DEV Community: Shivansh Tuteja

My Amazon Programmer Analyst Interview Experience

Shivansh Tuteja — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 20:27:56 +0000

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” – Sun Tzu

Landing an interview at Amazon is a dream for many developers. For me, it all started with Amazon HackOn, a hackathon that opened doors to an Online Assessment (OA) for non-SDE roles (Programmer Analyst, Data Engineer, System Engineer, etc.).

Based on my OA performance, I got shortlisted for the Programmer Analyst role. This role is particularly interesting because it sits close to SDE — with good performance, you can transition to SDE in the future.

And so began the journey: an OA, two technical interviews, and a lot of waiting...

📝 The Online Assessment

The OA had 61 questions total:

1 DSA coding problem
60 MCQs covering almost every CS fundamental

Topics covered:

Data Structures & Algorithms
Blackbox Testing
DBMS & SQL
Operating Systems
Computer Networks
Python programming and more

👉 In short, it was a test of both breadth and depth.

🧑‍💻 Technical Interview 1

First 10 mins: Project discussion
Q1: Level Order Traversal of Binary Tree (array representation).
- Solved it without queue → space optimal solution ✅
Q2: Modify to ZigZag order traversal.
- Just 2 lines change, smooth ✅
Q3 (approach only): Valid Parentheses using stacks.

CS Fundamentals asked:

Process vs Threads
ACID Properties
Deadlocks
DNS basics

My takeaway: Keep fundamentals fresh — they will come up.

🔥 Technical Interview 2

This one was tougher, with the interviewer’s camera off (extra pressure).

Q1: Variant of Unbounded Knapsack Problem.
- Built a recursive solution, but dry run took time.
Q2: Debugging “Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters.”
- Found 1–2 bugs and pointed out inefficiency.

By the end, I knew I had done well on the DSA side, even if the pressure was high.

⏳ The Result

There are moments in life where you give your absolute best, make no mistakes, and still walk away empty-handed.

And honestly, it reminded me of Virat Kohli in the 2016 World T20 semifinal vs West Indies. He batted like a dream — 89* in a pressure cooker, and then… the bowlers let India down.

Kohli himself bowled the final over, conceded the winning runs, and walked off with that helpless look: sometimes you do everything right, but destiny has other plans.

When I opened my result mail, it felt the same:

“You are waitlisted. Final decision within 90 days.”

Yep, anticlimactic. But here’s the thing about Virat — his story didn’t end in 2016. Eight years later, in World Cup 2024, he came full circle: scored a gritty knock in the final, lifted the trophy, grabbed Man of the Match, and signed off in style.

That’s the real lesson: God always has a bigger plan. Your IPL 2016 may have an IPL 2025. Your WT20 2016 might be waiting for a WT20 2024.

Wins belong to God, losses are ours to learn from.

So for now, I’ll take my waitlist like Kohli took that 2016 semifinal — smile, shrug, and get back to the nets. Because when the comeback comes, it’ll be worth the wait.

💭 Final Thoughts

The Amazon Programmer Analyst process tested me across breadth (CS fundamentals) and depth (DSA coding). While the waitlist isn’t a final “yes,” it’s also not a “no.” It’s an opportunity to stay hungry, stay prepared, and come back stronger.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

And with that mindset, the journey continues. 🚀

Host your own Minecraft Server on Linux in 10 Mins

Shivansh Tuteja — Tue, 13 May 2025 19:35:27 +0000

Overview

Type : Vanilla/Spigot/Paper server (supports cracked with settings)
Goal : Minimal setup to play with friends (cracked clients allowed)
Instance Type : Any Linux Machine or a VM, 1-2 vCPUs & 8GB Ram would be enough for 5-10 people

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Create a VM Instance (or skip this and get a Linux Machine up)

personally using ubuntu
allow http & https traffic
connect via ssh

2. Setup Machine

update packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre-headless -y

downloading minecraft server, here paper for performance

mkdir minecraft && cd minecraft
curl -o paper.jar https://api.papermc.io/v2/projects/paper/versions/1.20.1/builds/123/downloads/paper-1.20.1-123.jar

Replace version/build with latest from https://papermc.io/downloads

3. Getting the server running

java -Xms1G -Xmx2G -jar paper.jar

It will fail first time, asking you to accept EULA
Accept EULA

echo "eula=true" > eula.txt

Optional : Enable Cracked Clients

edit server properties:

nano server.properties

you may need to install nano using sudo apt install bash or you may use vim as per the convenience

set

online-mode=false

save with CTRL + X => Y => Enter

Re-Run the Server (Mandatory)

java -Xms1G -Xmx2G -jar paper.jar nogui

4. Expose the Port for Connections

sudo ufw allo 25565

note : if you are using a VM, you may need to configure the firewall/VPC to allow the traffic from the set port

5. Run it in Background

using screen

sudo apt install screen -y
screen -S mc
java -Xms1G -Xmx2G -jar paper.jar nogui

How to Delete Supabase Database using Supabase Cli

Shivansh Tuteja — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 13:37:27 +0000

Step 1 : Install Supabase CLI using npm

standard installation

npm install -g supabase

I personally use

npx supabase ...

Step 2 : Login to Supabase CLI

npx supabase login

Step 3: Link Your Project

It's time to connect your local setup to your Supabase project. For this, you'll need your project's reference ID. This assumes you have already run supabase init in your project and have a configuration. If you haven't it'll prompt you to run that command first.

You can find the project ref in your Supabase dashboard (it's that long string of letters and numbers).

npx supabase link --project-ref YOUR_PROJECT_REF_ID

Replace YOUR_PROJECT_REF_ID with your actual project reference ID.

Step 4 : Reset the DB

supabase db reset --linked

### Step 5 : Lets Discuss
Ways to avoid reseting database after migration failure 😂