In Summer 2022 I was lucky enough to complete a 3-month Software Engineer (SWE) internship at AWS in Seattle, Washington. The interviewing process was nerve-wracking. It was not only my first time interviewing with AWS but also my first time interviewing for a SWE intern position! Below are 3 tips to help you prepare for an AWS interview.
1. Make a spreadsheet & live by it
It’s no secret that preparing for interview problems on sites such as Leetcode is essential for landing a SWE job. There are endless pages of problems to solve on Leetcode, many of which have subtle variations such as Combination Sum and Combination Sum II. According to CSCareerline.com, you should aim to study 150-200 questions for non-FAANG companies and 300-400 questions for FAANG companies. Spoiler alert – I think I only studied about 50 problems, so don’t worry if that number sounds high. Regardless of whether your target number of practice problems is 20 or 1,000, in the delirium of cramming for your interview it’s too easy to lose track of which problems you’ve studied as well as what you’ve learned from each problem.
Before cracking my first Leetcode problem, I found common interview questions for AWS on sites such as Reddit and Medium. I set up a spreadsheet and added the corresponding Leetcode practice problem numbers to the list along with the level of difficulty. I also made a comment for lots of notes. After that I added problems from the list of the most common Leetcode problems and I also heavily selected problems from the Leetcode list of Amazon’s most common problems. Note that you will need a membership to Leetcode to see the list of Amazon’s problems, but I think it’s worth it. I would then study problems by the question type. If there was a specific data structure I was week on, I would focus on that for a week at a time. If I felt stuck, I often found great visual explanations of common problems on YouTube. NeetCode and CS Dojo were two of my favorite channels.
2. Amazon culture is key
Repeat after me: Amazon Leadership Principles and STAR format.
Although doing well on the interview problems is important, familiarity with Amazon’s Leadership Principles and the STAR format is just as important, if not more important.
Throughout my internship I was asked to relate my progress and setbacks to the leadership principles. My midterm review and final presentation made heavy use of the principles as well. My exit review with my manager made utilized the STAR format. What I’m getting at is, Amazon’s Leadership Principles and the STAR format are referenced every day at Amazon, so it’s likely that they want you to identify with their leadership principles and be able to communicate successes and failures their language.
Honestly, I found the principles a bit cheesy at first, but after my internship I had a vivid list in my mind of skills I needed to improve and they were all specific leadership principles. I haven’t forgotten that list and it’s a pretty good reminder to strive for higher standards.
The STAR format is a useful tool to learn for just about any job interview. It’s pretty simple. The interviewer might ask you a question like “Describe a challenge you’ve faced in one of your classes?” or “Tell me about a project you’re proud of and how did you achieve these results?”.
To construct a clear response, you can structure your answer with the STAR format.
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Results
3. Trust me, don’t worry about how you look for the interview
During my internship at AWS, I can’t recall any of my SWE colleagues wearing business-casual dress. Everyone wore denim pants or shorts and t-shirts with comfortable sweatshirts of sweaters. I really appreciated this, because I’m the kind of person who hates tucking in my collared shirt every five minutes. What I’m hinting at is another more subtle part of AWS culture, which is that people probably won’t be impressed by how well you dress, but rather how well you code. This isn’t hard to imagine, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you should dress up for an interview, only to then feel completely uncomfortable and and botch your interview as a result. My advice is to wear for your interview whatever you wear to code on a day-to-day basis because otherwise this might add to you feeling even more uncomfortable and nervous for your interview.
The day of my one-on-one interview I was a nervous wreck. I was cramming until the last minute. So much so that I didn’t have time to take a shower and change into a nice outfit. Instead I wore my favorite light blue sweatshirt and my chic/nerdy glasses. This had been my study uniform and it’s what I felt most comfortable in at the time. It turned out that my interviewer was dressed equally casual, and as a result the interview felt like a friendly conversation between two nerds.
Wrap up
As annoying and time-consuming as it is, yes, you do really need to discipline yourself and study practice problems backwards and forwards. You’ll start to feel insane and a bit deprived, but that’s when you know you’re close. Make sure to know 5 Amazon leadership principles well, if not a few more in case you’re like me and your mind tends to abandon you when you get nervous. Practice out loud describing a few positive CS-related successes and failures in the STAR format. You’ll ramble at first and realize that a little bit of practice goes a long way. Then relax, because the last part of what I think makes an interview a success is easy – just wear your favorite t-shirt and jeans and clean the dirt off your glasses and you’re good to go! No tucking required.
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