Amazon interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

SDE - 1

Amazon
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3 rounds | 5 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
Amazon SDE1 Interview Experience I applied to several open positions in March through an off-campus drive. On March 13, I received an online assessment (OA) link valid until March 18. The OA was a test consisting of two DSA problems. I passed the OA and received an interview call, which consisted of two technical rounds, each lasting one hour, with about an hour break in between. The interview was conducted on Amazon Chime. During the calls, there was also an additional person present as a silent observer (a shadow interviewer) who did not interact. Honestly, it feels like a win for me. Even though I wasn’t selected, the entire process was a solid learning experience. I leveled up my skills and got a real taste of Amazon’s interview style. Next time, I’ll come in even stronger!
Application story
I applied to several open positions in March through an off-campus drive. On March 13, I received an online assessment (OA) link valid until March 18. On March 26, I got a call from HR to schedule the interview. I suggested April 1, but the scheduling didn’t happen immediately, and I waited silently for about three weeks. Finally, on April 17, I received an interview invite for April 22, and on April 26, I received the response.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I believe I was rejected because I wasn’t able to communicate very fluently throughout the interview. I was a little nervous, and I couldn’t complete one problem in the first round, but that was only due to time constraints.
Preparation
Duration: 1 month
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, Amazon Leadership Principles
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: Practice at least all standard problems.

Tip 2: Go through all the technologies you’ve mentioned in your resume.

Tip 3: Be optimistic, patient, and confident.

Application process
Where: Company Website
Eligibility: No, it was an open position for freshers. (Salary Package: 33 LPA)
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Be ATS-friendly.

Tip 2: Keep it neat and clean, including only necessary details.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Test
Duration120 minutes
Interview date16 Mar 2025
Coding problem2

1. Vehicle Fleet Combinations

Easy
0/40
Asked in company
Amazon

You are given an integer W representing a total number of wheels. You have an infinite supply of two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles.

Your task is to find the number of different ways to choose a fleet of vehicles such that the total number of wheels is exactly W. Two ways are considered different if they use a different number of two-wheeled vehicles or a different number of four-wheeled vehicles.

You will be given T independent queries, each with a different value for W.


Problem approach

This was more of a math-based problem rather than involving heavy data structures. I used simple arithmetic and looped over possible counts of 4-wheelers, then checked if the remaining wheels could be made up by 2-wheelers.
It was straightforward and I was able to solve it fully.

Try solving now

2. Number of Ways to Select Buildings

Moderate
0/80
Asked in company
Amazon

You are given a binary string s of length N, where s[i] = '0' represents an office and s[i] = '1' represents a restaurant.

Your task is to find the number of ways to select three buildings at indices i, j, and k such that i < j < k, and the types of the selected buildings are alternating. This means the selected sequence of building types must be either "010" or "101".


Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration60 minutes
Interview date22 Apr 2025
Coding problem2

The first round began with a short introduction and then quickly moved to coding. I was given two problems.

1. Longest Span with Same Sum

Moderate
0/80
Asked in company
Amazon

You are given two binary arrays, a1 and a2, of the same size N. A binary array is one that contains only 0s and 1s.

Your task is to find the length of the longest contiguous subarray (span) [i...j] where the sum of its elements in a1 is equal to the sum of its elements in a2.


Problem approach

The interviewer asked about my approach and edge cases before I wrote the function signature and full code on Amazon’s notepad platform.

Try solving now

2. The Circular Chocolate Game

Easy
0/40
Asked in company
Amazon

Two friends, Alice and Bob, are playing a game with N stacks of chocolates arranged in a circle. The stacks are numbered 0 to N-1 clockwise.

The rules of the game are as follows:


1) Alice always goes first.


2) The game starts with a pointer at stack 0.


3) On a player's turn, they must take exactly one chocolate from the stack indicated by the pointer.


4) After their turn, the pointer moves one position clockwise to the next stack.


5) If a player's turn begins and the pointer is at a stack that is already empty, that player has no valid move and loses the game immediately.


Given the initial number of chocolates in each stack, and assuming both Alice and Bob play optimally, your task is to determine the winner.


Problem approach

Due to time constraints, I explained my approach clearly but didn’t complete the code. The interviewer was satisfied with my explanations and helped me by pointing out where I was going wrong, guiding me towards the correct reasoning.

Try solving now
03
Round
Easy
Video Call
Duration60 minutes
Interview date22 Apr 2025
Coding problem1

After an hour break, the second round started with a brief introduction, followed immediately by a graph problem.

Later, the interviewer asked behavioral questions, including:

"Can you tell me about a project during your internship where you took full ownership? How did you manage it, and what was the outcome?"
I described a full-stack project I handled entirely during my internship, explaining how I managed the end-to-end development and ensured its successful delivery.

"Was there any task or project during your internship where you went beyond your existing skills or capabilities to deliver the best outcome? Could you share how you handled that challenge?"
I shared how, although I was primarily responsible for frontend development, I took over backend tasks one day when the backend engineer was unavailable. This effort was appreciated by both my client and manager, demonstrating my adaptability.

At the end of the interview, the interviewer asked if I had any questions for him. I inquired about the commonly discussed rumors regarding Amazon’s work-life balance and workload, saying:

"I’ve heard many rumors about Amazon having a challenging work-life balance and a demanding workload. Since you’re an Amazon employee, I’d love to hear your perspective—how is it in reality?"

He answered thoughtfully, explaining that employees at Amazon have full freedom and ownership of their projects and work as if the projects are their own. He also noted that roles aren’t strictly divided; people often work across frontend, backend, and other areas. He mentioned he was part of the Amazon Pay team, which gave his insights additional credibility.

1. Amazon Hub Network

Moderate
0/80
Asked in company
Amazon

You are given 'N' Amazon distribution hubs, labeled from 0 to N-1, and a list of existing transport routes. Each route[i] = [u, v] represents a direct, bi-directional route between hub u and hub v.

You are allowed to add at most one new transport route between any two hubs that are not already connected.

Your task is to determine if it is possible to make the entire network of hubs fully connected by adding at most one new route. A network is fully connected if every hub is reachable from every other hub through some path of routes. Return true if it's possible, and false otherwise.


Problem approach

I solved this problem using Depth-First Search (DFS), as it was a standard graph connectivity problem.

Try solving now

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

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