Amazon Internship Interview Experience | On-Campus 2021

Amazon came for a pool campus placement on October 2021 for the 6 months Software Development Engineer Role. We had a total of 3 rounds (1 Online Coding on Amazon’s Assessment Portal + 2 Technical Interviews). 

Online test was given by around 1000 students. 

Round 1(Online Test): The first round comprised of 4 sections online questions including aptitude, logical, Coding questions, and technical portions (Test Duration: 90 mins):

• Debugging: We had to choose a language and debug up to 7 questions most probably. Codes were very basic like sorting, etc. I completed 6 of them.
• Coding: There were two medium-hard level questions.
• Work-style Assessment: Just try to answer as an ideal employee. Make sure you answers don’t contradict each other.
• Aptitude: Around 25 questions.

Only 118 students were selected for the next round.

Round 2(Technical Interview 1): Round was on Amazon Chime(Test Duration: 75 min)

1. Find diameter of the tree: I answered it, we discussed edge cases and I coded it. I think he found out that I have already done it before so then he asked to do it instead of when its not necessary to end the path at leaf nodes. It was a simple change so I did that as well.
2. Count Inversion: I was struggling to come up with a solution, so he told me to think about sort algorithms. I did and got it right eventually. I coded it and we were good to go.

He was constantly asking me to speak out my thoughts. It is very important so that interviewer can understand your problem-solving skills and help you wherever needed.

Not sure how many were selected because they got informed privately, I think the number can be around 30 to 50.

Round 3(Technical Interview 2): It happened the next day. It was also on Amazon Chime(Test Duration: 65 min)

1. Find n’th node from the end of a Linked List: I answered using 2 traversals. Then he asked to do it in single traversal. After some time I got it. We discussed edge cases and I coded it.
2. Find shortest distance between 2 points in a matrix, where 2 points can be anywhere: I gave recursion as an approach, he asked me to give time complexity, which I told O(4^(m+n))  but I think it was wrong. Then he asked me to optimize it, and I gave him DP solution. He asked how I was sure about it, I told that it follows optimal sub-structure and overlapping sub-problems, he seemed convinced. Time was running out so he told me quickly code it but…
3. In between he told me to stop and asked me about projects. I told him about my Instagram Clone made in Django, so he asked why Django. I told him the reasons. Then he asked whether I have any questions, I went blank and so I asked a stupid question about meaning of 6M Intern which he answered and we were good to go.

Tips:

• Amazon just want to see whether you have good problem-solving skills. If you show them, you are in.
• Do DSA religiously from the beginning. Use GFG, Leetcode, InterviewBit, and Youtube. These are more than enough. Doing Competitive Programing is very helpful.
• For frequently asked questions: Make sure you know the best approaches and edge cases, and write the whole code instead of just reading the solutions.
• Start from brute force and keep on optimizing when asked, in order to show you haven’t already done the question before.
• Speak while coding or thinking.
• Repeat the question how you have understood it.
• Find edge cases
• Use STAR method for behavioral questions.

Verdict: Result came out after 10 days. 13 students were selected. 2 were from my college. I was one of them ; )