Amazon Sr. Software Engineer interview questions

At first a receuiter contacted me thru linkedin. More than several times amazon recruiters contacted me a year as a Seoul hiring event. Yes I am a Korean. I passed the first step, the online assessment. I solved all in just 30 minutes as such I doubted the position is for not senior but junior. Anyhow today I failed at the second step, phone screening step. I didnt go any more due to my lack of verbal English skills. And my technical skills were not enough to pass it as well.

The whole process was a bit chaotic and feels very reflective of what working at the company would be like. I was initially referred by a friend who works there. Dealt with a number of different recruiters \ interview schedules until someone could actually schedule a phone screen. The phone screen was straight out of every interviewing book ever. Getting the onsite interview organized was a similar process. One recruiter initially, handed off to another recruiter, handed off to an interview co-ordinator, back to the recruiter. The interviews were all pretty much what you'd expect. The interviewer would come in to the room at exactly their slotted time and end the previous interview. They'd introduce themselves and talk about what they work on. They'd ask a few questions about your resume. Then either an algorithm question or a system design question. Then a behavioral ("tell me a time when...") question that is either about a specific Amazon Leadership Principle or about a reality of working at amazon (mostly dealing with being put into situations where there is more work than you can handle). Pros - the process was generally efficient. In spite of the fact that you have to deal with a bunch of recruiters and never really know who's going to contact you, they would reply quickly. I was finished exactly when I was told the day would be done. None of the questions were difficult to see the solution to. - the interviews are a strong reflection of the culture of the company; the people are smart, the problems are hard - but expect to be pushed to work hard and have to really commit to the culture. Cons - don't expect much of a conversation when it comes to the technical questions. The question is posed, and then the interviewer will sit there and just type whatever you say or write on the whiteboard. - don't expect to get a feel for your team or your co-workers. Everyone I interviewed was from various teams related to the team I was interviewing for but not direct co-workers - Expect the 'bar raiser' interview to pick something that's going to be tricky to write on a white board. Just because you understand graph theory and use it every day, it's a whole different ball game trying to create and traverse a graph on a whiteboard while someone is taking notes on everything you write. - everything ties back to their "leadership principles". If you really want to work at amazon, learn those, embrace them and come up ahed of time with a situation that lines up with each one so you're prepared when they ask it.