First Phone Interview - Amazon

My First Phone Interview With Amazon

I never expected to get a call from Amazon ,through Dice. Though I was so happy to hear that I was shortlisted for interview. I scheduled the interview on Wednesday , so that I get enough time to prepare.And I went to Sea World - San Antonio on weekend.

First step, to prepare, I googled 'Amazon Interview Questions'.... and whoaaaaah, many many results. I went through lot of websites, blogs(one of them inspired me to write this blog ;) ) . It always helps to have an idea about the interview beforehand. I came across a blog , where I found information about the book 'Programming Interviews Exposed' and strightaway thought of having it. Now, being an Indian Software Techie , I thought of having it, not buying it. Logged on to www.filecrop.com and downloaded the book for free. I wish, this habit wouldn't have been there in my blood. Nevertheless, I am proud of it.

On Wednesday, I got a call from them; they were pretty much on time. 'She' (Qin Chen) was a Software Development Engineer at Amazon for two years. Started with asking me ,Why Amazon? Luckily , my girlfriend had told me that Amazon was listed amongst three Dream Companies , in Forbes magazine last week, so mentioned that. Then she asked some questions on resume, my previous work experience and then asked me to explain one of my projects. I think I did that well.

Then She asked me some programming questions on java. What is difference between Final, Finally and Finallize? What is difference between == and equals? Primitive types in Java? I answered them satisfactorily. Here comes the hard part, she gave me a series( A, B , C, D, E... Z, AA, AB...AZ... BA, BB,......). I couldn't understand the series for 5 mins and she went on explaining. I must mention that she was really cool and dint give up until I understood. To make it straight, she asked me to open excel sheet. The column names in excel sheet represent that list. Task was to return n th string in the series. Once I understood the series, I was able to pseudo code within a minute. She told me that your approach is correct , but code and send it to me( I did it after my interview).

Then she asked me to design an Object Oriented Model for a Movie Theater. The purpose was to return nearby theaters, given zip code and movie name. I was able to to design two classes and explain her. I think she was convinced with what I explained. I would like to advise you all , to prepare OO designs for real world objects beforehand(For eg. Cards, Elevator, Parking lot)

Finally, She asked me whether I have any questions. I asked two three questions, one of them being " How good is Amazon to start career with?" . I think , the interview went well, but I did bad at some things. Keeping my fingers crossed, I am hoping for best. I will keep posting as soon as I make any progress.