I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Amazon (Telephone, TX) in Feb 2017
Interview
Made contact with HR, several days later had telephone technical interview. They were clearly wanting a Software Engineer instead of a Data Scientist since my interviewer knew very little about Statistics or data science and only asked me CS questions. My interviewer also spent about 10 minutes discussing politics, which made me very uncomfortable.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a Python function that displays the first n Fibonacci numbers.
Looking back, I'm relieved I declined the offer, despite the intense experience. The interview process felt overwhelming, starting with some tough core ML concepts before diving into the LLM fundamentals. During the technical round, I recognized a tokenization question from a PracHub session I had done just a week before. It felt like a small win in an otherwise challenging interview. Ultimately, the pressure and expectations were high, but I felt it wasn't the right fit for me.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
LLM fundamentals: tokenization design and KL-regularized SFT
There are three rounds in total. The process begins with a coding round, followed by the main interview loop, where you will meet the team and discuss technical skills, experience, and fit.
First round is fun, second round, which is also the final round involved 5 sessions, with different focus. For some sessions, not be able to present my story completely, time was tight, and interviewers were rushing.