The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Sep 2011
Interview
The big thing wasn't exact coding skills; it was ALL problem solving and worthing with a client. IE, you are the engineer, the interviewer is the client, how do you design and lay out what they need their software to do etc. The big thing was how do you build a system; I focused on making cheap, easily maintainable systems, and that was impressive to them.
I also point out some flaws with the assumptions of the questions (this isn't how all users act, etc) and that helped out a lot as well.
Even when I didn't fully understand the problem, I kept asking and figuring, trying to learn what it is that they wanted, and how I could build it. You should always talk out your thought processes, to show them they are happening, and to get them to talk as well! TALK TO GET THEM TO TALK!!
Interview by recuriter, Phone interview over Chime with one easy Leet code problem and 2 behavioral questions. Although the interviewer was very casual at the start of the conversation, it quickly changed into behavioral questions at the start.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Encoding optimization algorithm and talk about a project you did recently.
First round is just leet code coding which screens through AI before going into live coding. Pretty simple and straighforward. Not too tough. Recruiter walks through it pretty nicely. Not sure how many rounds there are exactly
After submitting my application for the Software Engineer position, I received an invitation to complete an automated Online Assessment (OA). The assessment consisted of standard coding challenges, primarily focusing on algorithmic and data structure problems. Unfortunately, a few days after submitting my solutions for the assessment, I received an email informing me that I would not be moving forward in the interview process and was rejected.