amazon | Software Engineer | Interview Experience
Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified
Interview Process
The interview consisted of four rounds, each including a set of Leadership Principles (LPs) questions. In total, the candidate shared 14 stories related to their experiences.
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Round 1: The first question was a variation of the “Number of Islands” problem, followed by a follow-up regarding connecting the islands with the shortest line. The interviewer guided the candidate to consider each island as a node and discuss the minimum spanning tree concept.
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Round 2: This round focused on Object-Oriented Design (OOD) with a task to design a music playlist system that included functionalities like next, previous, random, and adding songs. The candidate likened it to an LRU (Least Recently Used) cache, utilizing a doubly linked list and a hashmap.
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Round 3: This round involved a problem similar to “Jump Game II.” The candidate struggled to explain the optimal greedy solution and provided a recursive explanation, which did not convince the interviewer fully.
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Round 4: The final round was a system design question asking to design a firewall. The candidate found this round challenging due to the lack of specifics provided by the interviewer. They discussed concepts like rate limiting and token buckets but felt unprepared for deeper questions about packet processing.
Technical Questions
- Number of Islands
- Jump Game II
- Design a music playlist system
- Design a firewall
Tips & Insights
- Prepare thoroughly for system design questions, especially focusing on underlying concepts and details.
- Practice explaining your thought process clearly and succinctly, especially for algorithmic problems.
- Familiarize yourself with common data structures and their applications in design scenarios.