Amazon SDE Interview Experience 2025

If you’re aiming for a Software Development Engineer (SDE-1) role at Amazon, this detailed interview experience from the March 2025 hiring drive can help you prepare better. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the process, questions asked, and the overall journey.

Application & Interview Invitation

After clearing the Online Assessment (OA), I received an email on 24th February informing me that my interviews were scheduled for 27th and 28th February.

This round had two interviewers and was conducted on a live coding platform.

Leadership Principles

  • First, I was asked about a time I received constructive feedback and how I acted upon it.

Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)

  • Problem 1: Hard sliding window problem (Advanced level)
  • Problem 2: Tree-based problem similar to “Burn Binary Tree”

I faced a bit of difficulty in the first problem, but explained my logic thoroughly. The interviewers extended the session by 15 minutes to complete the second problem. I proposed a BFS-based solution, which was well received after some follow-up questions.

Just 2 hours later, I received an email for the second round scheduled the next day.

This round started with a project discussion:

  • Focused on why I chose NoSQL over SQL for my project.
  • Follow-up questions tested my understanding of trade-offs.

DSA Problems

  • Problem 1: String-based anagram search (Easy–Medium)
  • Problem 2: 3D DP problem with matrix constraints (Medium–Hard)

For Problem 1, I optimized a brute force solution using sliding window technique.
For Problem 2, I walked through recursive logic and optimized it using dynamic programming (DP), which impressed the interviewer.

Later that day, I received a third round invite for 5th March, but it was rescheduled to 6th March.

I expected a Hiring Manager but the interview was conducted by a Senior SDE (7+ years experience).

Leadership Discussion

  • Tackled questions on challenging situations, critical feedback, and professional decisions.

DSA Problem

  • An array problem that started simple but became complex with optimization constraints.
  • While I proposed linear solutions, the interviewer expected a logarithmic approach that I couldn’t crack during the interview.

Post-Interview Status

Unfortunately, it’s been 4+ weeks with no update. I reached out to the recruiter, but haven’t received a response.

Amazon’s SDE-1 interview process is rigorous and focuses equally on:

  • Leadership Principles
  • Optimized DSA solutions
  • Real-world system thinking