I received an email invitation to do an online coding screen. I did the screen which was very easy and they immediately invited me onsite; flown out to Seattle where I was put up in a nice hotel. I actually had a moment where I was afraid I made a mistake while sitting in the lobby waiting for my grilling, based on the amazing number of people there for orientation. I really did not like the idea of working for a company that treats their employees like a number, but I obviously forged on. I went in for my interviews and I was in over my head. I didn't really feel the questions were very fair, and I don't think my inability to answer some of them is indicative of my capabilities. I am probably a bit bitter about the whole thing, but I have since found out (from several former employees) that Amazon really overworks and burns out their employees. I unsurprisingly did not get an offer. In hindsight and after speaking with former Amazon employees, I think it was for the best.

That moment when the interviewer asked about finding indices in an array for a target sum was wild — I had just tackled something identical while prepping on PracHub. The interview included a technical round with another question about designing an in-memory LRU cache and a behavioral question about meeting tight deadlines. After a smooth discussion, I was told I'd received an offer, which I happily accepted. Overall, the process felt pretty straightforward and not overly challenging.