Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

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113 stories

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AmazonSoftware EngineerNew Grad
Jul 2026

Leadership Principle BQs and an Edit Distance Follow-up

Round 1 BQ1: Give an example of how you organized a product. BQ2: Give an example of a time you missed a deadline. BQ3: Talk about a time you thought something was wrong but stuck to your own view. Prepare your stories using the STAR method. Except for the first two — "the project you're most proud of" type stories — try to add lessons learned to the rest. Tell the story in a concise, easy-to-fol…

Onsite0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

A Segmented-Array OA Problem That Even ChatGPT Couldn't Solve

I got Amazon's OA and started it one day right after waking up from a nap. I wasn't in a good state though, and I ended up getting a rejection. Question 1 Coding, 40 minutes. I wrote one version and only passed 4 cases — the other hidden cases threw some memory errors. It wasn't until after it ended that I realized there must have been a space constraint, which is why I was getting those memory-r…

RejectedOnline Assessment0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

Ambiguous Word-Combination Problem, Rejected After a Rocky Phone Screen

Got rejected from the phone screen — I saw it on the portal before I even got the email. The interviewer opened with a hard problem, similar to a LeetCode problem, but it required outputting the actual combinations. It was really strange — the problem didn't say whether the word had to be in the given list, how many times each word could be used, or whether repeats were allowed. I asked him about…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: pressured DSA and leadership-principles loop

After the initial online assessment, I entered several technical interviews with a consistent structure: coding first, then strong pressure to connect my answers to Amazon Leadership Principles. The most intense round combined leadership-aligned evaluation with multiple DSA problems, turning it into a test of time and completeness rather than one neat solution. I also had a couple of medium codin…

Online Assessment0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: streaming-system design in a four-round loop

My interview journey was straightforward in how the rounds were organized. After the early steps, I entered a loop with four interviews, each about an hour. It began with a system-design conversation, and later rounds included manager-style discussion plus bar-raiser and behavioral evaluation. The design prompt was to build a streaming application like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, so the discus…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: four-interview loop and leadership principles

I took an online assessment and, about a week later, had four interviews in a single day. The recruiter stayed responsive throughout, which helped me understand what each round would look like. The onsite loop ran back to back and followed the Amazon loop format closely. I had coding-and-judgment moments mixed with Leadership Principles. One round was more team or hiring-manager focused, while an…

OfferOnline Assessment0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer virtual onsite interview experience

My process began with a recruiter screen, then moved quickly through an online coding assessment and a technical phone interview. The questions were practical but time-constrained, which made it harder to slow down and check every edge case. The final stage was a virtual onsite loop with multiple interviews. I had data-structures-heavy questions, system design, and a debugging-focused segment. Am…

Online Assessment0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: HackerRank OA and pending update

After applying, I took an Amazon online assessment on HackerRank. The DSA section was heavy on prefixes and patterns, with a problem that felt like something in the longest-happy-prefix family. The next part involved debugging code. I did well there, so the overall assessment felt manageable even though the DSA question itself was a grind. When I checked my DSA performance, the test coverage did…

In progressOnline Assessment0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Software Engineer interview at Amazon: networking follow-ups

A phone screen began with my current experience and projects, then each response drew deeper questions. I used STAR structure for behavioral answers as the interviewer pressed past surface-level descriptions. Technical discussion covered TCP/IP and routing topics, including OSPF and BGP. It was an engaging but difficult conversation because of the depth expected in both storytelling and networkin…

0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Software Engineer interview at Amazon: leadership narrative challenge

My three-round loop had two DSA rounds and a Leadership Principles round. The first DSA round included two medium LeetCode questions. The second had one medium and one hard question involving DP and graphs. The Leadership Principles interview was harder for me than DSA because it required a convincing narrative about how I would operate under Amazon's values. I did not receive an offer. The proce…

0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: LeetCode and leadership pressure

My first interview was about an hour and had two easy LeetCode-style questions. The final stage was tougher: two separate LeetCode sessions, a system-design session, and an LLD session. Leadership Principle prompts came up in every session, so it was never only about getting a solution. The technical questions were easy to medium overall, but the leadership questions were harder for me. I also lo…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: leadership-principle loop

Amazon's loop was four to five back-to-back interviews, roughly 45 to 60 minutes each. The panel included a potential hiring manager, one or two team members, a senior leader, and a bar raiser. The pace was relentless because I had to stay sharp across several perspectives. Leadership Principles were spread across the panel. Each interviewer owned a couple, and together they covered all of them.…

0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer Interview Experience: coding rounds with leadership questions

The schedule was four rounds of about an hour each. Three were coding-focused, and the last was system design. Every round also contained roughly 25 minutes of Leadership Principles questions. The coding was mostly LeetCode easy to medium, so the larger pressure came from handling leadership prompts while still producing clean solutions. I did not receive an offer. I felt the format did not allow…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer Interview Experience: four mixed behavioral and technical rounds

I had four rounds: behavioral, low-level design, DSA, and a hybrid round combining AI-style behavioral questions with DSA. Each included at least five to 10 minutes of behavioral discussion, so none of the technical rounds was purely technical. Most of the process felt fair. The disruption came in the third round, where the interviewer had connection problems and did not seem to fully understand…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: technical and leadership rounds

My process had multiple technical rounds and a couple of structured behavioral rounds. One technical conversation mixed troubleshooting with leadership themes such as Bias for Action and GenAI fluency, so it was not solely about writing code. Another technical round focused more directly on coding problems. The hiring-manager round covered leadership principles including Earn Trust, Learn and Be…

Other0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: DSA edge cases and an AI-assisted repository task

I entered a four-round process but did not clear the first round. It included one standard DSA question and one AI-assisted, repo-based coding task. I could produce a DSA solution, but edge cases, debugging, and time ran away from me. The repo task did not go well enough either, and I could feel the momentum slipping during the round. It did not strike me as unfair. I simply did not meet the bar…

0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: sliding window and a debugging leadership story

I had a phone round with two focused prompts. One was a medium sliding-window problem, and I had to explain how I would approach it. The other was about leadership: describe a time I debugged an error, including the issue, how I researched and debugged it, and what I put in place to prevent it from recurring. It felt difficult because it paired a concrete algorithm with a detailed accountability…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: coding rounds, system design, and a narrow-feeling evaluation

I had three coding rounds with LeetCode-style medium problems, then a system-design round and a cultural-fit conversation. The interviewers were friendly and the environment was pleasant, which made the pressure easier to manage. Still, the process felt dated to me. LeetCode practice carried much of the load, and cultural fit was treated as a single conversation rather than something developed th…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: space-system operations background in technical rounds

The process started with a behavioral interview with a team manager, followed by several technical rounds. The overall difficulty felt average, and nothing about the flow seemed chaotic. The questions kept returning to my experience with hardware and operationalizing space systems. Rather than staying only at an algorithm level, the technical discussions asked how I had handled real operational c…

Technical Screen0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Amazon Software Engineer interview: organized coding and leadership

I began with an online coding assessment on data structures, algorithms, and problem solving. After passing it, later interviews combined coding, design fundamentals, and Leadership Principles. Follow-up questions tested my thought process rather than only whether I reached a solution. Leadership discussion was woven into the technical evaluation, so it felt broader than a coding test. I did not…

Online Assessment0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

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