I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Nov 2011
Interview
A friend put in my resume and I was contacted by phone about a week later by an HR rep. She was very short and was interested in only setting up the interview. She was reluctant to discuss the position or company.
On the day of the interview the interviewer called me a few minutes late. He was friendly but seemed hurried. He asked me some questions about my most difficult project and the program I was most proud of. He asked some technical questions related to projects I was working on. He seemed uninterested in my work history.
After about 10 minutes of talking he sent me a link to a window and gave me a programming assignment. I asked some follow up questions and began to write out an algorithm on a notepad nearby, talking through my thought process all the while. After 2 or 3 minutes he insisted I stop writing and begin coding. I feel like planning first is better but he was running the show.
Know your data structures by heart and be able to code them in your sleep. Terminology is important too.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
What is the computational complexity of graph isomorphism
It started with an OA, and then after a few weeks, I got invited to four rounds of interviews: technical and behavioral at 3 of the 4, and behavioral only at one.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Calgary, AB) in Jun 2026
Interview
Online Assessment is the first step in the process. I didn’t have an HR phone screening and went straight to the OA after applying. It was sent to me about a week after I submitted my application.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The first question is LeetCode style algorithms question, and the second question gives a full stack repo (choice of Java, NodeJS, or Django) and asks to solve a backend issue which is causing a bug in the frontend. Unit tests must pass to pass the second question. You can run both backend/frontend indivdually or together