I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2011
Interview
Applied online and got call immediately after 5 days. Given 2 date to choose for an onsite interview in Seattle. They took care of almost everything travel-stay-food. I had 15 days to prepare for interview.
The day started with lunch at start then 4 interview one by one continuously by different people, I was bit impressed by all. They all started with inquiring about my work experience, why amazon, most interesting or recent projects, etc.
Interview tech. questions were not hard to understand but requires lot of thinking and to come up with best solution in terms of space-time complexities, they more concentrated on using best suited data structure for given problem and algorithm to solve it. Also, they check if you considered all cases. They keep on noting everything you say and things you write on board. Less time and detailed thinking of problem is a big pain, you have to stress your brain for next 4 hours nonstop.
I was able to answer all tech questions with best solution and they were all very impressed by my solutions, it showed on their face, I met there expectations, but I m sure I messed up Object-oriented question, I was bit disappointed for solution I gave, when I thought about it after coming at hotel, I come with composite design pattern that best suited and was expected. I didn't at all think about any design pattern for object oriented question, I m sure this was the point where I was out.
My advice before going for interview is to go through 2 books: programming interviews exposed and cracking the coding interviews.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Distribute numbers starting from 1 to infinite, give out minimum number available and take in already given numbers.
Interview by recuriter, Phone interview over Chime with one easy Leet code problem and 2 behavioral questions. Although the interviewer was very casual at the start of the conversation, it quickly changed into behavioral questions at the start.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Encoding optimization algorithm and talk about a project you did recently.
First round is just leet code coding which screens through AI before going into live coding. Pretty simple and straighforward. Not too tough. Recruiter walks through it pretty nicely. Not sure how many rounds there are exactly
After submitting my application for the Software Engineer position, I received an invitation to complete an automated Online Assessment (OA). The assessment consisted of standard coding challenges, primarily focusing on algorithmic and data structure problems. Unfortunately, a few days after submitting my solutions for the assessment, I received an email informing me that I would not be moving forward in the interview process and was rejected.