I took the GMAT Focus about a year ago and scored 655 (Q84, V79, DI85). I'm planning a retake for the upcoming admissions cycle and aiming for 685–705+.

Based on my Enhanced Score Report, Verbal was clearly the weakest section, particularly Critical Reasoning. Quant and DI felt much more natural, and I believe I can get back to my current levels there without too much trouble.

I have roughly 11 weeks to prepare and can dedicate 4–5 hours daily.

Current plan:

• GMAT Ninja for Verbal fundamentals
• Practise RC/CR questions from GMATclub
• TTP for Quant refresh and DI practice

A few questions for those who have successfully improved Verbal:

1. Does this overall approach make sense for an 11-week timeline?
2. Given that I can study 4–5 hours daily, how would you split time between CR, RC, Quant, and DI?
3. For RC, how many passages should I be doing per day/week?
4. What accuracy level should I target before considering myself "test-ready" for both RC and CR?
5. If you improved from a similar Verbal score (V79-ish), what made the biggest difference?
6. Are there any resources you'd prioritize over GMAT Ninja + Official Questions?

One additional factor is superscoring. My assumption is that multiple attempts increase the likelihood of ending up with a stronger superscore, but I'm not sure how schools will weigh a superscore versus the highest overall GMAT score.

Target schools: ISB, IIM Ahmedabad PGPX, Duke Fuqua, and INSEAD.

Would appreciate any advice from people who have gone from the mid-600s to the high-600s/700+ range, especially through Verbal improvement or a smart superscore strategy.

https://preview.redd.it/ucp1kohkd89h1.png?width=1067&format=png&auto=webp&s=20048282f4642aa3fcbbbd983b2bf82f0ace6091

Verbal Attempt:

https://preview.redd.it/v2j9cohkd89h1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=e9aa871329a16ad8b73385ef45f1123fb07f5901

Just completed my first two rounds for an Amazon SDE-2 position and wanted to share my experience so far. Would love to get advice from people who've recently gone through the HLD/System Design rounds.

R1 - DSA

Got 2 LeetCode-style questions:

1. [Trapping Rain Water](https://leetcode.com/problems/trapping-rain-water/description/)
2. [Koko Eating Bananas](https://leetcode.com/problems/koko-eating-bananas/description/)

I was able to solve both within the allotted time using the optimal approaches and explain my thought process clearly.

We also had around 15 minutes of Leadership Principles discussion, mainly around:

* Dive Deep
* Invent and Simplify

Overall, I felt pretty good about the round. Shortly afterward, HR reached out and shared that the feedback was positive and that I'd be moving forward to the remaining three rounds, with the final decision being based on the overall interview performance.

R2 - LLD

The problem was to design and implement an LRU Cache.

I was able to discuss the design, data structures, complexity analysis, and approach comfortably. The interviewer then asked me to write a working implementation.

I had a working solution using HashMap + Doubly Linked List. Toward the end, I tried to further optimize/refactor the code by extracting some common logic into helper methods. In the process, I ended up introducing a couple of issues I guess and I did not had enough time to scan through my code again. I had about 35mins for discussion+design+code.

Leadership Principle discussion was around:

* Customer Obsession
* Handling a production issue/outage

I personally felt this was at least a Hire round, but the feedback came back as a borderline case: Lean Hire.

Upcoming HLD Round

This is the round I'm most concerned about.

I haven't given many System Design interviews before, so I'm currently planning to go through Hello Interview's System Design content and fundamentals.

I also have upcoming System Design rounds with:

* Amazon
* Blinkit
* [super.money](http://super.money) (Flipkart)

For people who've recently interviewed for Amazon SDE-2:

1. What are the most common HLD questions being asked these days?
2. Any recurring design problems I should definitely prepare?
3. How deep do they typically expect SDE-2 candidates to go?
4. Any Hello Interview topics that are absolute must-do's?
5. Any Idea/suggestion/insights that might help me?

I have about a week to prepare and want to make the most of it. Any recent experiences, question lists, preparation strategies, or pitfalls to avoid would be hugely appreciated.

I'll keep updating this thread as I progress through the remaining rounds.

