# Amazon SDE II Software Development Engineer Interview Experience Aced (formerly Exponent) publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access. Source: https://www.aced.io/experiences/amazon-software-engineer-interview-39a0db Source observed: 2026-11-04T21:34:34.504Z Last checked: 2026-11-04T21:34:34.504+00:00 Indexed: 2026-11-05T01:43:27.688+00:00 --- # Amazon SDE II Software Development Engineer Interview Experience We publish interview preparation content through Aced (formerly Exponent). This verified interview experience concerns an Amazon mid-level/L4 Software Development Engineer role in the United States. The candidate submitted it 6 months ago; the interview took place 9 months ago. The candidate reported an **offer**, a **1-month** process, and **Easy** difficulty. ![Amazon logo](https://exponent-static.s3.amazonaws.com/company_logos/amazon.png) ## Related Amazon interview resources - [Amazon Software Development Engineer Interview Guide](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-software-development-engineer-interview) - [62 Amazon interview experiences](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-software-development-engineer-interview/experiences) - [250 Amazon interview questions](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-software-development-engineer-interview/questions) - [482 Amazon resumes](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-software-development-engineer-interview/resumes) ## Candidate overview > I went in expecting the usual behavioral-first format, but in my loop they flipped it and opened with the coding question. The behavioral part still mattered, they just used the follow-ups to see if I actually knew my own work in detail. - **Result:** Got offer - **Location:** United States - **Verification:** Verified - **Role:** SDE II / Software Development Engineer - **Level:** Mid Level / L4 - **Interview date:** 9 months ago - **Timespan:** 1 month - **Difficulty:** Easy ## Interview process The candidate described a process that Amazon explained in advance: 1. An online assessment. 2. Three 40-minute interviews held back to back on the same day. 3. Recruiter follow-up about logistics such as start date and work authorization. 4. An offer letter after the loop. The technical questions were described as classic problems. Interviewers sometimes started with coding rather than behavioral questions. Behavioral follow-ups focused deeply on the candidate’s actual work instead of stopping at a polished STAR response. ## Interview rounds The experience contains **9 questions across 4 rounds**. The listed stages are an online assessment and a final round. ### Online assessment — 3 questions This round included two coding questions followed by a separate leadership-principles/personality section. The candidate had been told the structure beforehand. **Question types:** [Coding](https://www.aced.io/questions?type=coding), [Data Structures & Algorithms](https://www.aced.io/questions?type=algorithms), and [Behavioral](https://www.aced.io/questions?type=behavioral). **Specific questions and topics:** - Determine the minimum starting health needed for a player to win a game. Each round reduces health by `power[i]`; health must remain above zero, and armor can block `min(armor, power[i])` in one round. - [Given an array of daily stock returns and at most `k` deletions, determine the maximum number of contiguous days with the same return value after omitting up to `k` days.](https://www.aced.io/questions/6357?interview=amazon-software-engineer-interview-39a0db) - Leadership-principles/personality statements about choosing between two features, helping a teammate after hours, reporting conflict, and general work style. The response scale ran from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The candidate characterized this section as leadership-principles and personality alignment rather than open-ended behavioral interviewing, and did not find the statements especially tricky. ### Final round — 3 interviews The rendered experience describes each final interview as **45 minutes with a senior interviewer**, mostly open-ended questions, a short follow-up near the end, and substantial pushback on tradeoffs. The same product-improvement question and answer are repeated for each displayed final-round entry: - **Question:** How would you improve a product you use every day for a new market? - **Candidate approach:** Choose a segment first, size it, compare three options, then select one option and its success metric. ## Interview tips The candidate recommends practicing aloud with a timer, keeping a framework ready for every round, and asking the recruiter what each interviewer focuses on so that examples can be tailored. ## Company culture observations The candidate described the interviewers as collaborative and said they kept steering toward the user. The team appeared to value structured thinking over polish, and interviewers left time for questions at the end. ## Access and practice The public preview invites readers to [become a member](https://www.aced.io/upgrade?src=experience) to read the rest of this interview and additional experiences added weekly. Readers can also [share an interview experience](https://www.aced.io/questions/contribute?src=experience); a 24-hour trial starts once a submission is approved. Use [Practice this loop](https://www.aced.io/questions/6357/maximize-contiguous-returns-k-deletions?interview=amazon-software-engineer-interview-39a0db) to practice the linked coding problem and interview loop. ## More Amazon interview experiences - [Software Engineer (L4) — Amazon, Dec 2025](https://www.aced.io/experiences/amazon-software-engineer-interview-87ea12?returnPath=%2Fguides%2Famazon-software-development-engineer-interview%2Fexperiences) — **Verified; 4 rounds; 3 questions.** “I said I deep dived on an AI project, and they immediately started asking what parameters I used to train the model and why I switched from one LLM to another. Even the behavioral round got super technical.” - [Software Engineer — Amazon, Oct 2026](https://www.aced.io/experiences/amazon-software-engineer-interview-5766eb?returnPath=%2Fguides%2Famazon-software-development-engineer-interview%2Fexperiences) — **2 rounds; 2 questions.** “The process seems to be getting more rigorous than the past, with multiple technical rounds. There is a large focus on the leadership principles.” - [Software Engineer — Amazon, Oct 2026](https://www.aced.io/experiences/amazon-senior-software-engineer-interview-4930a7?returnPath=%2Fguides%2Famazon-software-development-engineer-interview%2Fexperiences) — **1 round; 2 questions.** “In DSA it was focusing on Design DSA style problem, then i have HLD and LLD interviews. Design DSA: Implement Trie for recent searches usecase LLD: Bookmyshow style ticket booking system HLD: Design Link preview feature, similar to what's found in Slack or Whatsapp” [See all 62 Amazon Software Engineer interview experiences →](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-software-development-engineer-interview/experiences) --- [Read this page’s summary](https://www.aced.io/agents/api/public/v1/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aced.io%2Fexperiences%2Famazon-software-engineer-interview-39a0db&trace=t_679ff9ab98f3) ## Ask a follow-up about this page Need a more specific answer? Ask the exact question you have. It returns a fresh, cited answer from Aced (formerly Exponent)’s knowledge base. No account or API key required. Open this URL with your own question, URL-encoded. Include your question in q. 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