I had two rounds of interviews for the Software Development Engineer I position at Amazon. The process took place on August 25th, following 30 days of preparation on LeetCode. First Round: The first round involved a brief introduction with the interviewer, who was a Senior System Development Engineer. He started with a coding question related to dynamic programming, focusing on counting the maximum of something. I took some time to gather my thoughts and asked a few clarifying questions about the data constraints. After explaining my approach, I wrote the code, dry-ran it, and shared it with him. The second question was about Binary Trees, which I tackled by simultaneously explaining and coding due to limited time. He pointed out a small mistake, which I corrected. The round lasted about 40 minutes. Second Round: In the second round, after the introductions, I was asked a leadership principle question: "Tell me about a time when you didn’t know what to do or how to solve a problem." I provided an honest answer based on a work situation. The interviewer seemed pleased. The coding questions in this round were on Strings and Arrays. I solved the first one in 20 minutes, discussing various approaches. The second question was a more complex string-related dynamic programming problem. I initially proposed a solution, identified its flaw, and then came up with a working solution. We ended the interview with a discussion about the work culture.

Surprisingly easy — I expected tougher questions, but the coding round felt more like a warm-up. The main challenge was a DSA problem about counting islands in a 2D grid, which led to a discussion on DFS versus BFS and handling large grids. Funny enough, I had revisited that exact type of question while prepping on PracHub, which made me feel more confident. The interview wrapped up with a behavioral round, and I accepted an offer, but ultimately decided to decline it for another opportunity. Overall, it was a smooth experience.