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Amazon Software Development Engineer (SDE) Interview Guide

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VerifiedUnited StatesOnsitea month ago
Amazon

Software Development Engineer, Level 4 Interview Experience

Amazon·Entry Level / L3
It was the usual four-round AWS loop, but the HM actually spent time on how I use GenAI to fast track my workflow, and the Bar Raiser was basically all LPs with tons of follow-ups.
Result
Waiting
Interview date
a month ago
Difficulty
Easy

Interview process

I went through the usual four-round AWS loop and finished my last round in October. The first round mixed LPs and experience with coding, then the HM round was LPs plus a GenAI fluency conversation about how I use it to speed up my workflow. After that I had another LP plus coding round, this time a string parsing question, and the last round was the Bar Raiser. That BR was basically all LPs and they kept deep diving with a lot of follow-ups. Nothing about the format felt especially unusual to me.

  • Technical interview
  • Final round

Interview rounds

7 questions across 4 rounds

Technical interview (1)

2 questions

Overview

They split this one between LPs/experience and a pretty simple coding question in a LeetCode-style editor, and I just had to dry run it and explain TC/SC.

Specific questions asked

Tell me about your experience and walk through examples tied to Leadership Principles like Customer Obsession, Learn and Be Curious, and Ownership.

Solve this coding problem in the editor.

Can you dry run your solution?

What are the time and space complexities?

I solved a very simple DSA question. I can't share the exact prompt because of the NDA, but it was basic enough that anyone who's done even basic DSA could handle it. I wrote it directly in a LeetCode-style editor, then dry ran it and explained the time and space complexity.

Final round (1)

2 questions

Overview

The hiring manager round was mostly LPs, and then they switched into a practical GenAI fluency discussion about how I use it in my workflow.

Specific questions asked

How do you use GenAI to fast track your general workflow?

Can you give concrete examples?

They were looking for practical usage, not theory. I talked about how I use GenAI to speed up my general workflow, and they wanted concrete examples, the same way they did for the LP answers.

Technical interview (2)

2 questions

Overview

This was another LP plus coding round, and the coding part was a string parsing problem with constraints and conditions.

Specific questions asked

Tell me about past situations that map to Leadership Principles.

Solve this string parsing problem with constraints and conditions.

The coding part was a string parsing question with some constraints and conditions. I can't share the exact question, but it was still in the basic DSA range rather than anything especially hard.

Final round (2)

1 question

Overview

The Bar Raiser was all LPs, and they kept deep diving on every story with a lot of follow-ups.

Question types asked

Specific questions asked

Walk me through stories that show different Amazon Leadership Principles.

Can you go deeper on that example?

Give me more specifics.

This round was basically all LPs. They did deep dives on the stories and kept pushing for specifics, so it felt like the whole point was to really test how solid and detailed my examples were.

Interview tips

I'd prep every LP, not just the common ones, because what you get asked feels pretty random. They wanted concrete examples for everything, even the GenAI part, so I wouldn't go in with high-level answers. For coding, I'd just be comfortable solving basic DSA in a LeetCode-style editor, then dry running it and explaining time and space complexity cleanly. I wouldn't over-rotate on super hard problems for this one.

Company culture

The big thing I noticed is the bar felt much higher on LPs than on technical. The technical side and even the overall feel can vary a lot by team and interviewer, so two AWS candidates can have very different experiences. Aside from that, the process itself felt pretty straightforward and it's already well documented online.

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