Interview

Failed Amazon SDE-1 onsite after 3 months of prep

Lakshay Desai

7/6/2025

Just got the rejection mail from Amazon. I prepped for 3 months straight, solved around 250 problems on leetcode and codepeet. The first 3 rounds went great but the system design round completely destroyed me.

They asked me to design a URL shortener and I blanked out on the database schema part. I know it's a common question but under pressure I just couldn't think straight.

Anyone else faced something similar? How do you guys handle the pressure in onsite rounds? Feeling pretty low rn.

amazoninterview-experiencesystem-designrejection

Comments (6)

Hana Hernandez10 months ago

Happened to me too! System design is so unpredictable. I try to keep calm by taking a deep breath and jotting down whatever I remember about the topic before diving into the details. Helps clear the mind a bit.

Muskan Bajaj9/1/2025

I totally get how you're feeling. The system design questions can be brutal. I messed up my first Amazon interview too. One thing that helped me was practicing mock interviews with friends. You get used to explaining your thought process under pressure.

Jessica Sato8/31/2025

I failed my first big tech interview over something similar. For system design, always start by clarifying requirements and constraints, then think of trade-offs. Might wanna try learning the 4-step process for system design!

Urvi Iyer7/28/2025

Random note, but have you tried the Grokking the System Design interview course? It's really helped me get more comfortable with these kinds of questions.

Sachin Ahuja7/13/2025

Honestly, it's all part of the process. Happy you're sharing your experience. Learning from these setbacks is what makes you better. Keep pushing!

Sachin Ahuja7/9/2025

Man, that sounds tough. Did they give you any feedback on where exactly you went wrong? Sometimes that can guide your prep better for next time.