I had passed the online coding test and got called for phone interview. I felt the phone interview was unfair. We spent 35-40 minutes talking about my background and experience. Then for the remaining 20 minutes I was given a coding problem which I couldn't fully finish laying out a framework. I thought it was unfair that I'm being judged negatively on something that realistically would take more than 20 minutes to solve. Even though I did talk through how i would implement my algorithm. I guess I got no points for that. Is this how all Amazon phone screens go?
Not really. Generally interviewers would know if something should take 20 mins. I always try my own problems with my teammates. If they cant solve it in a certain time, I do not ask those questions. But it may happen, you did not get all the inputs to solve the problem and the problem was deliberately vague. I have also seen candidates taking way too long before writing code sometimes. Yes, you have to finish the code, else the interviewer does not have enough data points to assess your coding abilities. You can always try again after a few months and practice these questions on whiteboard or notepad.
Now this is a mark of maturity. Interviewers need to ve trained but unfortunately not a lot of companies invest in interviewer training. I remember one particular interview where i was asked to implement a really complex state machine for string parsing in about 25 minutes. It threw me off completely all the while the interviewer was sitting and chuckling in the background.
Amazon generally invests a lot in the interview process. There are numerous trainings one has to go through before they can do a phone screen.
Interviews can be a draw of luck sometimes. So it's possible u got a shitty interviewer. Though don't let that stop u from analyzing anything u could have done to make it better. Just in case u get a bad interviewer nexr time ull have a little better chance. :)
And sometimes they ask just the “wrong” question that you’re least familiar with. Happens. Onward and upward
I am doing a lot PS. Normally I give 30 minutes to tech problem. But honestly, you don't know why you was rejected. Probably because of LPs. Also nowadays calling a candidate to PI might mean you did not very well on online assesment. Did you solve both problems there? And it is partially a matter of luck. Dont take it personally
A friend got into Amazon music with no online assessment and only a few easy recursion problems during in person. It's 80% luck
When was it? Amazon changed recruiting process tjis year to have rather less PS but more online assesment
I think in August
Dont take it personally interviewers are and can usually be massive d!cks because they tend to treat the interview as a pissing contest rather than an assessment of coding style and though process. Onward and upward