Tags: Amazon, Dublin, Ireland, AWS, interview, onsite, on-site

Please note this is a back-post I promised myself to do. I don't want to brag about my on-site interview at Amazon. But I've read quite slander of Amazon for its interview process. I haven't re-checked for blogs on this matter since, so it's possible there are success stories on intranets now. I don't feel like checking now. Also, if you're looking for specific questions asked during the interview, you won't find it here. Get ready for unexpected and as much as possible

The reason for this post is after reading all that slander and how dreadful Amazon's interview process is, especially on-site part, I've given up on preparations and was like: “If somebody acts like a prick, I'm out of the door immediately”. This turned out to be a mistake proven right in the beginning. You see, I have a problem with writing up on whiteboard during interviews no matter where and what it's(perhaps I'm too shy person?). It's not hard to guess what the very first thing was: “So, write me a program which does this and that. Oh, and use whiteboard to do it”. Right.

Anyway, I want to say big thanks to people from Amazon I've met with during my interview. Not only for a great interview and time, but new ideas and broadening my horizons here and there.

Without further delays, here we go.

1. phone call with hiring manager ~ 60 minutes
2. phone call with different person ~ 60 minutes
3. on-site interview which is 6 hours straight of interviews with different people
4. should some deficiencies be found during on-site interview, you might be given coding exercise

Now, let me note as far as I remember both phone calls I had, both were on time(say +couple minutes off max). I've read about phone interviews being off by more than couple minutes and what not. Not in my case.

On-site interview is pretty straightforward and simple. If you come in early you might be given tour through the offices(I guess I didn't come early enough ). Then HR will lead you into conference room and off you go. You have 60 minutes with each person and topics and even style of interview will differ from person to person. You might even be asked to write something on whiteboard. No, that's wrong. You're going to be asked to write something on whiteboard. Oh, and somewhere in the middle is interview/lunch with your hiring manager.

Now, that wasn't anything new and I'm sure you can read it elsewhere in greater details. But there are couple things I want to talk about. First of all, all these people were caring. How am I? Do I want to take a break? Do I need anything? Yes, given some blog posts this is rather unusual!

As for writing code on whiteboard, don't horse around. Don't forget to add all checks and stuff like use strict; use warnings; if writing Perl code, for example. Yes, it does matter.

As for interview/lunch and 6 hours of interview. Yes, lunch is a bit more awkward than your regular lunch with colleagues discussing work-related stuff. Yes, you'll have to eat while you're not talking and be ready to respond. But hey, come on, are you there for interview or lunch? And you knew it was coming! Stop complaining. And 6 hours flew by, at least for me. Yes, I was quite happy to be outside once done. But I had far worse streak in TurnovFree.net days. Are you still complaining?

I recommend you to take Coca Cola with you or something. Something with sugar will keep you on your toes and will help you to fight hunger, should you become hungry. Glass of water is, was, there should you needed it. I haven't exploited hospitality any further, thus I don't know.

Due to my incapability to show much at whiteboard and lack of thinking, I've been given coding exercise. If I remember correctly, I had 24 hours to complete it. And that's all information I'm going to give you. Oh, just don't worry and use your head.

Is any interview easy? And frankly, if it was, I'd be disappointed.

Yes, although not exactly position I interviewed for. Actually, two positions.

No. It wasn't meant to be at that time.

You might think I'm being positive about the whole thing only because I made it through the interview. And that I would probably slander Amazon if I didn't. Well, you couldn't be more wrong. First of all, I made this promise right after my interview ended, in front of the Amazon HQ in Dublin. I didn't know results back then and I actually thought I've failed. Also, I have failed at Google interview, but I didn't go off slandering Google for it. It was because I'm dumb(not that I got much better).

And remember, it's about people you meet. Maybe I was just lucky. Anyway, good luck to you!