I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2010
Interview
Applied online for a software engineer position for new college graduates. Emailed a few recruiters using Linkedin to get my resume noticed. Received an email to setup a time and date for a phone interview. Phone interview was 45 minutes long, all technical. I will admit that this was my first technical phone interview, so my nerves got the best of me and I didn't answer the questions well. I was expecting conceptual questions instead I got coding questions. My interviewer was talking on a speakerphone and I had some trouble hearing/understanding him which didn't help.
First question was something like, "Write a function that takes an integer and prints out the digits separated by commas. Example input 345, print out 3,4,5 "
Second question was basically write the merge sort function and apply it to two arrays.
Like I said before, this was my first technical phone interview so I was trying to figure out how to answer the questions over the phone. I described the method I would use to solve each problem, but he wanted me to tell him the actual code. Didn't go so well, and I didn't get an offer.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Write a function that takes an integer and prints out the digits separated by commas. Example, pass in 345 print out 3,4,5
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,
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 (Dublin, Dublin)
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.