I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Apr 2022
Interview
Applied online for the SDE role of AWS.
OA: 105 minutes with 2 coding problems & explanations for your code. Passed all tests and skipped the phone screening round.
VO: 4 rounds using Amazon Chime and Live Code whiteboard. One interviewer had a bad Internet connection and both of us needed to repeat again and again. One interviewer had little knowledge of data structure and algorithm or very poor understanding and kept asking me what the heap is. I answered 3 times and drew the graph, while the interviewer still not understood and was stuck on this question. That is hilarious. I was prepared to answer the questions of the interviewer, not to teach the interviewer. I could not imagine how a person was chosen as an interviewer for Amazon, asking about coding problems they would not solve.
Solved all 4 coding problems and got a rejection on day 2 after VO with no feedback. HR said that providing feedback regarding the interview is against company policy. Their hiring process is "CONFIDENTIAL". Then I cannot say more cause I have signed the Non-Disclosure Agreement. One must not wish to get accused of leaking company confidential information for saying someone or something is stupid.
So, enjoy your 400-point plummet of stock in one day with your mysterious hiring and promoting process, Amazon.
Tips: Remember to TERMINATE Amazon Chime after the interview cause this software could totally mess up your internet connection and consume an incomprehensibly large amount of resources of your computer for no reason.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
2 to 3 BQs, followed by OOD and algorithm coding problems, last one hour in total for each round.
Surprisingly easy — I expected tougher questions, but the coding round felt more like a warm-up. The main challenge was a DSA problem about counting islands in a 2D grid, which led to a discussion on DFS versus BFS and handling large grids. Funny enough, I had revisited that exact type of question while prepping on PracHub, which made me feel more confident. The interview wrapped up with a behavioral round, and I accepted an offer, but ultimately decided to decline it for another opportunity. Overall, it was a smooth experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Number of Islands — given a 2D grid of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of connected islands. Walk through DFS vs BFS, and discuss how to avoid revisiting cells (in-place mutation vs visited set) and what changes if the grid is huge and must stream from disk.
It started with an OA, and then after a few weeks, I got invited to four rounds of interviews: technical and behavioral at 3 of the 4, and behavioral only at one.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Calgary, AB) in Jun 2026
Interview
Online Assessment is the first step in the process. I didn’t have an HR phone screening and went straight to the OA after applying. It was sent to me about a week after I submitted my application.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The first question is LeetCode style algorithms question, and the second question gives a full stack repo (choice of Java, NodeJS, or Django) and asks to solve a backend issue which is causing a bug in the frontend. Unit tests must pass to pass the second question. You can run both backend/frontend indivdually or together
