Company: Amazon
Role: Software Development Engineer II
Experience Level: 6+ years
College: Tier-1 Engineering College (India)
Status: Rejected / No Response

Background

Currently working as a Software Architect at a fintech startup with a compensation of 38 LPA. Applied to Amazon out of interest in a particular team, thinking the work would align with my skillset and interests.

Timeline

OA: Completed all questions accurately and efficiently (had solved similar problems before).

Follow-up: Got a call after ~1 month from a recruiter to schedule interviews. I requested a week to prepare.

Ghosting: Post confirmation, the recruiter ghosted me for another month despite follow-ups. Eventually, I was told it was due to a "personal emergency". I gave them the benefit of the doubt and resumed the process.

Interview Rounds (All scheduled on the same day)
Round 1: DSA

Interviewer had ~2 years of experience and was completely fixated on a Segment Tree with Lazy Propagation.

I proposed an optimal and clean solution using a different approach which worked well, but he was unwilling to accept anything that wasn’t rote segment tree code.

Very little guidance or discussion — just gatekeeping.

Round 2: Low-Level Design (LLD)

Interviewer seemed experienced but was rushing aggressively from the start.

Kept repeating "write fast, we don't have much time" — every 2 minutes.

There was no focus on depth, just "code faster" — which defeats the point of evaluating design skills.

Round 3: High-Level Design (HLD)

HM round — extremely vague question. No direction, no back-and-forth.

Interviewer seemed disinterested, looking at other screens, and hardly engaged in the discussion.

Round 4: Bar Raiser (BR)

This was the only sensible and professional round.

Discussed projects, leadership, and decision-making.

Had a genuine conversation and felt more like an actual interview.

Final Outcome

No feedback. No response. Ghosted again by the recruiter.

After such an inconsistent experience and lack of basic courtesy in communication, I no longer intend to consider Amazon in the future. A company of this scale should hold higher standards — both in candidate experience and interviewer quality.