Saturday, April 20, 2024

How To Prepare For Amazon Software Developer Interview

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Find All Subsets Of A Given Set Of Integers

How I cracked my Amazon Coding Interview | Software Development Engineer Interview | Sprint Master

We are given a set of integers and we have to find all the possible subsets of this set of integers. The following example elaborates on this further.

Given set of integers:

There are several ways to solve this problem. We will discuss the one that is neat and easier to understand. We know that for a set of n elements there are 2 n 2^n 2n subsets. For example, a set with 3 elements will have 8 subsets. Here is the algorithm we will use:

n = size of given integer setsubsets_count = 2^nfor i = 0 to subsets_count    form a subset using the value of 'i' as following:        bits in number 'i' represent index of elements to choose from original set,        if a specific bit is 1 choose that number from original set and add it to current subset,        e.g. if i = 6 i.e 110 in binary means that 1st and 2nd elements in original array need to be picked.    add current subset to list of all subsets

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What Are Amazons 16 Leadership Principles

Amazons leadership principles are the core values that guide Amazon as a company. As , We use our Leadership Principles every day, whether were discussing ideas for new projects or deciding on the best approach to solving a problem.

As the leadership principles are key to every decision made at Amazon, interviewers work hard to make sure that every new candidate aligns with them. The Bar Raiser in particular is considered the steward of these principles, so youll need to take the time to learn and apply them to your answers.

If youre not already familiar with Amazons leadership principles, here is the full list:

  • Customer ObsessionLeaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
  • OwnershipLeaders are owners. They think long term and dont sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say thats not my job.
  • Invent and SimplifyLeaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by not invented here. Because we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.
  • Once you have your list of stories, youll need to format them in a way that can be used as an interview answer.

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    The Final Tip For All Candidates Aspiring To Work At Amazon:

    As recruiters and fellow SDEs, we want you to succeed and join the company. So, if you feel like you are underprepared for the interviews and need more time, you can always reach out to HR to reschedule your interview to some other date. It is much preferred if you give your interviews being fully prepared than just going through the process and losing your shot at working here- Nishit Patira

    Hope this helps, good luck!

    Read Also: How To Reply To Interview Questions

    How To Nail Your Next Tech Interview

    AWS Professional Services

    We know you know, without a doubt, how hard cracking the Amazon software engineer interview is going to be. But with the right questions list, strategy, and guidance, you can get through. We plan on providing you with all these things to help you crack Amazon Senior SDE interview questions.

    Amazon attracts strong leaders and some of the finest talents in the tech world. The demand growth for different types of software engineers since 2019 has been anything from 5% to an unbelievable 1400% in the international job market. While full-stack engineers occupy the bottom end of this spectrum, the top end is filled with augmented reality and virtual reality engineers.

    If you are a software engineer or are aspiring to be one, you have an immense opportunity at the top end of the spectrum mentioned above. You just need to be on top of all the Amazon Senior SDE interview questions and weâre here to help you with that.

    Before applying for that dream job at Amazon, there are a few things to know about the interview process. In this article, weâll cover the following:

    • Timeline and difficulty level of Amazon SE interview process
    • What are the different levels of software engineers at Amazon?
    • Amazon software engineer interview rounds
    • Amazon software engineer interview questions
    • Skills required to crack Amazon software engineer interviews
    • How to prepare for the Amazon software engineer interview?
    • FAQs on Amazon Software Engineer Interview Questions

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    Amazon Engineering Interview Process

    Amazon continues to improve people’s standard of living and significantly contributes to the economies of many countries. Jeff Bezos, the former CEO at Amazon.com says:

    “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job to make the customer experience a little bit better.”

    Amazon’s engineering interview process usually takes four to eight weeks and typically follows these steps:

    • Submitting a resume, cover letter, and referrals
    • Getting an HR recruitment call or email if shortlisted
    • Performing online assessments
    • Having one to two phone screen interviews
    • Having four to six on-site interviews
    • Debriefing – interviewers making a unanimous decision
    • Receiving your offer letter

    Carrus Coach and former Amazon Bar Raiser Teresa Fung highlights that the process can vary slightly between the levels. Online assessments are commonly applied to L4 and L5 applicants Once they pass OA, it is possible to move straight to the final loop, or have a phone interview in between before reaching the final loop.

    Amazon Sde Work Style Assessment

    The SDE Work Style Assessment is an untimed personality test, which focuses on the work environment, decision-making, and preferences – in light of Amazons culture and Leadership Principles.

    Amazon seeks to understand your work style as expressed through your work personality. Each of the personality questions represents a different dilemma, task, or preference that an Amazon SDE employee may encounter.

