u/flashy_rs

I am a 2026 CSE(AIML) grad targeting Amazon SDE-1 roles and wanted some honest advice from people already in the industry/recently interviewed.

Current profile:

• 2 backend internships
• Java, Spring Boot, distributed systems, Redis, async workflows
• ~500 LeetCode problems solved
• Contest rating ~1645
• Built real-time collaborative platform with WebRTC + Redis Pub/Sub
• Worked on an early-stage healthcare AI startup where I mainly handled backend/distributed systems engineering

The startup part is where I am confused.

Technically, the systems I built were real:

• semantic caching
• concurrency handling
• async orchestration
• reliability mechanisms
• distributed workflows

But it never became a fully deployed production startup with real customers because development stopped early due to cofounder/product direction issues.

So I wanted advice on:

1. Should I mention this as “Founding Software Engineer” or just “Software Engineer”?
2. Is Feb 2025 - Jan 2026 a reasonable timeline to show if that was the actual active development period?
3. Would Amazon recruiters/interviewers consider this legitimate non-internship engineering experience or mostly treat it like a project?
4. For Amazon SDE-1/new grad hiring, how much does recruiter screening matter compared to OA/interview performance?
5. I heard from a senior Amazon SDE that major 2026 hiring may ramp up around Oct. Is that generally true for India hiring pipelines?