I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Aug 2011
Interview
Applied through their web interface and received a communication from HR. Set up a time to talk where I had to be at a computer. They set up a whiteboard on which I was to post answers to their questions. Was completely unprepared; stammered, and clearly failed. The interviewer was not even paying attention, so it felt like a passthrough where the stakes were low and I just had to get those questions right. They weren't interested in anything I had to say about my experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Fibonacci sequence: pseudocode it. Honestly, pretty easy, but you have to be prepared with quick answers to this and things like this.
The interview was basically a screening round, It was just a quick interview to get to know if I was worth the company's time. The dsa round was pretty easy but once they got into system design it was harder.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked dsa questions like trapping rain water and a stack question similar to valid parenthesis.
Recruiter screen, online assessment, technical interviews, and behavioral rounds focused heavily on Amazon Leadership Principles. The process was structured, with a strong emphasis on problem-solving, coding skills, and examples demonstrating impact and ownership.
Recruiter screen, followed by an online coding assessment and then a technical phone interview. The final round was a virtual onsite loop with multiple interviews covering data structures, system design, debugging, and Amazon Leadership Principles. The technical questions were practical but time-constrained, and the behavioural questions required specific examples using the STAR format.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a scalable URL shortening service and explain how you would handle high read traffic, collisions, database schema, expiration, and basic monitoring.