I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (New York, NY) in Feb 2017
Interview
When I initially realized I was going to be interviewed for this position, I was enthused, and immediately began to prepare. However, this quickly waned as my interview was rescheduled 3 times, which as a candidate provides a terrible experience, especially as I am currently employed full-time.
Once I finally did have my first round interview, the recruiter questioned me on skills that did not remotely align to the role for which I applied. The interviewer focused the majority of the interview asking questions on abstract concepts around algorithms. I did my best, but did not advance. I can deal with rejection. I cannot deal with poor processes, especially when followed by a generic rejection letter, and no opportunity for feedback.
I expect computer science questions from a big tech company, but the fact I had no questions surrounding the actual job skills (web development and user interface) to supplement, just seemed like a waste of time. Considering they have all my background education info and know I'm not a computer scientist but a seasoned web developer. However, it seemed that the interviewer was not at all aware of that, and just screened me generically.
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