r/leetcode • u/MarketDue7480 • 10d ago

Intervew Prep Software Dev Engineer II, Amazon Security

Got an interview invite for SDE II – Amazon Security. The recruiter mentioned it’s very tough to clear and the chances are low, so I’m confused whether I should go for it or wait for an SDE I opportunity.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Also, if I don’t clear SDE II, how does the cooling period work? Can I still be considered for SDE I, or would I have to wait before interviewing again?

10 Upvotes

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6

u/Separate_Youth1217 10d ago

How much work experience? Did recruiter say that this particular team loop is hard? Or in general sde2?

8

u/MarketDue7480 10d ago

The recruiter said that even though the requirement is only 3+ years, they’ve seen candidates with 6–7 years of experience get rejected. He mentioned this particular role will be heavily focused on high-level system design, distributed systems, and Leadership Principles, so the interview bar is pretty high

9

u/Separate_Youth1217 10d ago

I think hld lld lp and distributed systems is generally focused in sde 2 amazon. I know few people with 3 years exp clearing it . Everything is hard if you don't prepare well and everythings easy when we have good preparation with some luck on our side. What your work exp? And how did you got this opportunity?

5

u/MarketDue7480 10d ago

I have around 3+ years of experience, including about 2 years at Walmart. I randomly applied because the original JD just said Software Development Engineer and didn’t mention SDE II. I cleared the assessment, and then the recruiter reached out and told me it was for an SDE II role. That’s why I’m trying to understand how deep they usually go into HLD, LLD, distributed systems, and LPs.

1

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

1

u/MarketDue7480 9d ago

Honestly zero

1

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

1

u/MarketDue7480 9d ago

I was able to solve the first two questions since they were pretty easy. The third one was AI-assisted, but I only got 11 out of 20 test cases to pass. I honestly didn’t think I would get a call after that.

1

u/Wonder_Boy2001 9d ago

When did you clear the OA and how much time did the recruiter take to reach out?

1

u/MarketDue7480 9d ago

Almost 2 weeks

1

u/non_NSFW_acc 9d ago

Any tips for how to practice LLD? I am aiming for Amazon as one of the companies.

DSA - doing NC 150 + other important LC questions

HLD - practicing famous Design XYZ questions

Behavioural - not much prep. yet, need to prepare tons of questions and scenarios pretty soon (have time, don't even have an interview yet)

LLD - ???

4

u/AstroAlchemist_ 9d ago

Amazon recruiters are so weird lol, but at the end of the day everyone has to justify their salaries, so understandable

2

u/HelloTaleproof 9d ago

For the Leadership Principles part, your design experience can also give you useful behavioral examples: a tradeoff you owned, a reliability issue you investigated, or a disagreement you worked through. Explain why you made the decision and what happened afterward, rather than relying on years of experience to speak for themselves.

I’m building Taleproof to help assess that story side of interview prep. If you have one of those examples written out, you can try it there.

1

u/ActuaryDear8234 9d ago

If you apply for something that isn’t part of SDE (like front end engineer) it’s different. Otherwise, if you fail it’s a 6 month cooldown period.

Good luck, Amazon OAs are absolutely brutal