Hello everyone, I have completed my Amazon SDE 1 loop and received an offer!

Format: 4 rounds — 3 in-person rounds and 1 BR round (virtual) at Seattle for AWS.

Round 1 - Coding + Behavioral
Started with an LP question:

“Tell me about a time when you had a blocker in your work and how did you resolve that blocker? What would you have done differently?”

For coding, I was asked Path Sum II. I clarified the problem, explained my approach, and coded it in around 30 minutes.

With around 15 minutes left, the interviewer gave me a follow-up, which was a hard variation of the previous problem. I needed some hints, picked them up, explained my approach, and the interviewer seemed happy.

Round 2 - LLD
Started with an LP question:

“Tell me about a time where you took work outside of your responsibility.”

Technical: Design a billing service for AWS for a single user where the usage and rate of all the services used are given.

This was the best round of the entire loop. I explained each of my design choices, and the interviewer came up with follow-ups which I was able to answer. Overall, it was a very good discussion.

Round 3 - Coding + Behavioral (HM Round)
The first 30 minutes were entirely related to Gen AI discussion.

Then came the technical part. First question was First Non-Repeating Character, solved that in around 10 minutes.

The next question was a slight modification of Merge Intervals, which I solved as well.

Round 4 - Bar Raiser
This one was entirely behavioral. There were a lot of follow-ups for every story you speak about - “Why this?”, “Why that?”, etc.

You really need to know your stories well for this round.

Timeline
Feb 10: Applied with a referral

July 10: Received OA

July 11: Completed OA

July 15: Original Job ID moved to “No longer under consideration” and a new Job ID was opened

July 20: Received email that I passed OA

July 28: Recruiter reached out asking for my availability between Aug 17–21

Aug 14: Received tentative schedule and Save the Date email

Aug 18: Received confirmation with interviewer details

Aug 20 & Aug 24: Interviews

Aug 27: Result — Offer