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Amazon-SDE II OA experience
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Position: SDE II
Location: Seattle
I recently had the opportunity to take the SDE II Online Assessment (OA) for Amazon, and I'm excited to share that I cleared the round!
The OA was challenging yet engaging, consisting of three main parts: data structure questions, a series of system design simulation questions and a series of work style assessments. Here’s a breakdown of my experience:
Data Structure Questions:
- Question 1: This was similar to a leetcode problem, minimum-operations-to-reduce-x-to-zero (Hard).
- Question 2: This involved concepts of sliding windows and backtracking. It was a bit tricky and required careful thought and precision but i was not able to solve all the test cases.
System Design Questions:
Finally, there were system design questions. These were presented in a multiple-choice and rating format, designed to test my ability to think through complex architectural decisions and evaluate different solutions. The questions were structured with a small situational simulation first, followed by a series of system design decisions to be made based on the scenario provided.
It took me 40-45 mins to complete the whole simulation.
Work style assessment questions:
This section took about 20-25 minutes to complete and included a comprehensive work style simulation. The question format was similar to what is explained in this article. This test is a personality assessment designed to determine if a candidate is a good fit for Amazon's culture.
The assessment was straightforward and easy to navigate. As a tip for preparation, I recommend reading through Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles and making decisions that reflect those traits.
Good luck to everyone who is in the same process, and I hope this article is helpful.
Update
Here is link to my virtual interview experience as well.