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Amazon SDE 1 new grad interview: one OA, four back-to-back onsite rounds, offer

Amazon logoAmazonSDE I (New Grad)·Seattle, WA, US·Interviewed January 2021Offer

Updated July 16, 2026

This candidate came in with zero years of work experience and about two years of steady problem practice, averaging four problems a day. The process moved fast once it started: recruiter contact in early January 2021, online assessment on January 5, virtual onsite on January 26, and a verbal yes about a week later. The start date slipped to late March only because of work-authorization paperwork, not anything in the interview itself.

The shape of the loop is the useful part. Amazon's new-grad onsite here was four one-hour rounds in a single six-hour block with two breaks, and every round except the first followed the same template: short intro, one behavioral question stretched by follow-ups, one coding question, and a few minutes to ask the interviewer questions.

How the process went

  1. Application

    Found the opening on LinkedIn through a mutual connection in January 2021; a recruiter reached out after the application went in.

  2. Online assessment

    Completed January 5, about three weeks before the onsite.

  3. Virtual onsite

    January 26: four rounds of one hour each with two breaks, roughly six hours end to end.

  4. Decision

    Positive news from the recruiter about seven days after the onsite; offer formalized in March once work authorization was in hand.

Round 1 — Hiring manager

Behavioral · 60 min

  • Three behavioral questions, each followed by three to four follow-up probes into the details of the story.

No coding in this round. The pressure came entirely from the follow-ups: the interviewer kept asking for specifics inside each story, so a rehearsed two-minute answer wasn't enough on its own.

Rounds 2–4 — SDE interviewers

Behavioral + coding · 60 min each

  • About five minutes of introductions.
  • One behavioral question with roughly three follow-ups, taking about 25 minutes.
  • One coding question, 20–25 minutes, with a push to optimize if time allowed.
  • Five minutes reserved for the candidate's own questions to the interviewer.

Interviewers asked for optimized solutions where there was room, including time and space complexity. The candidate credits talking through approaches out loud, continuously, as the thing that kept the coding portions on track.

Key takeaways

  • Every behavioral answer got three to four follow-ups. Budget for that: one story has to survive several layers of "tell me more about that part."
  • Practice mock interviews out loud with friends before the onsite; the candidate called this out as the single best preparation for the real thing.
  • Keep sharing your thinking with the interviewer while you work. Start writing code as soon as the interviewer agrees with your approach, not before.
  • Consistency beat intensity in the prep: roughly four problems a day over a long stretch, understanding each solution deeply rather than racking up counts.

Practice a Amazon interview

Rehearse out loud against the kinds of questions in this story — with an AI interviewer that asks follow-ups.

Practice this interview

Source

The questions and process facts come from the candidate's public write-up, linked below. The retelling above is our own summary.

Candidate's public write-up on LeetCode Discuss