Education: B.Tech (Tier-2 College), 2025 Batch
Experience: 6-month Internship + 8-month FTC
Current Role: SDE-1 (FTC)

I was working at Amazon for the last 8 months as a Full-Time Contract Employee (FTC - Green Badge). During the last month of my contract, I internally reached out to a manager. He was not from India but was planning to establish a new team under him in India. Although I was already working at Amazon, I was a Green Badge (contract employee), so I had to go through the complete SDE-1 interview loop—just like an external candidate—to be considered for a Full-Time Employee (Blue Badge) role.

I received the Online Assessment (OA), and I cleared it.

Round 1

After clearing the OA, I received the invitation for Round 1 the very next day with the hiring manager. It was the Hiring Manager round.

He first told me about the new team, his experience, and the kind of work they would be doing. After that, he asked about my last 8 months of experience at Amazon and about my internship experience. Then he asked me some scenario-based questions based on Amazon's Leadership Principles (LPs).

This round lasted around 30–40 minutes.

Round 2

The very next day, I received the invitation for Round 2 with an SDE-2. She joined from outside India.

She started with her introduction, followed by mine. After that, she asked me two behavioral questions based on Amazon Leadership Principles, mainly Deep Dive and Ownership.

After around 10–12 minutes of discussion, she shared a document link where the coding question was already written. The question was similar to Word Search II on LeetCode (Trie-based). The question was not exactly the same, but the language and the way it was presented were different.

She explained the question, and I first discussed the brute-force approach. She immediately asked me to move on from the brute-force solution and think about an optimized approach.

After some time, I explained an approach similar to the Word Search II solution using Trie, and she was satisfied with the approach. Then I wrote the complete code.

The interview lasted around 65–70 minutes.

Round 3

After two days, I got to know that I had cleared Round 2, so I received the invitation for Round 3.

In this round, an SDE-2 from outside India joined the interview.

Similar to Round 2, he first introduced himself, and then I introduced myself. After that, he asked about my internship experience and my Amazon work experience. He also asked some follow-up questions related to the projects I had worked on.

Then he asked me a few scenario-based questions based on Amazon Leadership Principles. This discussion went on for around 25–30 minutes.

After that, he shared a coding question. The way the question was framed was a little different, but it was available on LeetCode as Rotting Oranges.

I proposed a graph-based BFS approach. He was satisfied with the approach and asked me to write the code. I completed the implementation within the given time. After that, he asked about the time complexity and space complexity.

At the end, I asked him a couple of questions about his experience at Amazon, and the interview ended.

Round 4

After 2–3 days, my manager informed me that I had cleared both the technical rounds. He then scheduled the special Amazon Bar Raiser round.

Again, a lady interviewer joined from the US. She started with her introduction, followed by mine.

She then started asking behavioral questions based on AI fluency. She wanted to understand how I was using AI at Amazon, how I worked with AI efficiently, and how I ensured I wasn't over-relying on it. Based on my answers, she asked multiple follow-up questions related to my AI usage.

After around 30 minutes of discussion, she shared a document link containing a DSA problem. Unfortunately, I am unable to recall the exact problem, but it was of Easy to Medium difficulty.

I proposed two approaches—one brute-force solution and one optimized solution. After discussing both, I wrote the optimized code.

At the end of the interview, I asked her one question about how she keeps herself updated with new technologies and advancements in AI. She answered my question, and then the interview ended.

Verdict: Selected ✅

Tips for Future Candidates

• Have a strong understanding of DSA fundamentals, especially Trees, Graphs, BFS/DFS, Trie, and Dynamic Programming.
• Practice writing clean, bug-free code, and use meaningful variable and function names as if you were writing production-ready code.
• Prepare your Amazon Leadership Principle (LP) stories thoroughly using real experiences.
• Be ready for deep discussions about your projects and be able to clearly explain your exact contributionsBold, design decisions, and challenges.
• Always communicate your thought process clearly, ask clarifying questions before jumping into the solution, and discuss trade-offs whenever applicable.