SDE II at Amazon

How it went

What they would tell you

How to prepare

Their background

Round by round

1. 1

   Online Assessment (HackerRank)90 min

   Programming Section: DP problem related and a heap/queue combination challenge Work-Style Assessment: Leadership Principles alignment questions

2. 2

   System Architecture & Leadership60 min

   The interview began with an intensive 30-minute exploration of Amazon's Leadership Principles. After this behavioral assessment, I was presented with a comprehensive system design challenge, architect a robust stock trading application capable of handling massive traffic loads without system failures. I approached this systematically by first clarifying critical requirements such as expected order volume, acceptable latency thresholds, and peak concurrent users. My solution involved designing a multi-layered architecture with a relational database for transaction integrity, Redis caching for frequently accessed market data, load balancers for traffic distribution, and comprehensive monitoring systems with real-time alerting mechanisms. The interviewer was particularly interested in how I would handle edge cases like system failures during high-volume trading periods and data consistency across multiple services.

   • Design a scalable stock trading platform that can handle heavy traffic without system downtime
3. 3

   Bar Raiser Coding Round60 min

   I was presented with a sophisticated variation of the classic coin-change problem that required dynamic programming expertise combined with additional constraints on valid coin combinations. I maintained constant communication about my approach, explaining time complexity O(amount * coins). Follow-up questions about optimization possibilities and alternative approaches, testing my ability to think critically.

   • Modified coin-change problem with constraints on valid coin combination patterns
4. 4

   DSA60 min

   The technical challenge involved comparing two product titles using hash maps to identify differences (additions, deletions, word repositioning). Required implementing efficient string comparison algorithms and discussing scalability for processing millions of product listings. Emphasized handling edge cases like duplicates, empty strings, and memory optimization for production environments.

   • Compare two product titles and generate a comprehensive list of required changes for catalog synchronization
5. 5

   System Building90 min

   I was tasked with architecting and partially implementing a comprehensive log aggregation service from scratch. The system requirements included: efficient log ingestion from multiple sources, flexible filtering capabilities (by timestamp, service name, log level, custom keywords), and fast search functionality across large datasets. My initial approach involved creating a service-based indexing strategy to optimize search performance, but the interviewer challenged this decision, suggesting alternative approaches. This led to a constructive technical debate where I defended my reasoning with concrete examples of query patterns and performance metrics, while remaining open to feedback. We eventually reached a collaborative compromise that balanced search speed with storage efficiency. I implemented clean, modular code with proper separation of concerns, comprehensive error handling, and extensive unit testing considerations. The interviewer appreciated my focus on maintainability and my ability to articulate trade-offs between different architectural decisions while remaining flexible to evolving requirements.

What came up