I applied online. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Amazon in Jan 2015
Interview
Applied online and was contacted by recruiter to set up a phone interview for a position that was different than what I applied for. Interviewer did not seem to know anything about me (hadn't looked at my resume as far as I could tell), or seem to know what position I was interviewing for, and at first seemed to be accusing me of applying for the wrong job. He didn't seem interested finding out either, and instead just started asking some vague questions in a mildly aggressive way. They jumped back and forth between topics, so I was never sure what exactly I was supposed to be talking abut. He kept interrupting my answers after a sentence or two (possibly just because I wasn't answering the question he wanted answered, but that was because his questions were so vague). This was a technical interview with a coding component, which he presented as optional - I had been told this would be a part of it but putting it as optional made it pretty clear he'd already decided to pass on me. I said I'd do it (for the experience) and while what was expected of me was now clearer, he continued to interrupt me when I spoke and eventually I asked him in he wanted to me continue and he said no.
Overall it seemed very unprofessional - this guy shouldn't be interviewing people or he should get some training or preparation before doing so. I felt like I had to be on the defensive from the minute he started talking to me. It doesn't seem like a good sign for the company if this is how a typical interview is conducted, and based on this it is not a place I would want to work (or at a minimum, not a person I'd want to work with). I don't expect to hear back from them and that's probably better for all involved.
The technical round kicked off with a challenging system design question about creating a real-time product recommendation engine for Amazon. It required deep thinking and a solid grasp of machine learning principles. After that, I tackled a complex DSA problem on finding words in a grid using a trie and backtracking. Funny enough, that exact question was on prachub.com just days before, so I felt remarkably prepared. The overall process was intense but rewarding, and I was thrilled to receive and accept the offer afterward.
The interview process was smooth, and the interviewer was professional and friendly. It was online and took about 35 minutes. The recruiter will give you some guidelines on how to prepare.
Only had first round, a recruiter reached out to me as I had applied for another role. the total time to interview was 2 weeks. One recruiter interview and then with the hiring manager
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Low level system design about designing a ranking system based on the number of sales of a product as well as taking into consideration the time complexity. had to do some in O(logn)