Python Interview with an Amazon engineer.
Python Interview with an Amazon engineer
Watch someone solve the unique shapes in a matrix problem in an interview with an Amazon engineer and see the feedback their interviewer left them. Explore this problem and others in our library of interview replays.
Interview Summary
Problem type
Unique Shapes in a Matrix
Interview question
Find the number of unique shapes inside a grid of matrix. A shape is denoted by a grouping of 1s from above, under, left, and right.
Example:
0 0 0 1
1 1 0 1
0 1 0 0
1 0 0 1
1 0 0 1
Total number of unique shapes - 2
Interview Feedback
Feedback about Cashmere Flamingo (the interviewee)
Advance this person to the next round?
Yes
Technical skills:
3/4
Problem solving ability:
2/4
Communication ability:
4/4
Strengths
- Candidate asked a lot of clarifying questions
- Candidate explained the solution and approach really well
- Was able to code out the solution without a lot of hints
- Was able to provide the right space and time complexities
Areas of improvements
- Needed a lot of hints to arrive at the solution
- Code written had a lot of bugs, few of which were self corrected but few of which had to be pointed out
- Spent too much time explaining the algorithm which left less time for coding
Advice for future interviews
- Practice more leetcode questions in time bound manner
- Clarify as many of the edge cases and outlying scenarios as you can in the beginning
- Dry run the code yourself before saying done
Interview Transcript
Digital Avenger: Okay, so before we get started, I feel that. Can you answer a few questions? That sort of helps me model the interview in a better format for anything that you might have in mind.
Cashmere Flamingo: Yeah. Okay. Basically I have a virtual final interview for an intern position.
Digital Avenger: Okay.
Cashmere Flamingo: Yeah. So I would basically like to use this opportunity to prepare for my actual interview.
Digital Avenger: Excellent. Okay, that is mostly what I was going to ask. Okay, so it's for an internship position and you have that coming up. I'm assuming since the interview is targeted, the position is at Amazon.
Cashmere Flamingo: Yeah, position is at Amazon.
Digital Avenger: So you're in. Forgive me for asking, is this a bachelor's or a master's student?
Cashmere Flamingo: I'm a bachelor's student, so I'm a junior.
Digital Avenger: Okay. Third year, fourth year.
Cashmere Flamingo: Third year.
Digital Avenger: Okay. Excellent. The optimal time to do this. Okay, cool. I'll conduct the interview like that. You might get some behavioral questions. I haven't taken an internal interview in quite a while. I don't think you will. Not combined at least.
Additional Feedback
Feedback about Digital Avenger (the interviewer)
Would you want to work with this person?
Yes
How excited would you be to work with them?
4/4
How good were the questions?
4/4
How helpful was your interviewer in guiding you to the solution(s)?
4/4
Conclusion
This document summarizes the interview process for the problem "Unique Shapes in a Matrix" and provides feedback regarding both the interviewee's performance and the interviewer's effectiveness.