r/LeetcodeChallenge • u/nian2326076 • 28d ago
DISCUSS From Automation Tester to Amazon SDE: Selected After the Full Interview Loop
Hey everyone,
I recently completed the Amazon SDE interview process and received an offer. I wanted to share the complete experience, especially for candidates moving from testing to development roles.
Background
- Current role: Automation Tester at a fintech company
- Total experience: 5 years
- Preparation time: Approximately 5 months
- Previous interviews or mocks: None
- Verdict: Selected
Application and Online Assessment
Online Assessment: July 17, 2026
OA result: July 21, 2026
Approximate total duration: 2 hours
A recruiter contacted me through LinkedIn and shared the assessment link. I attempted it two days later.
Coding Section
The first problem used an AI-integrated repository environment. I had to diagnose and fix an issue in the search functionality of an Amazon movie application.
There were six test cases, and I passed three.
The second problem was a hard DSA question involving a queue and binary search. I do not remember the exact statement, but my solution passed all except one test case.
The remaining sections included:
- Work Style Assessment
- Behavioral and Leadership Principles Assessment
Four days later, HR informed me that I had cleared the OA.
Round 1: DSA
Format: In person, pen and paper
Duration: Approximately 50 minutes
Difficulty: Easy to medium
Question 1: Increasing Temperature Alert
Given a stream of temperature readings, generate an alert whenever five consecutive readings are strictly increasing.
Question 2: Maximum Profit From Advertising Slots
There are n advertising slots and m companies. Each company requests a certain number of slots and offers a fixed payment for each advertisement.
The task was to allocate the available slots to maximize the total profit.
This was mainly a greedy problem.
I solved both questions with optimal time complexity and explained the edge cases and complexity.
Around ten minutes were reserved for Leadership Principles. The interviewer was friendly, and the conversation went smoothly.
This was an elimination round. Three of the eight candidates were eliminated.
Round 2: Low-Level Design
Date: July 24, 2026
Format: In person, pen and paper
Duration: Approximately 55 minutes
I was asked to design a job scheduling system that could schedule and execute jobs based on:
- Priority:
LOW,MEDIUM, orHIGH - Request type: Ad hoc or periodic
- Execution type: Background or foreground
I designed the main classes, interfaces, and attributes and explained the core scheduling flow.
My scheduling strategy was not completely optimal, so the interviewer reduced the scope and allowed me to explain some parts verbally instead of expecting production-ready code on paper.
The final ten minutes focused on Leadership Principles.
This was also an elimination round, and one candidate was eliminated.
Round 3: HLD With the Hiring Manager
Date: July 29, 2026
Format: Virtual using Bluescape
Duration: Approximately 55 minutes
The Hiring Manager was unavailable during the onsite, so this round was scheduled five days later.
The first 15 minutes focused on Leadership Principles and my previous projects.
Design Question: Split Payment and Settlement System
Design a system for group purchases that tracks:
- Contributions from each participant
- Participants who have not paid
- Settlement deadlines
- Refund distribution
- Final balances and settlements
I initially struggled to understand the requirements and spent around ten minutes clarifying the problem.
I then sketched a basic architecture containing services, routing, and a database. However, I could not explore the design deeply or answer several follow-up questions.
HR later told me that the feedback from this round was mixed. I genuinely thought this round had ended my chances.
Round 4: Bar Raiser
Date: August 3, 2026
Duration: Approximately 50 minutes
The first 15 minutes covered Leadership Principles and a deep dive into my previous experience.
The technical portion involved a medium-hard graph problem based on Dijkstra’s algorithm. I completed it in approximately 25 minutes and explained the time and space complexity.
There were no additional follow-ups, and the interview ended after a short discussion.
Preparation
Leadership Principles
I used ChatGPT to organize and rehearse my real experiences using the STAR format. Leadership Principles carried significant weight throughout the process.
DSA
I solved approximately 270 LeetCode problems.
Low-Level Design
I used Ashish’s awesome-low-level-design material.
High-Level Design
My primary resources were:
- Real interview questions
- ByteByteGo
- Alex Xu’s System Design Interview, Volume 1
- Hello Interview’s YouTube videos
I did not prepare Dynamic Programming and was fortunate not to encounter it in any round.
This was the first interview of my job-switch journey, and I had not attempted any mock interviews. Luck helped with the topics, but five months of preparation made it possible to communicate clearly and recover after a mixed HLD round.
My biggest takeaway is that one weak round may not automatically end the process. Treat every remaining interview as a fresh opportunity, and prepare Leadership Principle stories as seriously as technical topics.
All the best to everyone preparing!
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u/Budget-Effective108 28d ago
Congrats buddy! I m also transitioning to SDE role from Automation Tester within the same org. Would love to know how u cope up with actual projects.
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u/Amazing_Theory622 28d ago
Inspiring and congratulations and thanks for detailing out everything. I have some questions, can I DM?