Online Assessment
Questions:
- 1 Coding Question (Leetcode Easy question)
- 65 MCQs (Covered DSA, CS Fundamentals, and Amazon’s Tech Stack)
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Round 1 (Feb 17, 2024)
Questions:
- Merge Intervals Variant:
- The candidate initially over-generalized the solution but corrected it after feedback.
- Island Flooding (Graph-based, BFS/DFS + HashMap):
- The candidate identified the Queue + Map pattern and provided a solution within the time constraints.
Candidate's Approach
The candidate quickly solved the Merge Intervals question but misinterpreted the requirements initially. For the Island Flooding question, they identified the Queue + Map pattern under time pressure.
Interviewer's Feedback
The interviewer noted the candidate's initial misinterpretation but was satisfied with the final approach to the second question.
Round 2 (Feb 17, 2024 - Later that day)
Questions:
- Leadership Principle Discussion:
- Discussed for 15 minutes.
- Tricky Date Sorting Question:
- The candidate used a Math + Greedy formula, while the interviewer expected a Backtracking solution.
- Debugging a Sudoku Solver:
- The candidate debugged an existing code snippet, fixing major issues but faced time constraints.
Candidate's Approach
The candidate approached the date sorting question with a Math + Greedy formula and had to justify their approach with additional test cases. They debugged the Sudoku solver but faced challenges due to time constraints.
Interviewer's Feedback
The interviewer was happy with the candidate's optimized approach and overall performance, despite the time taken to explain the first question.
Hiring Manager Round (Feb 19, 2024)
Questions:
- Leadership Principles (LP) Questions
- Resume-based discussions
Candidate's Approach
The candidate discussed their projects and expressed interest in the SDE role instead of the PA-1 role, explaining their reasons for switching jobs.
Interviewer's Feedback
The hiring manager was impressed by the candidate's projects but advised against taking the PA-1 role, suggesting it wouldn't be a good fit due to the candidate's current experience level. He mentioned discussing the possibility of reconsidering the candidate for SDE roles with HR.
Final Outcome
Outcome:
- No response after 2 weeks.
- The candidate noted that peers received acceptance emails within 2 days and speculated that the rejection was due to a role mismatch despite expressing willingness to take the PA-1 role.
Candidate's Reflection
The candidate expressed confusion over the lack of response and sought guidance on the repeated pattern of interview outcomes.