The hiring and interview process started for me when a recruiter reached out about openings for SDE2 positions. I only had one year of experience, so I was a bit hesitant, but I decided to give the online assessment a try after some preparation.

The online assessment on HackerRank included two coding questions and a behavioral evaluation. The coding questions were the standard LeetCode, HackerRank, etc., type questions that you can expect from a big tech company with Amazon-like hiring practices. You also had to explain your approach. My assessment went to manual review because the second answer had a small bug that caused one test case not to pass, but I still passed.

After the online assessment, there was a virtual onsite interview. This was an interview loop with several people in four sessions. There were algorithms and data structures questions, general problem-solving questions, and questions based on the leadership principles.

The interviewing process was pretty enjoyable. I had the good fortune of having interviewers who were friendly and supportive, allowed me to get my ideas across, and answered any questions I had thoughtfully without being dismissive. Some were not as open and friendly as others, but perhaps this was part of the process? Either way, I definitely got the sense that the people who interviewed me were the types of people that I would want to work with and that they were respectful of my time and ambitions.

I walked away feeling pretty good, but not 100% sure. I tried to stay optimistic during the process. I didn't quite have the experience of an SDE2, but I thought my knowledge of CS fundamentals and leadership principles (ownership, curiosity, openness to learning, etc.) would show. In the end, the feedback that I received was that my knowledge and skills were determined to be a good fit for Amazon, but that I lacked the experience required for an SDE2. I thought this was a fair assessment, being that an SDE1 position would have probably been better for me. So I was given an SDE1 offer, which I gladly accepted.

I have been blessed to have a great interview process. When I got to Amazon, I learned that Amazon focuses on making interviewing a great experience for everyone, where people can walk away still feeling good about Amazon as a company and future opportunities, whether or not they receive an offer. I think they are meeting this goal well. I hope Amazon can continue to make efforts (and they still have a long way to go in some regards) in hiring a diverse workforce with an equitable hiring process.

Signed an NDA and cannot disclose specific questions, but the interview included:

• Algorithms and data structures questions.
• Behavioral questions about describing scenarios from experiences, with emphasis on leadership principles.