Amazon Online Assessment Code Challenge Experience

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

Introduction

November 20, 2020, I got an email from an Amazon recruiter that they would be interested in an interview based on my resume. I had mixed feelings, which are happy, shocked, and anxious. How could I get this opportunity? That was the first question that I asked myself. I read the email, and I just realized that I have applied to Amazon in the middle of 2020. Even when I got the email, I was taking a Flatiron class as a software engineer student because I moved to the US and I don’t have any experience here, and it is difficult to get a job as Software Engineer. Also, English is one of my weaknesses. Explaining how coding works in my native language is challenging especially in English, which I am not fluent in yet. Amazon’s first interview round is an online coding challenge. I share the email below.

I got the opportunity to be work for the AWS Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) team, which is really cool and interesting for me. However, I really don’t have any confidence to pass this interview. Furthermore, I prepare myself to my best capability because I only had one week to take this code challenge. Leetcode, HackerRank, Udemy, and AlgoExpert are my friends for that short time and also made me more pessimistic because the questions are difficult like my brain can’t be used to solve these all problems. I can’t imagine how people could solve it easily. So, I just kept in my mind that this is just for my code challenge interview practice. It would be a really good experience to know how a big tech company gives code challenge questions to candidates.

The day of the code challenge

After I used all my time to practice what I could do in the middle of the business of Bootcamp class, I took the code challenge on Black Friday 2020! Nervousness and excitement accompanied me the whole time of the test, and they will not leave you :D. So the test platform used the HackerRank environment, and they gave me only 2 code challenge questions for 105 minutes with the following questions in each question about what approach did I use to solve this problem, and how is the time complexity of my solution. After I finished the code challenge, there are multiple-choice questions that are related to Amazon Leadership Principles. In my opinion, both of the code challenge questions were doable because Amazon gave me the question about real problems, which are related to AWS EC2 and Amazon cases in their business. Luckily, I could pass all the test cases of the first question, which the test cases are big size array. On the other hand, I exceeded the time limit for 6 test cases of the second question, and I didn’t have enough time to optimize my solution. It was sad, but I reminded myself that it was just practice. I probably could apply again later as Mauro Dorigo, my classmate said to me.

Tips before taking a code challenge

1. Don’t be nervous.
   This is a really terrible situation because it could make you lost and cannot think about anything. Always be positive and keep calm when you do the test.
2. Make sure about the IDE of the code challenge.
   In the email, Amazon sent a link to try the IDE environment and make sure to your own if it’s possible. Using your own IDE will be helpful, but if you cannot do that, at least you try the code challenge IDE before the code challenge day.
3. Master the basics.
   Don’t waste the time to search for how to create an array or how to manipulate the array. Time complexity and space complexity are important to learn for code challenge. So, practice is the key.
4. Read the questions carefully.
   One of my problems is reading the questions. Because my first language isn’t English, I could not understand the prompts quickly. Read the questions carefully is important, so you will understand all the constraint.
5. Solve the problem before you start coding.
   This is also one of my mistakes because I didn’t solve the problem correctly first and just code right away. You can be lost in the middle of your coding if you didn’t plan how you solve the problem clearly.

Conclusion

I got a reply from Amazon on Sunday, and they said that they will not be moving to the next step. Well, I know it will happen before the code challenge, but I will not forget this big moment at the end of 2020. I believe this failure is not the end of everything, but it will motivate me to be a better software engineer. Thank you, Amazon for the opportunity!