I have been reading a lot of posts here. It's finally my turn to post!

Background: 1 YOE, BS CS Top 20 CS school

The recruiter reached out to me and invited me for an interview.

Stage 1: Online Assessment

Both questions can be found in this post: https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/344650/Amazon-Online-Assessment-Questions
The questions weren't too hard. I finished them around 50% of the time mark since I have seen them before. However, surprisingly, my initial solutions weren't able to pass all the test cases. So I optimized my code, really close to passing all the test cases. I am satisfied at that point, added some comments, and submitted. A little side note here, I ran my solutions on the leetcode later that day, and the solutions had 95%+ time and space complexity. So I wouldn't recommend OCD about passing all the test cases.

Stage 2: Phone Interview

The questions were really basic DS knowledge. I didn't think this was an interview tbh.

Stage 3: Onsite

Round 1:

• 6 LP questions
• A lot of follow-ups

Round 2:

• 2 LP questions
• LC Medium, O(n) at the first try, and revised to O(1)

Round 3:

• 4 LP questions
• The interviewer was curious about one of my past experiences. So we continued on that topic for almost the rest of the interview.
• 10 minutes left. LC easy question, came up with optimal solution in 5 min and discussed time and space complexity.

Round 4:

• 2 LP questions
• Not in LC, Medium level, O(n**2) at the first try, O(n) revised version.

Preparation:

1. Ever since quarantine, I started doing LC 30 days challenge for the backpack. Not gonna lie, I was quite disappointed that I didn't get the backpack. So 30 questions here.
2. After I recruiter reached out to me, I started doing LC Amazon questions. Completed 220/440. Every easy question and I believe half of the medium questions. 220 questions here. Some of them was overlapping with the first 30 questions.
3. Wrote down most asked LP questions by Amazon. Watched videos by Dan Croitor on youtube. It was really helpful since I didn't have a clue what they were going to ask me.

Thoughts:

1. Not gonna lie, LC is fun. I was going a little bit crazy as it was getting close to the on-site date. However, a huge part of the Amazon interview is LP, I would have spent more time preparing for it from a retro-perspective.
2. Talk to the interviewers and get to know them. I know this may depend on the person, but some of them are going to be your teammates. YMMV
3. Stay hydrated, eat healthy, and have a healthier mindset.