Amazon Interview Experience | SDE intern (Off-Campus) 2024

Hi everyone! I'm Rishita, a 4th-year B.Tech student specializing in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at VIT Bhopal University. I’m thrilled to share my journey of securing a 6-month internship at Amazon through an off-campus drive. It was an experience full of challenges, learning, and growth. Here’s how it unfolded:

Timeframe (July-Oct 2024)

How I Applied: Received an email to fill out Amazon’s Hiring Interest Form by Amazon APAC.

Number of Rounds: 3

Verdict: Selected

Hiring Process

Timeline of events

1. Received an email to fill out Amazon’s Hiring Interest Form.
2. Received a mail about the Coding Test (Amazon Coding Challenge – July 2024) on the Mettl platform.
3. Shortlisted for Online Assessment 2 for the 6-month internship on Mettl.
4. Received an email inviting me to an Interview Round scheduled for 27th August. The coding interview was conducted live on a code editor, and the discussion took place on Amazon Chime.
5. Got the “Congratulations!” email—interview qualified!
6. Received the official offer details and started the further onboarding process.

Round 1: Coding Test

The first step was a 90-minute coding test on the Mettl platform. This test assessed my knowledge in several areas:

Topics Covered:

1. Operating Systems
2. Networking
3. DBMS
4. Linux
5. Software Development
6. Data Structures and Algorithms

The questions were multiple-choice and required a solid understanding of core concepts and the ability to apply them effectively. While it was challenging, my preparation in DSA and core CS subjects helped me perform well.

Round 2: Online Assessment

The next stage was the Online Assessment, also conducted on Mettl. It was divided into three parts:

1. Coding Questions: Two problems of medium to hard difficulty levels.

These required strong problem-solving skills and a deep understanding of algorithms.

2. Behavioral Questions:Based on Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

These questions assessed how well my thought process aligned with Amazon’s values and work culture.

3. Feedback Section:A space to share my experience with the test.

This round was unique as it tested both technical and behavioral skills, giving a glimpse of what working at Amazon would be like.

Stage 3: Interview Round

The final and most anticipated stage was the interview. It was both challenging and rewarding.It was conducted on Chime for meeting and LiveCode for coding.

Structure:

The interview began with a brief self-introduction (3–5 minutes). I was then given two coding problems:

1. : Involving recursion.

Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Transaction Fee.

You are given an array prices where prices[i] is the price of a given stock on the ith day, and an integer fee representing a transaction fee.Find the maximum profit you can achieve. You may complete as many transactions as you like, but you need to pay the transaction fee for each transaction.

Istarted to understand the problem and make some scenario cases in my mind. As I moved ahead with the problem,I started to ask questions for clarifications which increased my engagement with my interviewer and I began to feel more comfortable.

I came up with 4 different solutions and I was asked to explain logic for each one of them and why and how the next solution is an improvement of the previous one.

Following were my approaches:

1. Recursion: TC-O(2^n) SC-O(n)
2. Memoization: TC-O(n) SC-O(n)
3. Tabulation: TC-O(n) SC-O(n)
4. Space Optimization: TC-O(n) SC-O(1)

I was asked to code the last solution.

The interviewer was satisfied and then we moved on to the next problem.

2. Requiring a strong understanding of algorithms.

: Reorder Routes to Make All Paths Lead to the City Zero.

There are n cities numbered from 0 to n - 1 and n - 1 roads such that there is only one way to travel between two different cities (this network form a tree). Last year, The ministry of transport decided to orient the roads in one direction because they are too narrow.Roads are represented by connections where connections[i] = [ai, bi] represents a road from city ai to city bi.This year, there will be a big event in the capital (city 0), and many people want to travel to this city.Your task consists of reorienting some roads such that each city can visit the city 0. Return the minimum number of edges changed.It's guaranteed that each city can reach city 0 after reorder.

I had practiced a similar question during my revision so I did not had to struggle much for this but the time constraint was for sure there as I had 15 mins left to code this.

Sol: I came up with a dfs based approach.After explanation of logic I was asked to code it down.TC-O(n) SC-O(n).

Outcome:

I successfully solved both problems within the given time. The interviewer appreciated my structured approach, logical reasoning, and adaptability in real-time problem-solving. The 1-hour interview was intense but insightful.

Preparation Strategy

My resources included:

Sheet Link Comprehensive excel sheet paired with a helpful YouTube playlist.

Helped me stay consistent.

Great for quick revision before the interview.

My resources included:

I learned subjects like DBMS, SQL, Networking, and Linux through textbooks and YouTube playlists.

For practice, I used platforms like LeetCode, PrepInsta, and GeeksforGeeks’ articles and Practice (e.g., Top 50 Questions).