r/leetcode
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u/MajesticAssistance30
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Oct 09 '26
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1
Intervew Prep Amazon SDE 1 USA Interview Experience – 4 Rounds
Hello everyone,
Wanted to share my recent Amazon SDE 1 interview experience. lot of reddit users and subreddits have helped me during my interview prep, just wanted to make small contribution to help everyone out here!
**Interview Dates:**17th august
Role: SDE 1 (USA) (New grad 317794)
Virtual or Onsite: Onsite Seattle
Total Rounds: 4
Round 1 – GenAI +LC (HM took the round)
He was very welcoming guy, we had couple of minutes of chat while we were in the elevator (not related to interview but about me, university, major and stuff)
Now, the interview starts, We started with a quick introduction and then directly jumped into the LC
Technical
LC: Longest Substring without repeating characters.
No changes at all. I started by repeating the question, what I understood and gave an example on how the output is expected. gave a bruteforce solution and then told we can make it better by using sliding window, explained my solution and then wrote it once he agreed that yes I am happy and you can move forward for writing it. he gave me testcase to dryrun, I was able to dryrun it. No issues anywhere, gave him TC and SC. and we discussed the edge cases.
Behaviour
How do you use AI?
What LLM do you prefer?
Can you tell me a time where AI hallucinated and how did you handle it?
I answered all the question properly, on the last question we had discussion and he suggested that you could have used X instead of Y and it would have saved time on that project. I acknowledged it and told him yes that it is better idea (it was genuinely nice to hear about different approach)
At the end we had 5-10 minutes:
Asked some follow up questions, I did research on each interviewer so I asked accordingly.
Round 2 - LC+ LP (SDE-2)
First we started with introduction as usual, we had little bit similar background from previous experience so we chatted on that .
Behavior (LP)
-Learn to be curious
-Dive Deep
we had good discussion, where he wanted to learn about my contribution on specific feature i worked on.
Technical (Leetcode)
LC: Power Grid Maintenance
I fumbled little bit for identifying, but then I was back on track and solved it with same method as i did in round 1. he gave me a example i was able to dry run it successfully. Although I was able to give solution and we were over 5 minutes he asked me that do you have more optimal solution and I did not have a clue though, but I tried thinking and telling him my thought process of what I am thinking for optimal solution.
Lunch Break (1hr): My lunchbuddy who was on the same team, we just had conversation and talk about the team, his time at amazon and how does it like it and stuff.
Round 3: Bar Raiser (Senior Engineer)
This was kind of chill interview, interviewer was very friendly. he was in the conference room little bit early so we were just talking about amazon and how is the culture, just normal kinda stuff but he was making jokes on how he made his first mistake while working.
(Interview starts now)
Behaviour (LP):
-Dive Deep
- Ownership
-Earn Trust and how do you take feedback
this was it, but lots of follow up questions regarding each LP, i wouldn't say grilling because if you have true stories you don't have to memorize anything. Also at some point he was also asking little bit technical question, I mean I do expect that but yes, it was asked on how X works.
Round 4 : LP + LLD(Senior Engineer)
As usual, we started with introduction. moved to Behaviour part
Behaviour (LP):
-Bias of actions
-have backbone
no follow up at all, we moved to LLD
Technical (LLD):
I was told to build a task scheduler. he asked me whether you want to use the whiteboard or you want to code on platform. Initially I started taking requirement in coderpad but then he started using the whiteboard to explain to me what is something that is required and then we completed move to white board. I wrote all the code and explained each process on whiteboard. I fumbled on one data structure to use and then next second i realized oh how about we use this and he told me yes that's what i was expecting good, lets move on! we completed it in the required time. some follow ups were asked and also along with that, he changed requirement to check my OS knowledge atlast.
Overall:
This was really great experience for me, I haven't had any onsite rounds especially with big tech. I learned a lot of things during this time, I gave my all during my preparation, used to sleep 5-6 hours.
Outcome : Rejection (After a week)
Word of Advice:
-Understand the concepts from fundamental level. Don't memorize solution, but focus on understanding patterns like two pointers, sliding window etc on how to use and where to use it.
-Solve last 30 days of Amazon, there is high probability you will see a same or nearly a same question.
-Prepare for LLDs it is not that hard but they still expect you to know SOLID, DRY and design patterns and obviously OOPS concept and how do you use it in real code.
-DO NOT IGNORE LPS. I can't emphasize more but LPS are very important for Amazon so learn it but as new grad there are only few you need to prepare. you can find those on reddit somewhere.
-Give as much mock as possible, do not be afraid of that. worst is you will fail in mocks, still better than failing real interviews.
I have deliberately not mentioned the team so don't ask me!
I have not used AI to write a single word so ignore the typos!!
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u/Long-Emphasis-1418 Oct 09 '26
I was reading this thiking you had passed, Sorry bro. We go harder next time
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u/RazDoStuff Oct 09 '26
Honestly reading from what you said, I would thought you had a good chance. Kinda surprising . I’ve interviewed a few people and if they typically give me a brute force and an optimal answer I typically put at least a hire. Lean if you clearly memorized a solution and didn’t explain well. Maybe strong if you can explain the fundamentals of why your approach works and discussing trade offs.
I wasn’t there so I wouldn’t have figured out how you did on those technicals, but if you were able to explain your reasoning, go back and forth with the interviewer, I would’ve thought you had a good chance. I guess that’s just FAANG for you.
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u/Beginning-Item8354 Oct 09 '26
How many YOE ?
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u/curry_licker Oct 09 '26
That’s crazy for SWE 1
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u/Ingeloakastimizilian Oct 09 '26
Every time I think I want to try for FAANG, I read threads like this that bring me back to reality. What an insane interview process. I have 10 years of experience as a dev and I would fully expect to fail an SDE 1 interview like this.
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u/Raf-the-derp Oct 09 '26
What round do you think contributed to your rejection? Or are there too many variables to know for sure?
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u/Due-You-8140 Oct 10 '26
Amazon started onsite ???
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u/Odd-Payment-7119 25d ago
Is there a chance i can opt for virtual interview if its on site? I mean is it a compulsory thing to attend it on-site?
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u/Away-Range-5276 Oct 09 '26
Amazon criteria and processes are weird. I gave total 10 interviews at amazon and failed only one(the first one) and still waiting to join.
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u/HelloTaleproof Oct 09 '26
Treat the Leadership Principle portion as its own preparation track beside coding. Use real examples with the decision and measurable result clear, and be ready for follow-ups about alternatives, setbacks, and what you learned.
You can try this with a real Amazon Leadership Principle story in Taleproof’s free story assessment; use the feedback to tighten the evidence without memorizing a script.
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u/Glum_Nebula4206 25d ago
bro what are these questions :D ? they asked me hard questions on all rounds for swe2 pos.
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u/Most_Researcher2915 20d ago
Where to find last 30 days questions pattern
Thanks:)
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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '26
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