    You will be asked to choose the answer which is most suitable to your understanding, taking into deep consideration.

    The Amazon Workstyle Assessment for SDEs is divided into two surveys:

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    How To Prepare For The Amazon Coding Assessment

    When preparing for the online coding test, focus on these four areas:

    • Algorithms: Basic Searching, Basic Sorting, Tree Traversal, Graph Traversal.
    • Data Structures: Heaps, linked lists, arrays, trees , hash tables, stacks, and recursion.
    • Fundamentals: Go back and re-educate yourself on all data structures and data structure algorithms. Understand all time and space complexity. Make sure you even get into more unique things, like hashmaps, b+trees , and caches .
    • Understand high-scale architecture: Go look at how other big sites are structured.

    JobTestPrep’s complete practice course covers these topics thoroughly and offers hands-on practice with hundreds of Amazon-style coding questions.

    Bonus Tips To Crack Amazon On

    Most Tech Interview Prep is GARBAGE. (From a Principal Engineer at Amazon)

    In addition to the previous Amazon on-site interview preparation tips, here are some bonus hacks to keep in mind:

  • Have commendable working knowledge in a programming language of your choice. Amazon prefers to conduct interviews in Object-oriented Programming Languages â Python/C++/Java/Ruby. So make sure youâre proficient with any one of them.
  • It is common to encounter questions around Graphs, Trees, Bridges, Graph Algorithms, and Dynamic Programming. Traversal algorithms are popular in tech interviews, including Depth-First Search and Breadth-First Search. You must also understand how certain Graph algorithms function and apply them to find solutions to complex and tricky problems. Some algorithms to study include Prim, Kruskal, Dijkstra, and Floyd Warshall. Note that youâre also required to know how to calculate space and time complexities for your code.
  • Amazon lays strong emphasis on Systems Design questions. More so than other tier-1 companies. Youâre usually given an abstract system that youâll have to design.
  • In Amazon, there is an increased focus on behavioral interviews for mid and senior management positions. As such, candidates appearing for any engineering position will have to go through the Bar Raiser round, where theyâre tested against .
  • Amazon prefers that candidates use the STAR interview technique to answer behavioral questions.
  • Related read: To know more about STAR technique and answer open-ended behavioral questions, head to this post.

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    Highlight Important Past Projects

    Make a note of the most important projects youâve worked on throughout your professional career and prepare yourself to answer questions around them.

    Recruiters are always keen to learn about your experience and the projects you were a part of â for example, how you went about planning the project, how you handled hiccups that came along the way, and so on. Hence, this is an important part of your Amazon interview preparation.

    Amazon Online Assessment 2

    Part 1: Coding

    • Time: 70 minutes
    • Languages: C++, C#, C, Java, JavaScript, Python, Swift, and Ruby

    The second OA has two sections: Coding and Workstyles Assessments. For the coding round, you’ll have two questions that focus on Data Structures and Algorithms. The two questions could be about anything: arrays, stacks, graphs, trees, linked lists, and more. Focus on finding the optimal solution to these questions.To prepare for the coding part, practice questions from Leetcode, HackerRank, and other websites for DSA. The key to cracking this round is writing neat and readable code and conveying you know how to solve the problem even if you have any failed edge cases. This means adding comments to your code, especially if you have failed test cases. If you’re close to the optimal solution but couldn’t complete the questions to the expectations within time, add comments so your reviewer is aware you know how to solve it otherwise. This will make a significant difference in your clearing this round.

    Part 2: Workstyles

    • Time: 10-20 minutes

    The Workstyles assessment is mainly to understand your fit for the role. This will be more like a survey form where you’ll be asked questions about the position, your style of working, and how you would deal with a particular situation. Make sure you’ve checked the to succeed in this round.

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    Which Programming Language Should I Use

    Before you start preparing for the other steps of the interview process, it would be prudent to have a good idea of which programming language you will use during the interview.

    When it comes to this question, I have some pretty simple advice: embrace what you are comfortable with, and stick to what you know.

    It is fairly common to want to use multiple languages in our field. But, when preparing for an interview, it is best to stick with just one.

    This will help shift your focus from worrying about which language you will use, to thinking of problems you have solved with the language you are most comfortable with.

    Once you know which programming language you will use, you are ready to take on the challenge of the technical phone interview.

    Technical Phone Screen Round

    Cracking Interviews: About Yourself

    The technical phone screen is the first step in the process where youâll be contacted by a member of Amazonâs HR team. Youâll be asked basic questions about your profile and experience, after which the recruiter will fix a date for the remote/online coding assignment.

    In the phone screen round, you can also expect a few technical questions on the programming language of your choice and technical aspects about your experience, mostly in relation to the position youâre applying to.

