Amazon | SDE2 | Offer
Education: Bachelor in CS
Years of Experience: 3
Company: Amazon
Title/Level: SDE II - AWS

Interview process:

• Online application
• Online assessment
• Phone screen
• Virtual on-site

Online Assessment:
2 algorithm questions (90 mins)

• Variation of https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-islands/ with multisource BFS
• Variation of https://leetcode.com/problems/all-nodes-distance-k-in-binary-tree/

Phone screen:

• 15 minutes on LP related questions
• 40 minutes on a variation of https://leetcode.com/problems/campus-bikes/. Haven't seen the exact problem on LC but they share the same concept & approach.

Virtual Onsite:
Total interviews: 4
Signed an NDA so I'll only be sharing some tips here.

• I was given the choice of using any tool that I wanted for drawing diagrams. Make sure you get used to a tool so you don't need to fight against a tool that you're not familiar with :)
• Be mindful of time. The more time you spend on LP questions, the more time you eat up for your coding questions.
• Try to write your code as cleanly as possible. When doing a bunch of LC problems I see people getting used to writing smart but dirty code. My interviewers seemed to favor cleaner code over overly-smart lines.
• You might get asked a bunch of follow-up questions on your LP answers. Sometimes it might even feel like they're challenging your answers. This might not necessarily be a bad thing. Just make sure that you have a deep understanding of the stories that you prepare and can justify each and every step of it if asked.

Background:
At the start of the year, I didn't even think about applying to FAANG companies. For some reason it just didn't register in my brain. I just didn't think I was capable of applying for these companies. However I decided to study on LC. I wasn't really aiming for any specific companies, I just thought it'd be a good time to brush up on my algorithm skills.

A couple of months ago, a random opporunity arised where I thought I was honestly a great fit for the JD. I felt like this was a godsend because I felt like my random preparations might pay off. I know for a fact that I would've been destroyed by these interviews if I hadn't started studing before the opportunity was apparent.

Overall feeling:

• This was my first interview with a FAANG company. Read up on a bunch of interview horror stories and was honestly getting a bit worried. Contrary to my worries, everyone I talked to was very genuine and accomodating. I have mad respect for each and every one of them asking me insightful follow-up questions on my LP answers because I know how difficult it is to maintain focus when listening to these behavioral answers for the first time.

Preparation:

• Solved 1-2 LC problems a day. I know it's not much and people here like to grind these like crazy. But I didn't want to get burnt out in a couple of weeks and I thought consistency was more important. Once I applied for the position, I started targetting the Amazon labelled questions. After getting used to the different patterns amongst these problems, I started to time myself for 30 minutes and solved the problem while talking out aloud (just like a real interview). I realized that talking & solving a new problem takes a different type of a skill, so I'm glad that I practiced this.
• Went through https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer. However I've had the opportunity to be involved in many architectural discussions within my company with relatively low YOE, and I gained a lot of knowledge of these things naturally.
• Went through a bunch of videos from Dan Croiter. His videos really shed light to how to approach LP questions and what the interviewers are looking for. If you're new to this, I'd start with preparing your answers in STAR format and make sure that you say your answers out loud. I realized that writing/speaking an answer is sometimes completely different. I had to change many of my stories once I started recording myself to see how I sound.
• I made a very simple Java app which asks me random LP questions, and times & records my answers automatically. I showed it to a couple of people and they thought that I should share it here after adding a FE. The site is https://www.principle.cards. I'm not planning to make any money off this. I just thought it might be an opportunity to give back to the community while I work on a hobby project :) Feel free to let me know if this helps or if you have any suggestions.

Any other questions and I'd be more than happy to provide an answer.