I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Sep 2020
Interview
It was the phone interview. The interviewer was changed and he was not in the group that I was considered for. I believe he did not know I was being evaluated for an entry level position (L4) in Amazon. He asked only technical questions. He asked about algorithm, computing time and complexity of a python code. He asked the theory behind L1 and L2 regression, and many tough questions that I assume are both irrelevant to data science and too technically complicated to be understood in college data related courses.
I think they should be more keen to the people who interview to understand what position its being considered for and what should be a typical question to be asked for it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Why we have L1 and L2 regression regularizations but no L0.5 or L4?
- Right a python code for recognizing if entries to a list have same characters or not. Then what is the computation complexity of it?
- Right a complicated SQL code, turned out later that it actually was only solvable with a postgreSQL code while it was not in the job description.
- What is over fitting.
- what to do with unbalanced data.
Looking back, I'm relieved I declined the offer, despite the intense experience. The interview process felt overwhelming, starting with some tough core ML concepts before diving into the LLM fundamentals. During the technical round, I recognized a tokenization question from a PracHub session I had done just a week before. It felt like a small win in an otherwise challenging interview. Ultimately, the pressure and expectations were high, but I felt it wasn't the right fit for me.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
LLM fundamentals: tokenization design and KL-regularized SFT
First round is fun, second round, which is also the final round involved 5 sessions, with different focus. For some sessions, not be able to present my story completely, time was tight, and interviewers were rushing.
There are three rounds in total. The process begins with a coding round, followed by the main interview loop, where you will meet the team and discuss technical skills, experience, and fit.