Amazon - Software Development Engineer
Overview
Amazon's SDE interview process consisted of an online assessment, a phone screen, and a virtual onsite consisting of 4 rounds. The process was heavily focused on leadership principles and technical problem-solving.
Interview Location/Type:
Remote/Onsite
Interview Process
Online Assessment
Duration: 90 minutesCoding assessment with two algorithmic problems to solve on Amazon's platform.
Implement an LRU Cache with a specified capacity
Count number of islands in a grid
Phone Screen
Duration: 45 minutesTechnical interview with a focus on problem-solving and code implementation.
Find the kth largest element in an array
Virtual Onsite - Coding Interview 1
Duration: 60 minutesFocus on data structures and algorithms with a mix of problem-solving and code implementation.
Design a system to find all anagrams of a word in a large text file
Virtual Onsite - System Design
Duration: 60 minutesDesign a large-scale system with considerations for scalability, reliability, and performance.
Design a distributed key-value store like Amazon DynamoDB
Virtual Onsite - Behavioral and Leadership Principles
Duration: 45 minutesInterview focused on Amazon Leadership Principles with behavior-based questions.
Tell me about a time when you had to dive deep to solve a complex technical problem
Give me an example of a time when you set a high bar for quality and delivered results
Virtual Onsite - Coding Interview 2
Duration: 60 minutesFocus on more complex algorithms and data structure implementations.
Design a data structure that supports insert, delete, search, and getRandom operations in constant time
Preparation Notes
Amazon interviews heavily focus on their Leadership Principles. Be prepared to provide detailed examples from your experience that demonstrate these principles. Technical questions often relate to practical software engineering problems.
Interview Tips
- Study Amazon Leadership Principles thoroughly and prepare STAR method responses
- Practice algorithmic problems on platforms like LeetCode, focusing on medium to hard difficulty
- For system design, focus on scalability, fault tolerance, and performance considerations
- Be ready to explain your thought process clearly during problem-solving
- Have examples ready for behavioral questions that show ownership and customer obsession
Prepare for Your Interview
Use our DSA section to practice coding problems frequently asked in technical interviews.
Practice DSA Questions