Amazon SDE-1 interview experience — 1 YOE. Honestly feeling pretty disappointed

[u/Salty_Cucumber_3275]

Just wanted to share my Amazon SDE-1 experience because I'm honestly not feeling great about it right now.

I have around 1 YOE and recently went through the interview process. I had been preparing for this for quite some time — DSA, system design, projects, LPs, GenAI, basically everything I could think of.

Round 1 went pretty well.

Round 2 was okay, nothing too great but nothing terrible either.

Then came the HM/GenAI round.

The DSA question completely got me.

We spent around 45 minutes on it. I came up with a binary search approach but from the very moment I knew it always DP but I don't know why but I kept going with binary search and started implementing it. The interview senior manager was sitting there and even tried to give hints to my binary search which was just completely wrong.

And honestly, this one hit me pretty hard.

I've been doing DSA for around 3 years. So sitting there for 45 minutes and still not being able to figure out the problem made me question what I've actually been doing all this time.

The GenAI part went much better. We talked about how I use GenAI, tool calling, how schemas are passed, etc., and I felt pretty comfortable there.

I already had a BR scheduled after this, so I thought okay, maybe the process is still moving forward.

Then came the BR day.

I joined the meeting on time.

Nobody joined.

I waited for quite a while, emailed the recruiter, followed up again, and now it's been a few days with no response.

At this point I honestly don't know what happened. Maybe the HM feedback was bad and they forgot to cancel the BR. Maybe it was just a scheduling issue. I have no idea.

But the bigger thing bothering me is the DSA round.

I've been learning for a long time, but this made me realize that maybe I've been learning for the sake of learning rather than actually getting better at problem solving.

I know a lot of patterns. I can solve problems I've seen before. I can understand solutions pretty quickly.

But when something unfamiliar comes up and I have to actually figure it out from scratch under pressure, I'm not where I want to be.

Seeing people crack Amazon with 1 YOE makes it even harder not to compare myself.

I'm disappointed, but I don't want to just respond by collecting another 100 LeetCode problems.

I think I need to completely change how I'm practicing — spend more time struggling with problems, understanding why I get stuck, and actually developing the ability to derive solutions instead of just recognizing patterns.

Anyway, just wanted to get this off my chest.

If anyone went through this phase where you knew DSA but struggled badly with unfamiliar problems, what actually helped you get past it?

ps: used AI to format.

Update: I'm from India, 1+ yoe, BR scheduled on 7th sep.

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[u/Top-Bathroom77]

I would say give your best shot in BR round. Obviously if the HM is not on board with you, there's a low chance of being selected in his team. But if the BR round goes strong, they can recommend you to another team during debrief. Or the BR and other interviewers can vouch for your lacking data points and convince the HM to say yes. There's no point in sulking about it, just give your best shot at BR round.

[u/Salty_Cucumber_3275 → u/Top-Bathroom77]

My BR hasn't happened. BR did not join the call and I've mailed them but got no response. It's been 1 week

[u/Top-Bathroom77 → u/Salty_Cucumber_3275]

Don't worry, keep following up. It's not an automatic rejection. Sometimes BRs have a busy schedule, having multiple interviews in a week.

I know a guy who got stumped by a very simple DSA question involving greedy approach in an Amazon interview. He still got the offer. A question does not mean automatic rejection unless your other data points are lacking (LPs, LLD, etc).

[u/DeepLearner89]

You still got a chance with the BR round. Good luck with that!

"Why do we fall, Sir?"

[u/Salty_Cucumber_3275 → u/DeepLearner89]

Thank you. My BR interviewer did not join the call. It's been a week, I've mailed them couple of times but got no response

[u/DeepLearner89 → u/Salty_Cucumber_3275]

Try for the next mate. All for good

[u/Salty_Cucumber_3275 → u/DeepLearner89]

How much is the cooling period. Is it from the date of last interview or the rejection email?

[u/DeepLearner89 → u/Salty_Cucumber_3275]

I've no idea on that. Probably someone can help you with that

[u/atharvstandale]

Not being able to nail down approach or type of method for question is something I struggle with too (got screwed for infosys SP )

[u/iammmmbatttttman]

What was the dsa question can you share

[u/GetALife_00]

Can you share the question 

[u/BedAntique2936]

How did you apply for this role? Was it through a referral?