I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Jan 2019
Interview
Took a really long time between applying and hearing from them, but once the process started it went really quickly. I had a technical phone screen, then was flown out for a round of on-site interviews in Seattle. It was a very long day, starting with me giving an hour long technical presentation, followed by two hour long interviews, lunch, then another four hour long interviews. They are very big on their behavioral questions. As long as you brainstorm 5 or so talking points, you'll be able to whip those out as examples and do fine. The recruiter I was working with was kind of crazy, but all the Amazon employees I met were really nice and were people I could see myself working with. I ended up deciding not to move out to Seattle yet.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
In the phone screen: How would you compare the results of two different search algorithms? How to incorporate the rankings of the results?
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.