Amazon — Online Assessment pattern
Amazon SDE Online Assessment (SDE-1 / New Grad / Intern - university & campus hiring)
Test structure
Coding / DSA Assessment
2 Qs · ~70-90 (typically 90) min- Arrays & strings
- Two-pointer / sliding window
- Hashing / hash maps
- Trees, BFS/DFS
- Graphs: shortest path, topological sort, union-find/DSU
- Dynamic programming
- Heaps / priority queue, greedy, stack (monotonic)
- Also asks you to type your approach + time/space complexity in separate text boxes
Work Simulation (day-in-the-life SDE)
Scenario/inbox-based (count varies) Qs · ~20-50 (varies by cycle) min- Simulated SDE inbox: triage & prioritize emails from managers/PMs
- Make debugging & decision-making judgment calls
- Choose most/least appropriate action
- Scored on alignment with Amazon Leadership Principles
Work Style Assessment / Survey
~14-50 statements (varies) Qs · ~8-20 (often untimed) min- Agree/disagree behavioral statements
- Most-like-me / least-like-me choices
- Measures consistency & alignment with Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles
- No strictly right/wrong answers
How the test works
Amazon runs the fresher/campus SDE hire as a single auto-proctored SDE Online Assessment (delivered via HackerRank/Amazon's own platform). The invite email tells you whether your country splits it into one or two parts - India candidates report it mostly as one sitting. Current consensus shape (2025-2026) is three back-to-back components: (1) a Coding/DSA round of 2 problems (~90 min) that also asks you to type your approach and time/space complexity; (2) a Work Simulation - a "day in the life" inbox where you triage emails and make prioritization/debugging calls, scored against the Leadership Principles; (3) an untimed Work Style Assessment/Survey (agree-disagree statements mapped to the LPs). Recent changes: since late 2025 the coding round is reliably TWO problems (was often one through 2024), and graphs + union-find/DSU/BFS now show up; the Work Simulation has become heavily weighted (multiple sources say it "counts as much as the code"). Older/legacy campus formats that carried a separate debugging-MCQ or reasoning/aptitude section are largely phased out of recent SDE OAs. Coding difficulty sits in the LeetCode easy-medium to medium band (occasional hard) under a tight clock. Public reference docs (JDK/STL) are allowed during coding, but browser activity is logged and login/private sites are off-limits. IMPORTANT: exact section list, minute counts, statement counts, and the 1-vs-2-part split genuinely vary by cycle, role, and campus vs off-campus - treat the durations here as typical ranges (end-to-end runtime is commonly ~2 to 3.5 hours), not fixed values.
What to prep
- Drill the ~10 DSA patterns Amazon reuses: arrays & two-pointer, sliding window, hashing/hash maps, strings
- Trees + BFS/DFS, graphs (shortest path, topological sort) and union-find/DSU - now common in the OA
- Dynamic programming, heaps/priority queue, greedy, monotonic stack
- Solve LeetCode Amazon-tagged Medium under a strict clock (~20-25 min/problem) and practice writing out approach + time/space complexity in text
- Take Amazon's official unscored OA practice test to learn the exact editor/UI and supported languages (Java, Python, C++, C#)
- Study all 16 Amazon Leadership Principles and pre-load STAR-style examples - they drive both the Work Simulation and Work Style answers; skim the LPs right before you start
- Do a Work Simulation / inbox-triage mock (email prioritization, stakeholder judgment) so the non-coding sections don't surprise you
Cut-offs & eligibility (indicative)
Not officially published - Amazon does not release section cut-offs. In practice the coding round is the hard gate: you generally need to pass all/most hidden test cases on BOTH problems cleanly to advance. The Work Simulation and Work Style parts are scored on Leadership-Principle alignment/consistency, not a numeric pass mark. Any specific "X/2 problems" or percentage cutoff seen online is unofficial and cycle-dependent.
Rehearse it before the real thing
Practice full-length sectional mocks modeled on this pattern, then make sure your resume clears the ATS first.