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My Amazon SDE-1 interview process consisted of an Online Assessment (OA) followed by four interview rounds. The first three rounds focused on DSA, behavioral questions, and project discussions, while the final round was the Bar Raiser round.
The OA consisted of two parts:
I was asked two coding questions:
I was also asked a behavioral question about handling a tight deadline when requirements changed.
Last updated Oct 16, 2026
This round included two coding questions:
After the coding questions, we discussed one of my projects in detail, focusing on my implementation and ownership of the project.
I was asked a hard-level dynamic programming question involving a state machine, similar to Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock III.
The discussion involved extending the solution to handle k transactions instead of hardcoding two.
We also discussed my experience with Generative AI, AI-assisted development tools, agents, workflows, and previous work involving AI.
The final round focused on my previous work, system architecture, technical decisions, and engineering trade-offs. I was not asked any DSA questions in this round.
The interviewer went deep into my technical decisions and repeatedly asked why I had chosen a particular approach, why multithreading was required, what alternatives I had considered, and how feedback had influenced my implementation.
| Timeline | Event |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Applied for the role |
| ~2 weeks later | Received the OA |
| ~2.5 months later | Received OA qualification confirmation |
| ~1 month later | Received interview confirmation |
| 2 days later | Completed the first three rounds |
| Following 3 months | The Bar Raiser round was repeatedly rescheduled |
| September 2026 | Finally received the offer |
The entire process took around 6 months, from applying to receiving the offer. Before this opportunity, I had applied to more than 50 positions, so the long waiting periods between stages made the journey even more challenging.
I'm truly grateful to have received the offer from Amazon after such a long process. It was a journey full of patience and uncertainty, and I'm thankful that everything finally worked out.
My experience showed that solving DSA problems is only one part of the interview process. Explaining my approach clearly, discussing trade-offs, demonstrating ownership of my projects, and answering behavioral questions were also important.