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Amazon Web Services

FAANG / Big Tech

Screna has 9 Amazon Web Services interview write-ups. The most reported round is the multi-round onsite (5).

9 interview notes · updated Oct 2026

Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Onsite - Multi Round

Jul 2026
Went through the full AWS SDE II loop, two days of back-to-back interviews covering system design, two DSA rounds, and a bar raiser behavioral plus low-level design session. The OA was interesting because one part involved debugging an unfamiliar codebase with AI assistance rather than writing from scratch. Got rejected in the end, mainly for not communicating my thinking clearly enough.
  • Design a book marketplace that connects customers with multiple sellers, where a customer submits a purchase request with a maximum price and the system finds the best available deal.
  • Find the median from a data stream (using heaps).
  • Given an array, find the length of the shortest subarray that, if sorted, would make the whole array sorted.
  • Design the validation layer for an e-commerce order workflow, covering payment methods, delivery details, order info, and how to surface validation errors before passing the order downstream.
  • OA: Given an existing codebase with failing unit tests, use AI assistance to identify why the tests are failing, locate the problematic code, and implement the fix.

“This was the one I bombed.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Onsite - Multi Round

Jul 2026
Went through a four-round final loop for an SDE-1 role at AWS and got an automated rejection email 48 hours later, which was jarring because the interviewers said a recruiter would follow up after the debrief. The loop covered coding, behavioral, and a bar raiser round, and my performance was pretty uneven across the four sessions.
  • Given a string, solve a parsing or transformation problem optimally (medium difficulty).
  • Solve a graph traversal problem similar to Word Ladder (find shortest transformation sequence between two words).
  • Parse a structured string and extract specific pieces of information from it.
  • How are you using AI tools in your development workflow, and what's your take on them?
  • Behavioral leadership principle questions, grilled heavily during the bar raiser round.

“Got it working but not in the best way.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Onsite - Behavioral / Leadership

Jun 2026
Went through a behavioral loop at AWS for a senior management role and came away genuinely frustrated. The interviewers felt like peers or direct reports, not people equipped to assess someone operating at that level, and the whole thing devolved into a parade of generic leadership questions that had no bearing on the complexity of the work I actually do.
  • Tell me about a time you made a significant decision without waiting for approval from your manager.

“This one was almost insulting given the context.”

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Amazon Web Services·Technical Program Manager·Onsite - Behavioral / Leadership

Jun 2026
Behavioral round at AWS for a TPM role, basically one question that took up most of the time. Pretty standard leadership principles territory but it pushed me to think harder than I expected about where customer and business goals actually conflict.
  • Describe a situation where you had to balance what the customer needed against what made sense for the business.

“I went in thinking this was a softbal but it's actually kind of tricky because the obvious answer is 'I found a way to do both' and that reads as a dodge.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Online Assessment (OA)

Jun 2026
Took the AWS SDE2 online assessment and it was a rough time. Two problems: a hard-level BFS with optimization and binary search crammed into 40 minutes, plus an AI-assisted coding challenge. 200+ leetcode problems and a CS masters and I still felt completely unprepared.
  • Solve a graph traversal problem using BFS, then optimize the solution further using binary search, within a strict time limit.
  • Complete a coding challenge with the help of an AI assistant that can guide but not directly provide solutions.

“Ran out of time before I could even run a single test case.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Hiring Manager Screen

May 2026
AWS finance strategy interview, one question deep into end-to-end financial planning. Pretty open-ended, which I wasn't fully ready for.
  • Walk me through how you would manage a financial planning process from start to finish.

“I rambled a bit on this one.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Onsite - Multi Round

Apr 2026
Two back-to-back hour-long onsite coding rounds at AWS for an SDE role. First went smoothly, second got dicey with a greedy algorithm problem that had a non-obvious assumption baked in. Outcome still pending.
  • Solve a greedy algorithm problem where the optimal strategy involves deleting characters based on their ASCII value ordering.

“There was no way I was figuring out that lower ASCII value equals optimal deletion without a hint.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Onsite - Multi Round

Apr 2026
Did the Amazon AWS SDE 1 loop in Boston, four rounds back to back, mix of coding, project deep dives, and behavioral. Interviewers were professional but the whole thing was pretty intense. Felt fair though, not trying to trick you, just really want to see how you think.
  • Walk me through your thought process as you approach this coding problem.
  • Can you improve or adjust your solution based on this follow-up constraint?
  • What were the key architectural decisions you made in this project, and why did you choose those technologies?
  • How did you handle hallucinations in your GenAI work, and what approaches did you use to reduce them?
  • What trade-offs, challenges, and results came out of the project you described, and what would you change now?
  • Tell me about a time you took ownership of something that wasn't technically your responsibility.
  • Describe a situation where you made a significant mistake and how you handled it.
  • How have you handled a conflict with a teammate or stakeholder, and what was the outcome?
  • Tell me about a time you had to learn something new very quickly to meet a deadline.

“They stopped me pretty early and asked me to just talk through what I was thinking before writing anything.”

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Amazon Web Services·Software Engineer·Onsite - Multi Round

Apr 2026
Two rounds for an AWS Cloud Support Engineer Intern role, and honestly the second round was way more intense than I expected. The first interviewer was pretty chill, mostly behavioral with a couple of cloud basics, but the principal engineer in round two really grilled me on Linux, networking, and AWS services back to back. Got the offer about two weeks after applying, which was a fast turnaround.
  • What is virtualization?
  • Can you walk me through 5 to 10 AWS services you have worked with or know well?
  • Tell me about a project you worked on that used AWS services.
  • What is DHCP and how does it work?
  • What happens when you type www.amazon.com into a browser and hit enter?
  • What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
  • Walk me through the networking commands you know and what each one does.
  • You've run through all your Linux troubleshooting commands and the system still isn't working. What do you do next?
  • What is a firewall and what are the different types?

“Pretty foundational question, came in the first round.”

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