The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Aug 2010
Interview
After reviewing my resume they arranged a phone interview. I was contacted precisely on time and spoke to a member of the team I would be working for. The interviewer immediately wanted me to code for him, and provided a link to Google docs to do so. After programming we chatted about the company and I was offered a chance to ask questions. Interview ended positively but I later received a rejection letter.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Given two lists, A and B, of sizes n and k, respectively, describe an algorithm to determine the intersection, C, of the two lists. What is the complexity of your algorithm? (The obvious solution is O(n*k)). Can you describe a solution that is faster? (An optimized solution can do it in O(n+k)).
An integer is represented in binary as a sequence of 0's and 1's. Write a function that returns the number of 1's in the binary representation of a given integer.
Suppose you have a system that keeps track of thousands of users' contact information, including email address. This information is stored in plain text, on disk in a hierarchical directory structure (on a Unix operating system) organized by year, month, and day it was entered in the system. Something bad happens and the system crashes. We want to get the email address of all these users to notify them. How would you parse these directories and files to generate a simple list of email addresses?
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