The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon in May 2010
Interview
About 40~45 minutes phone interview.
Very nice interviewer and didn't make me nervous at all.
The interview started with some questions related to my experience like what kind of project I did and what's my duty and position in my current job. What's the most difficult things I've experienced and how did I solved it.
After 10 minutes self intro, the interviews told me he wants to ask some technical questions.
First he asked an SQL question. He gave me two tables(for ex, supermarket and items) and two columns in each table and asked me to read the query that calculates the prices of certain item.
Second question is XML question. He gave me a simple xml file and asked me what's the most efficient way to get some data set. And then asked me if I can read a linux command for this.( My answer is to use xQuery 'cause I think this might be related to the previous question but he told me he's just asking me thought. So I'm not sure is it an algorithm question)
Then he asked me to write a java program to print power set without using the ready-to-use power set class if there is.
After that, he asked me to give a word to describe a good software and a word to describe good supervisor. (This might be my worst part.) He asked me to send my program back asap.
I'm waiting for the second one on next week.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A word to describe a good software and a word to describe a good supervisor.
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