Amazon

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II Interview Experience - Seattle, Washington

February 1, 2025

Neutral ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The Amazon SDE-II interview process consisted of multiple rounds, including coding, system design, and behavioral assessments. Amazon heavily focuses on data structures & algorithms, large-scale system design, and leadership principles.

The process lasted 4 weeks. I went through 4 rounds and 1 OA.

Questions

Given an array of lockers (0 = empty, 1 = occupied), find the maximum distance to the nearest 1.

Modify the problem to place k packages instead of one, maximizing the minimum distance.

Follow-up:

Optimize for O(1) space complexity.
Reduce O(n log n) sorting overhead.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 28 interview experiences for the Amazon Software Development Engineer (SDE) II role in Seattle, Washington.

Success Rate

14%

Pass Rate

Amazon's interview process for their Software Development Engineer (SDE) II roles in Seattle, Washington is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive57%

Neutral32%

Negative11%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Amazon's Software Development Engineer (SDE) II interview process in Seattle, Washington.

Amazon Work Experiences

Good Pay, Poor Balance

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

November 17, 2022

Pros: Great pay, good location, good benefits.

Cons: Not good enough work-life balance.

Good Pay, Poor Balance

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

November 17, 2022

Pros: Great pay, good location, good benefits.

Cons: Not good enough work-life balance.

A great learning experience

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: It is a good company to start your career, as it would get you into the performance-driven, get-stuff-done attitude fast.

Cons: Things are run at a different pace, which changes wildly from team to team. There is a lot of opportunity to be a self-starter and figure out your place in the organization. You have to make yourself useful and not wait for others to make you useful.

A great learning experience

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: It is a good company to start your career, as it would get you into the performance-driven, get-stuff-done attitude fast.

Cons: Things are run at a different pace, which changes wildly from team to team. There is a lot of opportunity to be a self-starter and figure out your place in the organization. You have to make yourself useful and not wait for others to make you useful.

Great Learning, High Stress

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: The learning experience is very good.

Cons: Expectations are very high, so the stress level is high.

Great Learning, High Stress

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: The learning experience is very good.

Cons: Expectations are very high, so the stress level is high.

Good Pay, Poor Balance

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

November 17, 2022

Pros: Great pay, good location, good benefits.

Cons: Not good enough work-life balance.

4.0
Good Pay, Poor Balance
Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee
Seattle, Washington, United States
November 17, 2022
Pros: Great pay, good location, good benefits.
Cons: Not good enough work-life balance.

A great learning experience

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: It is a good company to start your career, as it would get you into the performance-driven, get-stuff-done attitude fast.

Cons: Things are run at a different pace, which changes wildly from team to team. There is a lot of opportunity to be a self-starter and figure out your place in the organization. You have to make yourself useful and not wait for others to make you useful.

5.0
A great learning experience
Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee
Seattle, Washington, United States
May 11, 2015
Pros: It is a good company to start your career, as it would get you into the performance-driven, get-stuff-done attitude fast.
Cons: Things are run at a different pace, which changes wildly from team to team. There is a lot of opportunity to be a self-starter and figure out your place in the organization. You have to make yourself useful and not wait for others to make you useful.

Great Learning, High Stress

Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee

Seattle, Washington, United States

Pros: The learning experience is very good.

Cons: Expectations are very high, so the stress level is high.

3.0
Great Learning, High Stress
Software Development Engineer (SDE) II • Current Employee
Seattle, Washington, United States
July 22, 2022
Pros: The learning experience is very good.
Cons: Expectations are very high, so the stress level is high.

Amazon Interview Questions

Two Sum

Find two numbers in a given array that add up to a specific target value, and return their indices. Essentially, you need to efficiently locate the pair that satisfies the sum requirement.

Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock

You're given daily stock prices. Find the maximum profit you can make by buying and selling the stock once. You must buy before you sell.

ArraysDynamic Programming

Reorganize String

Rearrange the characters in a given string such that no two adjacent characters are the same. If such an arrangement is possible, return it; otherwise, return an empty string.

StringsGreedy AlgorithmsArrays

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