Solutions for the Amazon online assessment
Amazon
- Date: April 26th, 2022
- Format: Online Assessment
Solutions for the Amazon online assessment
Overview
- You will have 105 minutes to complete 2 coding challenges and coding approach.
- There will be 2 surveys following the assessment; a work style survey (15 min) and feedback survey (5 min).
- You will have the option of coding in C, C++, C++14, C#, Go, Java7, Java8, Javascript, Kotlin, Objective-C, PyPy2, PyPy3, Python 2, Python 3, Ruby, Scala, and Swift.
- Efficiency and optimization, as opposed to brute force solutions, earn more points.
- Your code must compile for all code questions in order to move forward in the interview process.
- Be sure to test your code and ensure it runs before you submit your code or before time runs out.
- Ensure your solutions consider all edge cases and handle large inputs effectively. This is key to doing well in the assessment.
Outcome
Flushed. I was able to put together two naive solutions (both O(n^2)), however this obviously won't cut it at Amazon. Looking back, this is when I thought using Go would make me look smarter. This was a dumb assumption and in reality just made the process of actually solving problems more difficult.
Reflection
Amazon tries to bog you down with superfluous information in these types of problems. Unlike with LeetCode, where the problem statement is centered around a core algorithm, the problem statements for the online assessments are like short stories. This is probably aimed at preventing cheating while also testing a candidate's reading comprehension.