Round 1
Questions:
- Two different Leadership Principles (LP) questions were asked, answered using the STAR format.
- Design a search API function to search for files in a specific directory and sort them alphabetically, by size, etc.
Candidate's Approach
The candidate provided detailed code for the search API function and discussed edge cases and user design considerations extensively. The interviewer seemed pleased with the responses.
Interviewer's Feedback
The interviewer appeared happy with the candidate's answers and expressed enthusiasm about discussing his role further if the candidate joined Amazon.
Round 2
Questions:
- Leadership Principles (LP) questions were discussed.
- Problem: A robot starts at (0, 0) of a matrix. Given a list of items to collect and O(1) helper functions that return the coordinates of each item, find the most efficient path for the robot to collect all items.
Candidate's Approach
The candidate initially suggested a backtracking brute force method to try all possible paths. Upon realizing the problem was akin to the NP-Hard traveling salesman problem, they attempted to implement a backtracking solution using O(n!) permutations. The candidate felt that the interviewer was looking for a more efficient solution.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 3
Questions:
- Leadership Principles (LP) questions were discussed.
- A medium-level tree problem was presented, which the candidate solved with an O(n) recursive solution.
Candidate's Approach
The candidate successfully implemented the recursive solution and conducted a dry run with the interviewer, who was satisfied with the solution.
Interviewer's Feedback
The interviewer seemed pleased with the candidate's performance and engaged in a friendly discussion about their experiences at Amazon.