Cleared Amazon SDE-1 last week. Posting because when I was prepping I couldn't find many recent 2026-cycle posts and the rounds have shifted a bit (more GenAI focus, slightly less pure DSA grinding).
OA
2 DSA questions, easy–medium
Work Style Assessment (Amazon's personality test thing — don't overthink it, just be consistent)
If you can solve LC easy–mediums reliably you'll clear this.
Round 1: DSA + LPs
2 medium DSA questions. Explained the approach first, dry-ran on the provided test cases before coding. LP questions woven into the discussion — they don't always make it a separate round at SDE-1, so be ready for LP curveballs in any round.
Round 2: Logical / Maintainability (basically a light LLD)
Asked to design classes, attributes, and methods for a given problem. Couldn't finish all the coding but explicitly walked through "here's what I'd add given more time" for the parts I skipped. I think that framing saved me — the interviewer cared more about how I was organizing the code than whether I hit every line.
Round 3: GenAI + DSA
First half was conversational — how I'd actually used GenAI in my work, what worked, what didn't, where I'd be cautious. Caught me off guard because I'd over-prepped for DSA. Second half was 1 medium DSA question.
If you're prepping Amazon in 2026, prepare real GenAI answers. Generic "I use Copilot for autocomplete" doesn't cut it. They want to hear judgment, not enthusiasm.
Round 4: HM (LP-heavy)
Full LP round. Resume walk, projects, decisions made and the why behind them, what I drove, what I'd do differently. Tip: have 2–3 strong stories you can recombine across LPs — the same incident can demonstrate Ownership AND Bias for Action depending on which angle you lean into. Saves you from needing 15 unique stories.
Verdict: Selected.
Advice for anyone prepping:
LPs are not optional and they're not "the soft part." Weak LPs can sink an otherwise solid candidate
For DSA, LeetCode is most of your prep. If you're rusty on specific topics (I needed heap + graph traversal patterns), PracHub's curated drilling got me up to speed faster than picking random LeetCode tag pages
For the maintainability round, just write more OO code in general. Even toy projects. The round isn't about reciting design patterns by name, it's about whether your code looks like something a team could actually maintain
Good luck if you're interviewing.
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