AWS Sr. Solutions Architect On-Site Interview
How technical is the on-site interview? I'm meeting with 6 people, each one on one rounds. Is there any white boarding / system design rounds? How much weight is given to the 2 page writing sample? How much weight is given to the presentation? Thanks!
I just had an on-site for an SA (not Sr.) last week and accepted the offer. Was not that technical. 4 of the 5 interviews were LP-focused. I had a writing assignment: debug a CloudFormation stack, write a proposal about the technical issues, and propose changes to improve it. 1 interview was entirely on my assignment. Started with technical questions about the underlying issues (mine mostly involved load balancers and route tables/subnet questions). A little bit of system design, and no whiteboarding, but I was doing all of my interviews via video. Moved onto "Why did you do this?" and "What would you do if this?" type questions. Definitely put some effort into the writing assignment. My interviewer specifically commented on the conciseness of my proposal, as well as my writing style. Amazon famously avoids PowerPoint slides, and they want to see that you can communicate technical concepts well. I tried to address some of the technical points with LPs in mind (e.g. here's a proposed change that fixes your issue but won't cost an arm and a leg...customer trust). I didn't have a presentation, but I'd take the approach (clear, concise, don't ramble). Good luck.
If you don't mind, could you share your offer details? I'm considering going for an SA position in the future and would be interested to know the TC.
Base: £97K Bonus: £61K RSUs: 65 ($130K) Been told that's a L6, and that SAs generally track 1 level lower than SWEs. It's also work from home. I have 0 experience with AWS...I'm coming into a specialist role...so not sure how that affects the offer.
How did it go?
Don't forget LPs. https://www.rooftopslushie.com/request/Amazon-Senior-Technical-Program-Manager-Onsite-Interview-215