    The technical phone screen typically lasts 15 to 30 minutes.

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    How To Prepare For A Software Developer Interview

    In my last article, I shared my thoughts on how to get an interview as a software developer. This week, I will share my thoughts on how you should prepare for that interview once you get it.

    Tech interviews are notoriously nerve-racking and unpredictable. But there are steps you can take to mitigate a lot of these feelings.

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    Do you know that Amazon launched a new program called âBest Fitâ that allows software engineers to apply once and get considered for thousands of jobs across the company? This makes it easier to find a job that best fits your working styles and interests. Currently, Amazon has over 10,000 open positions for software engineers in the US. In 2021, they had a total of 1,608,000 full and part-time employees. The engineering roles at Amazon are challenging and competitive to land. In fact, itâs very common for it to take multiple attempts to secure a role at Amazon and other FAANG companies. So, it should go without saying that getting hired into one of these sought-after roles requires a great deal of dedication. Youâll need to focus both on improving the skills you can offer and perfecting your interview technique, but itâll all be worth it.â

    A software engineer working at Amazon explained why he loves working for this customer centric tech giant:

    âAt former companies, I didnât have a choice on what I worked on. Amazon offered me multiple job opportunities, and I chose to work directly with customers. I can now point out something to my kids and say, âI am working on thatâ, with pride.â

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    Recommended Reading: How To Crack Microsoft Interview

    Conquer The Whiteboard Exercise

    Sometimes a company would prefer to take a look at your technical skills and ability to break down complex problems in more of an abstract way. The most common way of testing a candidate this way is by having them complete a whiteboard exercise.

    This method of interviewing might be the most talked about, and the most feared. If you are asked to use a whiteboard to solve a question remember this: they are far more interested in how you communicate your problem-solving process, not that you can solve the problem.

    If the problem they give you seems really hard, that is not because they are trying to stump you. They want to get a feel for how you tackle a hard problem. If you dont end up solving the problem, that does not mean you blew your chance.

    If you keep these things in mind during this exercise, it will increase your chances of impressing your interviewer:

    • Repeat the question back to the interviewer
    • Ask clarifying question about edge cases
    • Confirm optimal results of the problem
    • Write your code legibly
    • Communicate each step you take

    If you answered the question successfully by the time the session ends, ask your interviewer if that was the solution they commonly got. If not, ask what other candidates have done or what you could have done differently. This shows that you are engaged and curious.

    First Things First Tell Me About Yourself

    Amazon Software Engineer Interview: Print Left View of Binary Tree

    After you apply and a company has an interest in you, the first step is usually to schedule a phone interview. This is typically a pretty relaxed conversation with a member of HR.

    You can expect them to ask primarily about your job history, what you are looking for next, and most importantly, why you are applying for a position at their company.

    Just because this is typically easier than the other phases of the interview process does not mean you should not prepare for it. A few questions to prepare for are:

    Tell me a little bit about yourself

    This is a good time to give your elevator pitch. This will likely be one of the first questions you are asked and usually can be a great tone-setter for the remainder of the interview.

    If you tend to talk fast, take a deep breath before you answer and try to speak slowly and clearly. A few items you want to mention in your response are:

    • Ethos or interests you share with the company
    • What excites you about software development
    • Future goals that this company can help fulfill

    What is a recent project you worked on that you are proud of?

    Like most of these questions, the interviewer is not solely curious about your technical achievements. They are also looking for cues that convey you can communicate well, are reliable, and are someone who would get along with the other members of the team.

    Try to be enthusiastic and answer questions fully, without rambling too much. An effective framework for answering these types of questions is:

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    Timeline And Difficulty Level Of Amazon Software Engineer Interview

    To ace the Amazon Senior SDE interview questions or the ones for software engineers, you need to know the exact process and timeline for applying successfully and getting selected. This process has been outlined below:

  • Have your resume, cover letter, and referrals prepared and compiled in a professional manner following all the industry norms.
  • After submitting these, you will have to wait to receive a call or email from an Amazon HR executive, who will tell you about Amazonâs 4-stage selection process.
  • The first stage is the online assessment, and it can take approximately two to three weeks to get to this stage.
  • If you make it through the first stage, the next stage is the phone screen, consisting of one to two interview sessions.
  • Following this, you will have to face an on-site interview that consists of four to six sessions.
  • Finally, the results are declared in a debriefing meeting, and you get your offer letter to join Amazon as a software engineer. The second to fourth stages take about two to five weeks to complete.
  • If all of this sounds daunting, be better prepared by learning more about the Amazon Senior SDE interview questions by reading our article

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