Amazon | SDE2 | Seattle, WA | 28th Sept [Offer]
Education: MS in Computer Engineering
Years of Experience: 9
Date: 28th Sept 2020
Company: Amazon
Title/Level: SDE II - AWS team
Location: Seattle, WA
FIRST, MANY MANY THANKS TO THE LEETCODE COMMUNITY! I could not imagine clearing this interview without leetcode.
Online Assessment:
2 questions with a little bit of variation + Behavioural Questioners
- https://leetcode.com/problems/k-closest-points-to-origin/
- https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/376375/
Virtual Onsite
Total interviews: 5
Duration: 5 hrs (each for 60 min) I split it into 2 sessions over consecutive days.
Day 1, Interview 1: Coding
Interview format: 30 min LP + 30 min code with two SDE2 engineers ( +1 guy was observer, the main Interviewer asked all the questions)
He asked 3 LP questions and follow-ups on those and then moved to coding question https://leetcode.com/problems/critical-connections-in-a-network/ with little different way of problem statement but the solution. I was able to implement a DFS solution for this in 15 minutes since I have done this question before. Then he askes follow-up how you will implement in microservice, what different data structures you would use, and any other way than DFS you would implement. I was able to answer these follow-ups. In general, I saw such a follow-up on all of my coding interviews.
Day 1, Interview 2: OOPs design
Interview format: 15 min LP + 45 min coding with an SDE2 engineer
I don't remember the exact question but something like: Given a list of purchase orders we need to be able to filter the orders based on few categories e.g. payment method, product category, whether order contains alcohol, etc. And have it extensible for future categories we may want to add. Also, we want to define various rules to select multiple categories.
I didn't saw this question before but was able to solve this using 2 design patterns: Filter pattern and chain of responsibility
Day1, Interview 3: Coding with SDM who is with Amazon for 9 years
Interview format: 30 min LP + 30 min coding
The interviewer first asked 3 LP questions and follow-ups then moved to coding question https://leetcode.com/problems/diameter-of-binary-tree/ (no twists, exact same question). Was able to code it in 10 min and able to give a bunch of test cases, then had the same follow up like how you will implement in a microservice
Day 2, Interview 4: System Design with SDM who is with Amazon for 13 years
Interview format: 25 min LP + 35 min design
The interviewer first asked 3 LP questions and follow-ups then moved to system design question: Design Shopping Cart backend
I did back-of-the-envelop calculations, designed the APIs, then drew the high-level design diagrams on the Invision app, had a bunch of follow-ups on which all components to scale, performance bottlenecks, caching requirements, databases selections. (Here at Amazon they value AWS products a lot so in the system design interview use the Amazon products for infra services). Overall I think speed and accuracy matters in the system design interview as 35 min is very less time to design something, so, having templates in mind for basic components helps a lot.
Day 2, Interview 5: Bar Raiser --- Only LPs - with Senior SDM who is with Amazon for 14+ years (also my Hiring Manager)
Interview format: more than 15 questions on LP covering almost all LPs
I had back to back questions covering all LPs e.g.
Why Amazon
Took a risk and failed
Created Innovative product
You suggested a new business/product
You were wrong about something
Did not meet expectations of own work
Went beyond the scope of the project
Proudest achievement
Decisions you made in absence of the manager
Had to do something with very limited time and resources
Example of when you earned the trust of the group
Had received a negative feedback
Had to deep dive into data and results you achieved
Disagree with manager
Handled a variety of assignments
Overall I had an excellent experience in each of the interviews, all the interviewers were easy to communicate, very talkative and friendly. I would definitely look forward to working with them.
My Preparation:
I had been with non-FAANG companies with decent work-life balance, have been doing a lot of design and coding on daily basis, definitely learned a lot on my current job. But I never prepared for FAANG interviews. During this pandemic since I had nothing to do in the evenings, I started doing Leetcode with my friend who is of the same skills and experience as me and we solved ~ 350 questions. We find it fun as we discuss and do each question by ourselves before looking at the solution. Initially, we had to put in a lot of effort but as we get better at it we find it fun doing LC. We also watched lots of youtube videos together for the system design, read many articles online and while doing this we had a habit of drawing our own diagrams and discuss them. Towards the end, we had a template in mind for tackling system design questions. For Leadership principles, we created 30+ example answers in the STAR method for all 14 principles. Then we rehearsal them to make the format of the answer perfect for that particular LP question. Prior to Amazon onsite, I interviewed 5-6 practice companies and received 2 offers out of them and the rest of them were rejections.
My tip: Consistency is key. Don’t give up, once you get an offer you will not remember your failures.
Coding:
Leetcode
System design:
https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer
https://www.codekarle.com/
Many youtube videos
Thank you again leetcode community and I wish everyone here a good luck on your interviews.