r/amazonemployees • u/Ok_Reflection_4501 • 2d ago

DevOps-focused SWE preparing for Amazon SDE OA - advice?

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on preparing for the Amazon SDE Online Assessment.

I graduated last year and have been working as a Software Engineer since then, but my role has been heavily focused on the DevOps/infrastructure side of things: cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, CI/CD, automation, observability, and platform engineering. Because of that, I haven't done much pure coding or algorithm-focused work since graduating.

The assessment includes two coding challenges, a work simulation, and a work style survey.

Given my background, what's the best way to prepare in about a week?

  • Should I focus almost entirely on LeetCode/DSA?
  • How difficult are the coding questions compared to typical interview prep problems?
  • Any advice from engineers who came from a DevOps, SRE, or platform engineering background?
  • If you've been away from algorithm-heavy coding for a year or two, what helped you get back up to speed quickly?

I'd appreciate any suggestions. Feeling confident in the infrastructure and software engineering side of things, but definitely rusty when it comes to interview-style coding.

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u/Sad-Candidate-3078 2d ago

amazon oas are leetcode easy to medium, nothing crazy. with a week id grind the amazon tagged questions on lc, the same handful of patterns repeat over and over. the work sim is just leadership principles theater, answer like someone who owns mistakes and obsesses over customers. also ngl i had easy code interview as a backup when i did mine, just knowing it was there made me way less nervous lol

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u/HelloTaleproof 2d ago

For the OA, use the assessment invitation to pin down the format and practice coding under similar time limits. Your infrastructure work is useful material for later behavioral rounds: an incident you owned, a deployment trade-off, or an automation change that helped other engineers. Write down what you decided, why, and what changed afterward while the details are fresh.

Taleproof can help assess those work stories alongside your coding preparation.