I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Vancouver, BC) in May 2014
Interview
They phoned me and I was in front of my computer because they required me to live code.
Just live coding took all the time of the interview.
First question : Implement merge sort.
Second question : Divide and conquer.
Q&A
We don't really re-invent the wheel or memorize information in detail because they are a few clicks a way, it doesn't look like effective measure to recruit talented people in anyway.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
didn't expect that they would ask about merge sort.
Recruiter screen, online assessment, technical interviews, and behavioral rounds focused heavily on Amazon Leadership Principles. The process was structured, with a strong emphasis on problem-solving, coding skills, and examples demonstrating impact and ownership.
Recruiter screen, followed by an online coding assessment and then a technical phone interview. The final round was a virtual onsite loop with multiple interviews covering data structures, system design, debugging, and Amazon Leadership Principles. The technical questions were practical but time-constrained, and the behavioural questions required specific examples using the STAR format.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a scalable URL shortening service and explain how you would handle high read traffic, collisions, database schema, expiration, and basic monitoring.
That moment when the interviewer asked about finding indices in an array for a target sum was wild — I had just tackled something identical while prepping on PracHub. The interview included a technical round with another question about designing an in-memory LRU cache and a behavioral question about meeting tight deadlines. After a smooth discussion, I was told I'd received an offer, which I happily accepted. Overall, the process felt pretty straightforward and not overly challenging.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Given an array of integers return the indices of two numbers summing to a target