Just completed my first two rounds for an Amazon SDE-2 position and wanted to share my experience so far. Would love to get advice from people who've recently gone through the HLD/System Design rounds.

R1 - DSA

Got 2 LeetCode-style questions:

1. Trapping Rain Water
2. Koko Eating Bananas

I was able to solve both within the allotted time using the optimal approaches and explain my thought process clearly.

We also had around 15 minutes of Leadership Principles discussion, mainly around:

• Dive Deep
• Invent and Simplify

Overall, I felt pretty good about the round. Shortly afterward, HR reached out and shared that the feedback was positive and that I'd be moving forward to the remaining three rounds, with the final decision being based on the overall interview performance.

R2 - LLD

The problem was to design and implement an LRU Cache.

I was able to discuss the design, data structures, complexity analysis, and approach comfortably. The interviewer then asked me to write a working implementation.

I had a working solution using HashMap + Doubly Linked List. Toward the end, I tried to further optimize/refactor the code by extracting some common logic into helper methods. In the process, I ended up introducing a couple of issues I guess and I did not had enough time to scan through my code again. I had about 35mins for discussion+design+code.

Leadership Principle discussion was around:

• Customer Obsession
• Handling a production issue/outage

I personally felt this was at least a Hire round, but the feedback came back as a borderline case: Lean Hire.

Upcoming HLD Round

This is the round I'm most concerned about.

I haven't given many System Design interviews before, so I'm currently planning to go through Hello Interview's System Design content and fundamentals.

I also have upcoming System Design rounds with:

• Amazon
• Blinkit
• super.money (Flipkart)

For people who've recently interviewed for Amazon SDE-2:

• What are the most common HLD questions being asked these days?
• Any recurring design problems I should definitely prepare?
• How deep do they typically expect SDE-2 candidates to go?
• Any Hello Interview topics that are absolute must-do's?
• Any Idea/suggestion/insights that might help me?

I have about a week to prepare and want to make the most of it. Any recent experiences, question lists, preparation strategies, or pitfalls to avoid would be hugely appreciated.

I'll keep updating this thread as I progress through the remaining rounds.

Today I had one of the strangest experiences of my life and would appreciate some advice.

I needed a fitness certificate for swimming and visited a dentist. I was told her brother would come the next morning to complete the paperwork. I adjusted my schedule and waited for him.

He arrived, got a couple of signatures done within minutes, and only afterwards asked me to pay an amount "X" (higher than consultation fees I've paid at major hospitals). At no point beforehand was any fee disclosed.

Since my phone was switched off and I had to leave urgently, I said I would pay later. I later transferred about 70% of the amount initially. I felt cheated and being looted. So I asked if this amount would do!

What surprised me was that instead of a normal discussion, I was asked for my home address and my parents contact details and I was told to see him at certain "location". When Things became hostile, he started boasting his JAAT background and calling himself a local. Eventually paid the full amount as well to settle in the debate.

The lady doctor (his sister) then called me, accused me of harassing her (despite the calls being initiated from their side), and the conversation quickly became abusive from her side. After that, I received repeated calls from the doctor, her brother, and later her husband. I was threatened with legal action and told things like, "Ladki involved hai, lamba case bana denge. Career barbaad krdenge. Hum local hai, hamaara bhai DSP hai, marwa denge" Her husband also made statements implying local influence and connections.

I then received calls from people identifying themselves as police personnel. In one case, the conversation started with abuse immediately after I answered the phone. Rather than trying to understand the situation, I felt intimidated throughout these interactions.

Things escalated to the point where my father had to step in. During one confrontation, there were multiple people present, including police personnel. The lady doctor was shouting continuously and appeared intent on provoking a reaction. Thankfully, nobody from our side lost their cool.

What bothers me most is that this entire episode started over a fee that was never disclosed upfront and which I ultimately paid in full. Yet it somehow escalated into threats, accusations, intimidation, and repeated calls. The Police System, I have no hope if that works!

I have recordings of several of these conversations.

My questions are:

• Do I have any legal options here?
• Should I formally document everything or just move on?

At this point, I'm concerned about the threats, intimidation, and apparent misuse of influence. Any advice would be appreciated or Else do DM, do put a negative google/just dial review for the clinic and doctor, that would help too.