RejectedSDE-I at Amazon
- Difficulty
- Process took
- 2-3 Weeks
- Rounds
- 3
- Format
- Remote
- Applied via
- Referral
How it went
- My suggestion, Solve medium and hard problems while verbalizing your thought process, not just blindly coding. Try explaining your solution to yourself or a peer before typing it out.
What they would tell you
- My suggestion, Solve medium and hard problems while verbalizing your thought process, not just blindly coding. Try explaining your solution to yourself or a peer before typing it out.
How to prepare
- Coding platforms are great for building intuition on arrays, trees, graphs, and DP. However, Amazon questions often test problem-solving beyond textbook problems, they want to see how you approach vague scenarios, design your own data structures, or optimize runtime for real-world constraints.
Their background
I’m a junior engineer with a few years of experience, eager for my first MAANG shot. I applied to Amazon for SDE-I role and was surprised and a little intimidated by the process, especially as it was my first time interviewing at this level.
Round by round
- 1
Online Assessment60 min
Two coding questions, both involving arrays, medium difficulty.
- 2
Technical Round 160 min
Coding: Design a data structure to find the lowest common ancestor (LCA) between two nodes in a hierarchy (e.g., company org chart). I had to suggest both the class structure and the method, aiming for O(log n) LP: Describe an experience where you stepped outside your comfort zone. Tell me about a time you overcame a significant obstacle.
- 3
Technical Round 260 min
Behavioral Questions:
-
Tell me about a time you struggled and what you did to solve it.
-
Tell me about a time you learned from a previous mistake. Technical Question:
-
Given two streams of integers (already sorted), merge them into a single sorted stream.
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What came up
A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.