I applied through other source. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon in Aug 2011
Interview
Phone interview lasted about an hour. Interviewer was prepared. He was polite.
We talked about some of my previous projects and used that to discuss issues/solutions
to capacity/scaling and reduncancy. Seemed like more of a 'chat' than specific questions
and answers.
There were some questions about arrays and linked lists. One that I remember was how
to handle a sparse array if memory was limited. Interviewer asked questions to make sure
I knew what I was talking about, but he was certainly not trying to trick me.
He left some time for me to ask questions. I wanted to know about day-to-day life. They
are focused on results and let you manage your time - very flexible on work from home.
They provide a platform of your choice (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Overall, the interviewer was someone I would like to have a beer with, and the company
is a place I would like to work (hope they are reading this :-)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you implement a sparse array (key could be any integer,
but only a few would be used) with limited memory.
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 (Dublín, Dublín)
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.
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,
