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.
Loop — 4 rounds, all on the same day
Round 1 — Coding (DSA)
Interviewer was a senior SDE, very friendly.
Warm-up + behavioral: "Tell me about a time you took ownership of something outside your responsibilities."
Main question: Given a list of meeting intervals, find the minimum number of conference rooms required. I used a heap. He then asked a follow-up: what if meetings could be reassigned to minimize total idle time? We discussed approaches but didn't fully code it.
He cared a lot about how I talked through edge cases out loud.
Round 2 — Coding + Problem Solving
LP question: "Describe a situation where you disagreed with a teammate."
Coding: LRU Cache implementation from scratch. I used a hashmap + doubly linked list. He pushed on thread-safety and what happens at capacity 0.
Round 3 — Behavioral (Bar Raiser)
This was the toughest round — no coding, all Leadership Principles, very deep STAR-format probing.
Questions I got:
"Tell me about a time you failed and what you learned."
"A time you had to deliver something with a tight deadline and limited information."
The bar raiser kept drilling: "What was your specific contribution?" "What would you do differently?" "What data did you use?" Have 6–8 strong stories ready with metrics.
Round 4 — Low-Level Design
Design: Design a parking lot system (classes, vehicle types, spot allocation, pricing). Then he asked me to code the findSpot() and releaseSpot() methods.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most coding questions were LeetCode Medium. Common themes: graphs, heaps, sliding window, hashmaps, and LRU/design., system design,
Great interview process with three rounds, including a technical assessment and a technical interview. The interviewers were professional and supportive throughout the process. The questions mainly focused on DSA, problem-solving, and core technical concepts. The discussions were engaging and provided a good opportunity to demonstrate technical skills. Overall, the process was well-structured, smooth, transparent, and a very positive experience.
I applied through college or university. I interviewed at Amazon (Dublín, Dublín)
Interview
Online techincal assessment. Had to screen share and complete basic coding tasks similar to Leet Code. Could choose a language of your choice. Overall a very fair system and judged based on merit.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Technical assessment so a basic leet code style question about reversing the orders of long numerical strings.