Amazon SDE-2 Interview Experience | Bengaluru | Rejected

Role: SDE-2
Location: Bengaluru
Team: Alexa
Result: Rejected

Interview Process and Timeline

The interview process took place between August and September 2026 and included a phone screening followed by four interview rounds. The interviews covered DSA, LLD, HLD, and Amazon Leadership Principles.

Phone Screening

The interviewer began with my introduction and questions about my responsibilities at my current company. I was asked to discuss challenging and impactful work, including one implementation in detail using the STAR format.

Coding Problem: Longest Continuous Subarray with Sum Zero

Given an array, find the longest contiguous subarray whose sum equals zero.

Example:

Array = [6, 3, -3, 2, -2, 5, -5, 4]

Output: Length = 6
Subarray = [3, -3, 2, -2, 5, -5]

The optimized approach uses prefix sums and a hash map, with O(n) time and O(n) auxiliary space.

Round 1: Low-Level Design (LLD)

The main question was to design an in-memory logging system where multiple modules generate logs that must eventually be written to a flash partition with a capacity of 96 KB.

The discussion involved log collection, memory management, buffering, and handling limited storage efficiently.

Leadership Principles:

• Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit: A situation involving disagreement with a decision.

• Deliver Results: Delivering a project or task under a tight deadline.

Round 2: High-Level Design (HLD)

I was asked to design a smart thermostat capable of transmitting data over the air. The discussion started with the software components and then moved toward the device's input components, communication, and overall architecture.

Leadership Principles:

• Ownership: A time I took responsibility for a problem outside my assigned role.

• Bias for Action: A situation where I took a calculated risk during a project.

Round 3: Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA)

The interviewer mentioned that two coding problems would be asked, but I managed to solve only one.

Problem: Minimum Removals from Either End to Reach a Target Sum

Given an array of positive integers and a target x, remove elements only from the left or right end until their sum equals x. Return the minimum number of operations, or -1 if impossible.

Example:

readings = [2, 5, 1, 3, 4]
x = 9

Output: 2

Remove 5 and 4 to obtain a total of 9 in two operations.

The optimized approach is to find the longest subarray whose sum equals totalSum - x, using a sliding window.

• Time complexity: O(n)

• Auxiliary space: O(1)

The interviewer also asked about my use of AI tools in engineering workflows, including their applications in debugging and firmware bring-up.

Leadership Principles:

• Dive Deep

• Customer Obsession

Round 4: Bar Raiser

The interviewer was a Software Engineering Leader from another team. Despite some network issues, the discussion was friendly and comfortable.

I was given two coding options and could choose either one.

Problem 1: Implement an LRU Cache

Implement an LRU cache with average O(1) get and put operations using a hash map and a doubly linked list.

Problem 2: Group Anagrams

Given a list of strings, group those that contain the same characters.

Example:

Input:
["arc", "car", "elbow", "below", "state", "taste"]

Output:
[["arc", "car"], ["elbow", "below"], ["state", "taste"]]

I chose the anagram problem. The interviewer asked three follow-up questions involving streaming inputs, input separation, and edge cases. I was also asked to explain the time and space complexity. The discussion lasted approximately 30 minutes.

Leadership Principle: Insist on the Highest Standards

Behavioral questions included:

• A disagreement with my manager.

• Convincing my manager to consider a different approach.

• A failure I experienced and how I recovered from it.

Overall Experience

The interview covered coding, system design, and behavioral questions. The technical rounds tested problem-solving, optimization, design fundamentals, and the ability to handle follow-up requirements.

The Leadership Principles were equally important throughout the process. Preparing examples from previous projects and practicing coding problems with edge cases and complexity analysis would be valuable for candidates preparing for similar Amazon SDE-2 interviews.

Although I was rejected, the experience provided useful insights into Amazon's interview expectations and areas to improve for future opportunities.