Amazon.com Senior Software Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated Jan 19, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 34 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 34 ratings
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| 1–10 of 34 Amazon.com Interviews | Sort by |
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Jan 19, 2012
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5.0
Very Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 3 days)
I first passed two phone interviews, with standard algorithm and design questions, similar to ones posted on GlassDoor. I was flown to Seattle for interviews. The hotel was nice, but breakfast was not included. I interviewed with 9 people, some 1:1, but most 2:1, and one 3:1. Most interview questions can be found on GlassDoor, or are very similar. The final interview was with the "bar raiser", which I basically failed. I also had a hard time with an algorithm efficiency question since the interviewer misunderstood my code. In general, the people were smart and nice. Questions were pretty much the same as posted on this site. The bar raiser asked questions requiring familiarity with implementation of Reliability and Durability within a distributed messaging system architecture. I was surprised to learn that Amazon developers are periodically on call, and even more surprised to learn they can expect to be called when they are! I would say the interview questions were more difficult than average, but it is hard to maintain high energy and mental agility through so many interviews, so I rate the process Very Difficult.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Nov 8, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 in Seattle, WA (took a day)
It took 2 weeks to schedule the interview. There was 1 phone interview which was easy. Interviewer was friendly.
Was asked about basics of object oriented concepts, some data structure concepts and a couple of programming questions. They seem to concentrate on Data structures and object oriented concepts.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Oct 18, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 in Beijing, Beijing (China) (took a day)
Mostly focus on projects I worked on and working process/style. After that, two data structure problems need to be solved.
1. Find circle in link list
2. Get Rand(7) from Rand(5)
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Sep 28, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 4+ weeks)
Got a phone interview for the Kindle team through friend working at Amazon. Not much was known from the job description which was pretty generic and practically useless.
The recruiter setup a phone interview in which they asked one coding question and a design question.
For the coding question I was asked to write code in a collabedit window.
The design question was one of the questions which some blog (apparently by an Amazon employee, strangely enough) recommends NOT to use in a phone interview. Apparently this guy missed the memo.
In general, the process was unorganized: I was contacted by two recruiters!, who sorted it out later and only one was chosen to be representative later. The interviewer was quite stoic, monotonous and seemed to have been forced to take the interview (of course, that is just my perception). Amazon is hiring like crazy and recruiting folks must be swamped, so it is understandable.
Advice to other candidates: Do prepare for design questions.
Ask a lot of questions, try to clarify as much as possible. The design questions they ask are open ended and some of them who are clueless ask the ones which are unsuitable for a phone interview (too involved, according to the blogger from Amazon). So it is even more crucial to narrow down the problem as much as possible. Especially so if you are interviewing for a Senior position.
They are OOP fanatics! So, don't mention generic programming or Alexander Stepanov. (Just kidding, ignore this sentence).
In general, interviews(especially phone) are a hit and miss (not just for Amazon) so try to stay relaxed (I know how hard it can be!), don't rush (i.e. think carefully) and try do your best.
For phone interviews, if it is hard for you to stay relaxed, it might be a good idea to write down "RELAX" (and other such advice like do your best) in a file and keep it open, so you can look at it periodically.
Ensure you have a steady internet (for collabedit type stuff) and phone connection, keep a bottle of water and some paper+pen (or whiteboard) handy.
And yes, don't forget to let the interviewer know your approach/thinking, as it would let them guide you onto the right path if you are going down the wrong one, and it lets them know your thinking process, which is what they (ideally) should be judging.
Good luck!
Interview Questions
Part ii) Try to do it without division (some mobile devices don't have division).
Was asked to write code for part ii.
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Sep 11, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2010 (took 1 week)
Interviewer googled for some questions for very nitty-bitty things and all questions are targeted for college level entry position. Didn't care about my experience nor my skills. Its like asking "how many are there in the car you driving - If you don't know the answer then you are out".
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Sep 3, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 1 week)
I was contacted by the hiring manager by email and they asked me for a phone interview. After 1 week I had the phone interview, and it consists 3 programming questions. I was notified one week later that they will move to other candidates.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Aug 18, 2011
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1.0
Very Easy Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2011 (took a day)
I had got call from amazon recruitment team for telephonic interview. I was waiting for the telephonic interview on scheduled time. In between I had sent a mail to HR asking for detailed JD. There was no response from them at all. Just before 5 minutes of scheduled time, got call from interviewer saying he is busy and can not take interview. It only shows how they manage their time / plan and respect others time. I had wasted lot of time for this interview. First round of telephonic finally happened on re scheduled time. Question were very basic like matrix multiplication, difference between override and overload, some distributed computing. I could answer them well and even interview acknowledged that it is correct. I was very hopeful of getting into next interview. To my surprise, I got a mail saying that i have not cleared first round. I don't know how they evaluate when interviewer himself acknowledged that answers are correct. Whole thing is badly handled.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Aug 11, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jul 2011 in Vancouver, BC (Canada) (took 2 weeks)
I got three phone interviews. It's first time one company gave me three phone interviews. These three interviews finished in two weeks. and one week later, I got rejected.
each interviewer will ask one algorithm question. For me:
1. how to reverse a string?
2. how to merge two sorted linklist?
3. find LCA for two nodes of a binary tree.
pretty easy, ahh? I thought i will get the offer, but I am just not lucky.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Jun 13, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed May 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 2 weeks)
Most of the Amazon interview was in grilling Data structures involving
- search
- sorting
- data structures
- class design
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted May 20, 2011 — 1 of 2 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2009 in Seattle, WA (took 2 weeks)
Technical phone screen. Flew in for an all day set of interviews. Four technical screens, lunch with hiring manager, three more screens. Fun algorithms and problem solving. Once I had to write some code. There was one oo design question.
I thought the job was really cool, it was a great fit and presented an interesting set of problems.
But the interviewers were rushed, sometimes rude. I was thirsty and sat in the same room all day - the room was small, hot and cramped. The hiring manager took me downstairs into some kind of dungeon/canteen where we had sandwiches. I didn't connect with anyone on the team, told HR it wasn't a fit and flew home really disappointed.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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