I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2012
Interview
Two standard phone screens with different developers. First interview asked simple concepts and practices associated with object oriented programming. There was also a heavy focus on data structures. Since Amazon is a global company, they are interested in scalability and efficiency when it comes to development.
First Interview Questions:
1) What is encapsulation and polymorphism?
2) Describe linkedlists, arrays, stacks, queues, priority queues, heaps, and binary trees. What are their complexities and benefits?
3) On a server in a directory with 50,000+ HTML files how would you find and return a count of phone numbers?
4) What is the difference between binary and hex decimal?
5) Design/Code a method that multiples two numbers without using the multiply operator. And what are some tests you would implement (i.e. black box, white box)?
Second Interview Questions:
1) Given a list of acceptable words (dictionary), how would you check to see if a given input is on that list? Complexity and efficiency?
i. How would you complete this task with a dictionary that is too large to fit in ram? Complexity and efficiency?
ii. Now given two input words how would you find and return all available words in between the two words? (i.e. input1= "Cat", input2= "Fish", return all words in between) Complexity and efficiency?
2) Given a singlyLinkedList, write a method that reverses the order of the list. Complexity and efficiency?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Just make sure you cover all your basics. They will cover a wide range of topics to see what you know and how you react to difficult questions. Always ask to clarify questions since they are usually ambiguous.
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.
That moment when the interviewer asked about finding indices in an array for a target sum was wild — I had just tackled something identical while prepping on PracHub. The interview included a technical round with another question about designing an in-memory LRU cache and a behavioral question about meeting tight deadlines. After a smooth discussion, I was told I'd received an offer, which I happily accepted. Overall, the process felt pretty straightforward and not overly challenging.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Given an array of integers return the indices of two numbers summing to a target