Amazon interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview
SDE - Intern
Amazon
2 rounds | 5 Coding
problems
Selected Interview preparation journey
Journey
I was admitted to Chitrakara for a B.Tech as I always wanted to be a Software Developer in any Big MNC. To get selected for them, I needed to be very special in my coding skills, and I knew this fact, so I started to code even before the college classes started for the first year. I practiced many questions in the first two years of graduation and then learned web development in the last phase of the second year.
Application story
In the second year of graduation, everyone in the college had an internship except for a few guys, and I was one of them. I was very eager to intern in any company so they could add to my resume. Fortunately, Amazon visited our campus to hire Interns, and It was an excellent opportunity for me. So, I applied for the post.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I think I was on point with my coding solutions to the questions asked in the interviews. I provided the optimal solutions and I was giving correct explanations to some theory questions asked.
Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: C++, Data Structures(Focus more on trees and graphs), Dynamic Programming, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Object Oriented Programming, Database Management System, Computer Networks
Tip 1: You must have confidence in Data Structures and their concepts. Pick one coding platform and try to practice at least 5-6 coding questions every day. I completed around 200+ questions on Leetcode and 200+ questions on CodeStudio.
Tip 2: Not attempting the question is enough. Try to analyze its time and space complexity. See if you can further optimize your solution. Sometimes, the interviewer asks only one question, increasing its difficulty by asking for its optimization.
Tip 3: Apart from coding questions, keep studying concepts of Operating Systems, databases, and object-oriented programming. You can always refer to CodeStudio articles for it. Also, Coding Ninja's Data Structures Algorithmsthms course in C++ helped me improve my OOPS concepts.
Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Candidate must be female
Tip 1: Do not mention any skills, projects or achievements which you haven't completed yourselves. If you are not able to answer the basic questions it leaves a bad impact.
Tip 2: You do need to have a lot of projects. Only one good project with proper knowledge is also acceptable. The same goes for the skills as well.
Tip 3: Try to write achievements that show your technical skills, communication skills, leadership quality or teamwork.
Interview rounds
01
Round
Easy
Online Coding Interview
Duration180 minutes
Interview date24 May 2020
Coding problem2
The online round consisted of 2 coding questions based on data structures and algorithms, 30 aptitude MCQs, 30 behavioral MCQs and 10 code snippets to debug. The coding questions were of medium level, aptitude MCQs were easy and the code snippets to debug was also of easy level. Each section was timed.
1. Palindrome Linked List
Easy
20m average time
90% success
0/40
Asked in companies
You are given a singly Linked List of integers. Your task is to return true if the given singly linked list is a palindrome otherwise returns false.
For example:
The given linked list is 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 2-> 1-> NULL.
It is a palindrome linked list because the given linked list has the same order of elements when traversed forwards and backward.
Follow Up:
Can you solve the problem in O(N) time complexity and O(1) space complexity iteratively?
Problem approach
1. I used stack to solve this problem.
2. Traverse the given list from head to tail and push every visited node to stack.
3. Traverse the list again. For every visited node, pop a node from stack and compare data of popped node with currently visited node.
4. If all nodes matched, then return true, else false.
2. Total unique paths
Moderate
25m average time
80% success
0/80
Asked in companies
You are present at point ‘A’ which is the top-left cell of an M X N matrix, your destination is point ‘B’, which is the bottom-right cell of the same matrix. Your task is to find the total number of unique paths from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.In other words, you will be given the dimensions of the matrix as integers ‘M’ and ‘N’, your task is to find the total number of unique paths from the cell MATRIX[0][0] to MATRIX['M' - 1]['N' - 1].
To traverse in the matrix, you can either move Right or Down at each step. For example in a given point MATRIX[i] [j], you can move to either MATRIX[i + 1][j] or MATRIX[i][j + 1].
Problem approach
The recursive formula is as follows:
int numberOfPaths(int m, int n)
{
if (m == 1 || n == 1)
return 1;
return numberOfPaths(m - 1, n) + numberOfPaths(m, n - 1);
}
However there are overlapping problems hence, we use DP to further optimize it.
02
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration50 minutes
Interview date25 Jun 2020
Coding problem3
The interview was early in the morning at 9 am. We turned on our videos and the interviewer asked for my introduction. She was helpful and provided me with hints whenever I needed. The interview was taken on Amazon chime and she also shared a link where I can write the code. It could be editable by both of us.
1. Find Number of Islands
Moderate
34m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
You are given a 2-dimensional array/list having N rows and M columns, which is filled with ones(1) and zeroes(0). 1 signifies land, and 0 signifies water.
A cell is said to be connected to another cell, if one cell lies immediately next to the other cell, in any of the eight directions (two vertical, two horizontal, and four diagonals).
A group of connected cells having value 1 is called an island. Your task is to find the number of such islands present in the matrix.
Problem approach
A cell in 2D matrix can be connected to 8 neighbors. So we can recursively call for 8 neighbors only. We keep track of the visited 1s so that they are not visited again.
I gave both solutions that is by using BFS and DFS.
I also had to code for both the methods.
This question was followed by questions related to graphs.
2. DBMS
Problem approach
Tip 1 : Give your answer in a structured manner. Also, don't use those technical terms which you aren't clear with.
Tip 2 : Try to communicate clearly with the interviewer. Explain your solution clearly.
3. OOPS Concpets
Problem approach
Tip 1 : Refer to OOPs modules in Coding Ninja's Data Structure and Algorithm course. It is great for OOPs concepts.
Tip 2 : Always give proper definitions along with examples.
Tip 3 : Make notes for topics like OOPs and DBMS while preparing.
Here's your problem of the day 
Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company
Skill covered: Programming
Which is a DDL command in SQL?
Choose another skill to practice
Start a Discussion
Similar interview experiences
SDE - Intern
3 rounds | 3 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
Rejected
1168 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
SDE - Intern
3 rounds | 7 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
Rejected
407 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
SDE - Intern
2 rounds | 3 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
Rejected
418 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
SDE - Intern
1 rounds | 3 problems
Interviewed by Amazon
Selected 615 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
Companies with similar interview experiences
SDE - Intern
4 rounds | 7 problems
Interviewed by Microsoft
Selected 12331 views
1 comments
0 upvotes
SDE - Intern
3 rounds | 6 problems
Interviewed by Microsoft
Selected 7424 views
0 comments
0 upvotes
SDE - Intern
2 rounds | 3 problems
Interviewed by Google
Rejected
5248 views
1 comments
0 upvotes