The first step in the process was the Amazon SDE online assessment.

This consisted of:

• Two coding questions in 70 minutes.
• A 70-minute simulation of a virtual workday at Amazon, where you answer related questions.
• A questionnaire on Amazon's Leadership Principles.

The first question was: Given an input string that is symmetrical (a palindrome), you had to return a rearranged string that also:

1. is a different symmetrical string.
2. should be the lexicographically smallest string among all possible symmetrical strings.

For example, regarding the lexicographically smallest string: "abcd" is lexicographically smaller than "abdc", but larger than "abad".