it) and looked over/solved all the questions common to both Amazon and Google.
Google Questions Card
Amazon Questions Card
I also did mock interview sessions for Amazon and Google.
For more practice, I just went to the problemset page and sorted by frequency. If I found a problem that I could come up with the answer to in a minute, I skipped it and went to the next problem.
Completed Statistics: 11 Easy, 18 Medium, 7 Hard (like 60+ almost-solved, didn't waste time with small bugs)


Interviews
Done in early Janurary

Google
Onsite (45 minutes each question):

  1. Given nodes, tell if they connect Quora
  2. Snapshot Array
  3. Binary Search Question Something Like this but a little more complex
  4. Design a rubiks cube (open ended)
  5. Behavioral (How do you prioritize, when did you lead something, etc.)

Amazon
Online Screen (90 minutes for completion):

  1. Number of Islands
  2. Something like Find all anagrams in a string

Onsite (1 hour per question):

  1. Given edges, create a tree and validate (Similar: Graph Valid Tree)
  2. Behavioral (But every interview had 30 minutes of behavioral)
  3. Design Question: Design subscribe and save
  4. Is linked list a palindrome, solve O(n) constant memory (Palindrome Linked List)
  5. Design a command line system (looking for use of interfaces, inheritence, extensibility)

Result/Offers

Google
Salary: 150K
Sign-on: 30K
Stocks: 300K
Bonus: 15% Salary (24K)
TC ~280K

Amazon
Salary: 150K
Sign-on: 120K first year, 80K second year
Stock: 180K (5%->15%->40%->40%)
TC ~280K

Was very happy with the process and ended up picking Google after negotating a higher salary to beat the Amazon offer and for benefits reasons (401K match is greater, free food, etc). I also had other co-workers around the team I would be working on.

Hopefully some of this insight helps and helps others negotiate and land a job at one of these tech companies :)

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