Amazon | SDE-1 | India | March 2022 Offer

Status: Software Engineer in a fintech for 7 months; 2021 Grad from a Tier-3 College.
Position: Amazon SDE-1
Location: Bangalore
Date: 3 March, 2021

BACKGROUND
I never gave any test for any product based company even during my college years because I didn't get the opportunity for the same. I applied to some off-campus jobs but the only email I used to get was 'Although we're impressed with your profile but we can't proceed with you at this moment'. I was disappointed to the core because I knew that I deserve better but I'm probably not lucky enough.

APPLICATION
I asked for referrals to many people but was always ignored, so I decided to apply myself via the jobs portal. I submitted my application to some relevant positions on December 2, 2021.

RESUME SHORTLISTING
I got an email on December 6, 2021 that my resume has been shortlisted and I was provided with an OA link that needed to be completed within a week. I was very happy that at least my resume has been shortlisted and that too so quickly.

ONLINE ASSESMENT
I gave the OA on December 11, 2021 as it was the weekend. There were 2 sections as follows -

Part-1: 2 Coding questions with writeup section where one has to explain the approach, time & space complexity.

• Array Based LC Medium - I passed all test cases.
• String Based LC Medium - I passed all test cases.

Part-2: 50+ Leadership Principles based slider-type questions where for a given statement one has to move the slider to the option as per one's understanding.

I got a mail on December 21, 2021 that OA has been cleared and I'll have 4 rounds of interview.

TECHNICAL ROUND - 1
This round held on December 29, 2021 with a newly promoted SDE-2 who was working with Amazon for past 3 years right after his college.

• We spent 15 min. in our introduction and 2 leadership principles based questions.
• He asked me a very difficult question, it looked a DP/Greedy question. I made up my mind at the very moment that Amazon isn't for me, although I didn't show that I'm panicked. I thought for a while but he insisted that I should go for a brute force solution. I said that brute force is useless as it's going to have exponential time complexity. I don't know what clicked me, I was loudly thinking and suddenly realized that I'm thinking in correct direction. He was impressed and pushed me to think in that direction. I came up with a solution, coded it and we dry ran it. He asked me time and space complexity at end. This question took 40 min in total. [Although I still can't find this question anywhere on internet, it's just too hard and out of the box]
• He asked me a stack based (LC Medium) question, I knew the solution, coded it but missed a stupid case which he pointed out. He asked time & space complexity also. This question took 20 min.
• We concluded this round with ending comments in 5 min.

Total Time: 80 min.

I was proud of myself that I solved both the questions especially that unexpectedly difficult one.

TECHNICAL ROUND - 2
This round held on January 4, 2022 with an SDE-2 who was working with Amazon for past 3.5 years having total professional experience of 7 years.

• We spent 25 min. in introduction and 3 leadership principles based questions.
• He asked a tree based (LC Medium) question. I knew how to solve it in the most optimal way but he asked for other way of approaching it. I took pen-paper and came up with one more approach. He asked to code either one of them and also asked me time & space complexity. This question took 30 min.
• He asked a sliding window based question which I never saw before and can't find on LC. I gave a different approach which I believe he wasn't expecting and found it interesting. He asked for time & space complexity and then write the code as well. This question took 20 min.
• We concluded this round with ending comments in 5 min.

Total Time: 70 min.

I was relaxed that I didn't have to do insane brainstorming in this round.

HIRING MANAGER ROUND
This round held on January 27, 2022 with 2 Software Development Managers having total experience of 18 and 9 years respectively.

• We had a quick introduction in 2-3 minutes.
• I was being fired with the questions that combined the theory topics and coding. For example - "Can we run a program of 4 GB on a 2 GB RAM?". This is an OS question with Demand Paging as it's answer, this led to discussion on Paging then Page Replacement Algorithms then implementation of LRU Replacement. Similarly, most of the questions started like this and ended in the implementation. I had to code some implementations and some were to be explained on an online whiteboard.
• I was also being asked leadership principle based questions in between the other ones.
• Both interviewers were asking question & follow-ups.
• We concluded this round in just 2 minutes.

Total Time: 60 min.

I had mixed reaction because I answered all question but small one which I outrightly dismissed saying that I've heard of it but don't really know the concept. My guess is that they were looking what's the threshold of handling pressure by asking difficult and quick questions

BAR RAISER ROUND
I mailed my recuiter many times because days were passing and I didn't get any update. Finally this round held on February 28, 2022.

• I waited for 6-7 min. and there was no show, I thought that there would be more days of delay. But it came out that recuiter mailed me wrong meeting ID and then I quickly joined the correct one.
• We had a 2 min. introduction.
• I was asked many leadership principle based questions and the interviewer wanted to know more than 1 situations in nearly all the questions being asked. It took around 25 min.
• I was asked a very hard tree based question which I can't find on LC, although an easier variation is available on LC which in itself is marked as Hard. I first took sometime to think and then explained my approach and coded it. This question took 25 min. to solve.
• We concluded this round with ending comments in just 1 min.

Total Time: 60 min.

I was happy and confident after this round.

OFFER
Recruiter reached out to me on March 3, 2022. I missed that call as I was having my lunch but called right after it. I was completely blank, I wasn't having any thoughts when I called back the recuiter. I was told that I'm selected and it was the 2nd time that I experienced the supreme ecstatsy in my life. I was not able to say anything clearly, recuiter asked me to take a deep breath. I thanked her, we were both laughing and had a good quick conversation.

I was told about the compensation on March 4, 2022.

PREPARATION
Long term preparation advice -

• It's not as easy as people make it out. I've seen many posts and videos that say that practice of some months is enough. I don't agree with this approach because you never know when your fundamentals are going to help you. Have a habit of constant regular practice, at least 1 coding question daily. I have been persistently solving problems on some platforms but largely on LC from at least last 3 years.

• Focus on theory subjects like OS, DBMS, Networking, Algorithms. These 4 subjects are of very high importance. Buy the standard textbooks - OS (Galvin), DBMS (Navathe), Networking (Forouzan), Algorithms (Cormen).

The preparation I did during the interview process -

• I revised the theory of the 4 subjects which I mentioned above. I don't like making notes, so I took on the textbooks and have gone through them.
• I read the LPs carefully from Amazon's site and thought of real life stories (based on current job) because in case you tell lie, you will not be able to answer the follow-ups. I didn't prepare structured stories as I don't believe in memorizing such things, it looks very fake.
• I went through my starred questions on LC. I used to star the tricky questions.
• I went through the 3 Amazon lists that I've saved on LC.
• I went through some latest interview experiences on GFG and LC.

I was able to carve out 6 hours daily from my schedule and did the revision in that time from the day I cleared OA till the last interview round.

I've quite a lot of faith in Gods. Whenever I ask with a good, clear & confident mind, Gods tend to help me. :)