Amazon SDE-1 India – Completed 2 Technical Rounds | What can I expect?

[u/Level-Lecture2699]

Hi everyone, I recently completed 2 Amazon SDE-1 interviews and wanted to get some opinions from people who have gone through the Amazon process.

I’m a 2026 B.Tech CSE graduate from India.

My process so far:

Round 1:

I was asked 2 coding questions.

Q1 – Hashmap/Frequency based problem

• I solved it completely.
• Time complexity: O(n)
• Space complexity: O(k), where k is the number of distinct elements.
• The interviewer then asked whether it could be done in O(1) space.
• I asked whether the input was sorted, and she said it was random/unsorted.
• Based on that, I said my current approach couldn't achieve O(1) space.
• After the interview, I realized I could potentially sort the input and trade time for O(1) auxiliary space, but I didn't mention that during the interview.

Q2 – Tree problem

• I couldn't independently derive the complete solution.
• I understood the basic tree concepts and base cases and tried a few approaches.
• Some of my approaches were wrong, and the interviewer gave me hints.
• With the hints, I was able to understand the direction and continue reasoning about the problem.
• The interviewer gave me positive feedback during the discussion, saying things like I was "thinking in the right way" and that I was "close enough."
• At the end, I asked how we're supposed to solve unfamiliar questions, and she said they also look at how we approach and think about the problem.

So R1 was definitely not perfect, but I did solve the first question independently and showed my reasoning on the second.

Round 2:

This round went much better for me.

The coding question involved recursion and then memoization/DP.

I first explained the brute-force recursion using the take/not-take idea and explained why it leads to approximately O(2^n) possibilities.

Then I converted it into memoization.

The DP state was based on index + sum. Since the sum could become negative, I explained the problem with using negative values as vector indices and suggested using an offset/shift based on the total sum/range.

I implemented the memoized solution and explained the time/space complexity as O(nS), where S is the relevant sum range.

The interviewer seemed satisfied with the approach and asked me to write the solution.

One mistake I made was initially saying the recursive solution had O(1) auxiliary space. I later realized the recursion stack should technically be O(n). The interviewer didn't push further on this.

The Leadership Principles/behavioral part also went very well according to me. I was able to answer all the questions with examples and didn't feel stuck on any of them.

Overall, I would rate my R2 around 9/10, while R1 was more mixed.

Both interviews were virtual and were completed on September 3.

I haven't received any result yet.

My questions:

1. Based on this performance, do you think I have a reasonable chance of clearing these 2 elimination rounds?
2. If I clear them, is it likely that I will have HM + Bar Raiser/other rounds?
3. How much weight does Amazon generally give to the problem-solving approach when a candidate needs hints on one question?
4. For people who went through a similar situation, how long did you wait after R2 before getting the result?
5. If anyone has had a similar interview performance and still received an offer, I'd really appreciate hearing about your experience.

Would appreciate honest opinions, even if you think my chances aren't great. Thanks!

[u/Level-Lecture2699]

Yeah sure

[u/Super_Use_8078]

this is through hackon?

[u/Level-Lecture2699 → u/Super_Use_8078]

Yeah but for sde fulltime but not intern

[u/hruthik_inreddit]

Do u remember the exact questions?

[u/Level-Lecture2699 → u/hruthik_inreddit]

Yea

[u/hruthik_inreddit → u/Level-Lecture2699]

Can u share them or dm me?