The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Feb 2012
Interview
The interview process was incredibly quick; the first email to an on-site interview occurred within a matter of weeks. Being an international prospect, I went through 2 rounds of technical phone interviews before being offered an on-site interview. Each phone interview consisted of a couple technical questions, with coding done on a virtual whiteboard. The questions heavily emphasized data structures and class design.
The there were 4 on-site interviews packed into a single 5 hour day; 1 HR interview and 3 technical interviews. Again, most of the technical interviews revolved around a wide and deep knowledge of data structures, with some algorithmic questions thrown in. Big-O run times were also quite important.
Overall, I found the people to be friendly and the work environment to be very laid back. Most of the walls were glass or whiteboard allowing for easy collaboration between team members.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
As the company would probably frown upon me giving interview specifics, I'll explain the general knowledge base you should have when interviewing with Amazon.
They are very concerned with data structures; namely structures that are very fast. Hash tables are a staple, though questions involving tree and trie structures are also asked quite often.
Even if you're not applying to a position requiring knowledge of networking, you should know the basics of how it works and how to avoid network congestion.
Surprisingly easy — I expected tougher questions, but the coding round felt more like a warm-up. The main challenge was a DSA problem about counting islands in a 2D grid, which led to a discussion on DFS versus BFS and handling large grids. Funny enough, I had revisited that exact type of question while prepping on PracHub, which made me feel more confident. The interview wrapped up with a behavioral round, and I accepted an offer, but ultimately decided to decline it for another opportunity. Overall, it was a smooth experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Number of Islands — given a 2D grid of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of connected islands. Walk through DFS vs BFS, and discuss how to avoid revisiting cells (in-place mutation vs visited set) and what changes if the grid is huge and must stream from disk.
It started with an OA, and then after a few weeks, I got invited to four rounds of interviews: technical and behavioral at 3 of the 4, and behavioral only at one.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Calgary, AB) in Jun 2026
Interview
Online Assessment is the first step in the process. I didn’t have an HR phone screening and went straight to the OA after applying. It was sent to me about a week after I submitted my application.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The first question is LeetCode style algorithms question, and the second question gives a full stack repo (choice of Java, NodeJS, or Django) and asks to solve a backend issue which is causing a bug in the frontend. Unit tests must pass to pass the second question. You can run both backend/frontend indivdually or together
