Amazon Backend Interview Questions

Landing a job at Amazon is a dream for many developers around the globe. Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world, with a workforce of over half a million strong.

For you to join them, you’ll need to complete their unique interview that combines technical and leadership knowledge.

Today, we’ll walk you through everything you need to crack the Amazon technical interview, including questions and answers for coding problems and a step-by-step preparation guide.

Recursion-Related Amazon Interview Questions Asked at Amazon

Another 12% of all Amazon Senior SDE interview questions or questions for SEs are related to recursions and linked lists. Some of the most frequently asked questions of this type are:

  • Task: Write a code to print a sequence of numbers starting with N, where A[0] = N, without using a loop, in which A[i+1] = A[i] – 5, until A[i] > 0. After that A[i+1] = A[i] + 5. Repeat it until A[i] = N
  • Given: A round table of n persons Task: Write a code to find out in how many ways they can shake hands such that no two handshakes cross each other
  • Given: n number of people in a circle and a number k, such that k-1 persons are skipped, and the kth person is eliminated Task: Write a code to figure out the safest place in the circle
  • 2 What exactly is Amazon looking for

    At the end of each interview your interviewer will grade your performance using a standardized feedback form that summarizes the attributes Amazon looks for in a candidate. That form is constantly evolving, but we have listed some of its main components below.

    The interviewer will file the notes they took during the interview. This usually includes: the questions they asked, a summary of your answers and any additional impressions they had (e.g. communicated ABC well, weak knowledge of XYZ, etc.).

    Your interviewer will then grade you on technical competencies. They will be trying to determine whether you are “raising the bar” or not for each competency they have tested.

    In other words, youll need to convince them that you are at least as good as or better than the average current Amazon SDE at the level youre applying for (e.g. SDE III).

    The exact technical competencies youll be evaluated against vary by role. But here are some common ones for SDE roles:

  • Problem solving
  • Coding
  • Object oriented design
  • Data structures
  • Etc.
  • Your interviewer will also grade you on Amazons 16 Leadership Principles and assess whether youre “raising the bar” for those too. As mentioned above each interviewer is given two or three Leadership Principles to grill you on. Here are some of the most commonly tested principles for SDE roles:

  • Customer Obsession
  • Ownership
  • Bias for Action
  • Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
  • Etc.
  • Finally, each interviewer will file an overall recommendation into the system. The different options are along the lines of: “Strong hire”, “Hire”, “No hire”, “Strong no hire”.

    Skills Required to Crack the Amazon Software Engineer Interviews

    During the Amazon interview process, software engineers or senior SDEs are asked several different types of questions. The key skills required by applicants to successfully crack the behavioral as well as technical interview are:

    Graphs/Trees Related Interview Questions Asked at Amazon

    About 39% of all Amazon Senior SDE interview questions or SE interview questions are based on concepts related to graphs and binary trees that involve sub-concepts like nodes. Some of the most frequent questions asked by Amazon related to this subject are:

  • Given: A weighted, undirected, and connected graph of V vertices and E edges Task: Write a code to find the sum of weights of the edges of the minimum spanningÂ
  • Given: Adjacency list of a bidirectional graph Task: Write a code to return the adjacency list for each vertex
  • Given: A directed graph Task: Write a code to perform breadth-first traversal of this graph starting from 0
  • Given: A connected undirected graph Task: Write a program to perform depth-first traversal of the graph
  • Check out the Problems page for more coding questions with solutions.Â

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

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