I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2011
Interview
Applied online and got call immediately after 5 days. Given 2 date to choose for an onsite interview in Seattle. They took care of almost everything travel-stay-food. I had 15 days to prepare for interview.
The day started with lunch at start then 4 interview one by one continuously by different people, I was bit impressed by all. They all started with inquiring about my work experience, why amazon, most interesting or recent projects, etc.
Interview tech. questions were not hard to understand but requires lot of thinking and to come up with best solution in terms of space-time complexities, they more concentrated on using best suited data structure for given problem and algorithm to solve it. Also, they check if you considered all cases. They keep on noting everything you say and things you write on board. Less time and detailed thinking of problem is a big pain, you have to stress your brain for next 4 hours nonstop.
I was able to answer all tech questions with best solution and they were all very impressed by my solutions, it showed on their face, I met there expectations, but I m sure I messed up Object-oriented question, I was bit disappointed for solution I gave, when I thought about it after coming at hotel, I come with composite design pattern that best suited and was expected. I didn't at all think about any design pattern for object oriented question, I m sure this was the point where I was out.
My advice before going for interview is to go through 2 books: programming interviews exposed and cracking the coding interviews.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Distribute numbers starting from 1 to infinite, give out minimum number available and take in already given numbers.
Loop — 4 rounds, all on the same day
Round 1 — Coding (DSA)
Interviewer was a senior SDE, very friendly.
Warm-up + behavioral: "Tell me about a time you took ownership of something outside your responsibilities."
Main question: Given a list of meeting intervals, find the minimum number of conference rooms required. I used a heap. He then asked a follow-up: what if meetings could be reassigned to minimize total idle time? We discussed approaches but didn't fully code it.
He cared a lot about how I talked through edge cases out loud.
Round 2 — Coding + Problem Solving
LP question: "Describe a situation where you disagreed with a teammate."
Coding: LRU Cache implementation from scratch. I used a hashmap + doubly linked list. He pushed on thread-safety and what happens at capacity 0.
Round 3 — Behavioral (Bar Raiser)
This was the toughest round — no coding, all Leadership Principles, very deep STAR-format probing.
Questions I got:
"Tell me about a time you failed and what you learned."
"A time you had to deliver something with a tight deadline and limited information."
The bar raiser kept drilling: "What was your specific contribution?" "What would you do differently?" "What data did you use?" Have 6–8 strong stories ready with metrics.
Round 4 — Low-Level Design
Design: Design a parking lot system (classes, vehicle types, spot allocation, pricing). Then he asked me to code the findSpot() and releaseSpot() methods.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most coding questions were LeetCode Medium. Common themes: graphs, heaps, sliding window, hashmaps, and LRU/design., system design,
Great interview process with three rounds, including a technical assessment and a technical interview. The interviewers were professional and supportive throughout the process. The questions mainly focused on DSA, problem-solving, and core technical concepts. The discussions were engaging and provided a good opportunity to demonstrate technical skills. Overall, the process was well-structured, smooth, transparent, and a very positive experience.
I applied through college or university. I interviewed at Amazon (Dublino, Dublino)
Interview
Online techincal assessment. Had to screen share and complete basic coding tasks similar to Leet Code. Could choose a language of your choice. Overall a very fair system and judged based on merit.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical assessment so a basic leet code style question about reversing the orders of long numerical strings.
