I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2012
Interview
Got scheduled an interviews which consisted of 3 phone calls after my friend dropped my resume off to Amazon (he works there). Some questions were hard, some were not, they all consisted of things you learn in University level Computer Science courses; reduce time complexity and memory complexity, that's what they were looking for. Some questions caught me off guard but they are all answerable if you study. Here were the questions:
1st interview:
Given an array of integers, return in a function the number of instances odd numbers
Given a binary tree, return the minimum depth of a particular leaf node
2nd Interview:
Given an integer, write a function which return whether or not the integer is divisible by 2
Given a function which takes in a 2D point "n" , an array of 2D points and a number "k", return the k closest-points to "n"
3rd Interview:
Given a singly-linked list, return the 3rd from last element
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a function which takes in a 2D point "n" , an array of 2D points and a number "k", return the k closest-points to "n"
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.
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,