What the rounds are like
| Stage | What people usually describe |
|---|---|
| Online assessment | Two problems in 90 minutes with a real compiler, or one problem plus an AI-assisted task |
| Phone screen | Not always. Usually one medium problem |
| Onsite coding | Often about 30 minutes of coding and 30 of Leadership Principles, and no compiler |
| Low-level design | Some loops: design classes for a real-world system |
Candidates in 2026 report a newer assessment where you fix or build code in a repo with an AI helper, so check which format you're getting.
What people have been asked
These are the kinds of problems that keep coming up. We wrote the example prompts ourselves, so the wording you get will be different.
Longest increasing run with a step limit
Pick the longest increasing subsequence where each step up is no bigger than k.
It's a twist on a classic problem, and the limit on step size changes what the fast solution looks like.
How it might be asked
You're given a list of integers and a number k. Return the length of the longest subsequence where every element is bigger than the one before it, by at most k.
Key concepts to know
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Pick the most items within two limits
Choose as many binary strings as you can without going over a limit on total ones and total zeros.
It's a knapsack problem with two limits instead of one, so think about what each saved value means.
How it might be asked
You're given a list of strings made of 0s and 1s, and two numbers m and n. Return the most strings you can pick so the total number of 1s is at most m and the total number of 0s is at most n.
Key concepts to know
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Design the classes for a real system
In low-level design rounds, people report things like an Amazon Locker system, a chess board, meeting room booking and a calculator.
They're judging how easy your design is to change and maintain, more than raw speed.
How it might be asked
Design the classes for an Amazon locker system. Packages of different sizes go into lockers of different sizes, customers get a code to open theirs, and unclaimed packages get returned after a few days.
Key concepts to know
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Merge and insert intervals
Work with a list of time ranges: merge the ones that overlap, or insert a new one and keep the list tidy.
The edges are where it goes wrong: ranges that just touch, and a new range that swallows several old ones.
How it might be asked
You're given a list of time intervals sorted by start time and a new interval. Insert the new one and merge any that overlap, then return the result.
Key concepts to know
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Leadership Principles in coding rounds
Don't be surprised if half your coding round is behavioral. Candidates report questions like 'tell me about a time you took ownership of a critical issue', with follow-ups that dig into the details.
One recent candidate was also asked how they'd used AI tools to improve their own or their team's productivity, so have an answer ready for that too.
How to approach a problem
- Say it back and ask questions. How big is the input? What are the edge cases? What should you return?
- Start with brute force. Say it out loud with its complexity so you've got something to beat.
- Figure out what it really is. Is this secretly a graph? Would sorting help? Do the same subproblems keep coming up?
- Write it and test it. Walk through an example, then try the weird cases.
Key concepts to know
- Dynamic programmingSolve each subproblem once and reuse the answer.
- Binary searchCut the search in half, even when you're searching for an answer.
- Object-oriented designSplit a small program into classes that are easy to change.
- Graph traversal and shortest pathsBFS, DFS and Dijkstra, and when to use each.
- Trees and recursionSolve tree problems by deciding what each node returns.
- Heaps and priority queuesAlways have the smallest or largest item ready.
- IntervalsMerge, insert and schedule ranges without tripping over the edges.
Sources
We pulled this together from candidates' own write-ups of their interviews. They don't always agree, and things change over time.
- LeetCode Discuss: SDE-2 interview experience (2026, Prime Video)
- LeetCode Discuss: SDE online assessment with an AI-assisted task (2026)
- Taro: SDE II, Austin (Oct 2025)
- Taro: SDE II, Seattle (Oct 2025)
- Taro: SDE II, New York (Jun 2025)
- Taro: SDE 2, Bengaluru (Feb 2025)
- Blind: asked to design Amazon Locker
Practice Loop is an independent practice tool and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon.