Amazon interview experience
my Amazon HM (Hiring Manager) interview today after a weird reschedule situation and wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this.
Originally, my interview was scheduled back in March, but due to technical issues it got postponed. After almost 2 months, it was rescheduled for today at the exact same time/day slot as before.
So Just finished my Amazon HM round today (it lasted from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM) and I genuinely don’t know how to interpret it. Would love honest opinions from anyone who’s been through Amazon interviews.
The interview started with introductions, then we moved straight into DSA. First, I explained my approach, but the interviewer specifically asked me to solve it using a different data structure
It took me some time, but I eventually came up with the stack-based solution. After that, we spent a LOT of time debugging together. He was very calm, supportive, and collaborative throughout, which honestly surprised me.
Here’s how it went:
- First run → wrong output
- During dry run, I found a correction
- Debugged again → still wrong
- He ran the code himself → output was still incorrect
So yes, I never fully got the correct final output during the coding portion, which is the part stressing me out most.
But what’s confusing is that the interview continued for a full 1.5 hours. We then had an in-depth GenAI discussion:
- My previous GenAI projects/experience
- My technical skills
- How GenAI tools are used in their org
- Their workflows and internal use cases
I also asked him for feedback. He didn’t directly say pass/fail and mentioned he’d share feedback with the recruiter instead. The main suggestion he gave me was to improve my debugging skills, but he also said everything else looked good.
So now I’m really confused:
- Is the incorrect final code a major red flag?
- Or is the long duration + supportive behavior + deep GenAI discussion a positive sign?
- Has anyone had an HM round where coding wasn’t perfect but still moved forward?
Amazon interviews are so hard to read, especially when the interviewer is calm and engaged the whole time.