How to mention knowledge of the architecture of Dynamo(DB) on the resume?

New / Eng
JTxM05

New Eng

BIO
leetcode forever.
JTxM05
Jan 11 19 Comments

I have been studying the white paper of Dynamo and getting into the internals of DynamoDB (design Patterns, etc). Although I never used DynamoDB in production, I have been investing significant time to learn the architecture of Dynamo(DB).
Currently, I work as an SWE and have plans to apply for an SWE position at Amazon or related subsidiaries (AWS). I'm wondering how I should mention my knowledge of Dynamo(DB) architecture in the resume as I never worked on any production-level projects that use it. Any thoughts?
I'm hoping that mentioning knowledge of DynamoDB internals is going to give a good impression on the resume during an Amazon interview. However, I'm not sure how to mention it and AFAIK cover letter for an Amazon interview is not a common thing.
Probably DynamoDB internals could be helpful for system design interviews (distributed systems).

#faang #aws #amazon #interview #resume #systemdesign #tech

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TOP 19 Comments
  • Roku
    RokWho

    Go to company page Roku

    RokWho
    โ€œSkills

    Expert: DynamoDB
    Intermediate: Java
    Novice: Blindโ€
    Jan 11 1
    • New / Eng
      JTxM05

      New Eng

      BIO
      leetcode forever.
      JTxM05
      OP
      Thanks :-)
      Jan 11
  • Hulu
    Mabf70

    Go to company page Hulu

    Mabf70
    I No SQL
    Jan 11 1
    • New / Eng
      JTxM05

      New Eng

      BIO
      leetcode forever.
      JTxM05
      OP
      Good one :)
      Jan 11
  • MongoDB
    mangomongo

    Go to company page MongoDB

    mangomongo
    Don't list it because people will make fun of you ๐Ÿ˜
    Jan 11 1
    • New / Eng
      JTxM05

      New Eng

      BIO
      leetcode forever.
      JTxM05
      OP
      famous words from a MongoDB-ian
      Jan 11
  • Airbnb
    ABNBNB

    Go to company page Airbnb

    ABNBNB
    "I have knowledge of DynamoDB" in bold underlined writing?
    Jan 11 1
    • New / Eng
      JTxM05

      New Eng

      BIO
      leetcode forever.
      JTxM05
      OP
      Under the skillset section on resume? The reason I posted is because I never used it for any project.
      Jan 11
  • Amazon
    amznseatt

    Go to company page Amazon

    amznseatt
    A thing to learn when going through job search, is to be able to differentiate between what is a data point for resume vs what is a data point for actual interviews.

    For resume, a great data point could be "Created Xyz which is an implementation of Dynamo White paper", followed by the github link. As obvious, thats one heck of a resume point, but implementing Dynamo alone will take years.

    And hence, a better way would be to use that as a data point during interviews. In your system design round, if there is a discussion around distributed systems and/or database , you could bring up "This is how Dynamo does it as per their white paper, and I'll take the same approach here because of x y z reasons".
    Keep in mind that once you say you've read Dynamo paper, the interviewer could escalate the difficulty level to test the depth(if the interviewer is any good). So bring it up(the fact that your understand internals), if and only if, you are absolutely sure you can handle curve balls.

    Also, DynamoDB is different than Dynamo and although they share some underlying aspects(and the name), the two are pretty different.
    Jan 18 6
    • Amazon
      yezz

      Go to company page Amazon

      yezz
      I don't think there's much value in writing it. Rather bring it up organically in system design interview if the need arises
      Jan 19
    • New / Eng
      JTxM05

      New Eng

      BIO
      leetcode forever.
      JTxM05
      OP
      I see. The reasoning behind was that it shows how much motivated I'm to apply at an Amazon job position. Also, bringing it up during system design interview might be challenging as it depends on the question asked. What do you think?
      Jan 19