Amazon Interview - Chitchat with a friend

I am posting this conversation with the consent of the other guy. I have edited here and there for privacy concerns and grammatical errors :P 


Anonymous: Hey

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian: Hi! How are winter holidays going?

Anonymous:
Good and idle
I am gonna bug you for the next few minutes !!!
you free 
?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
shoot them!

Anonymous:
Stuff like spoj and topcoder help ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
programming help?!

Anonymous:
For my ppo ?
Frankly speaking I am not very much interested in codin these algo questions , For everything I learned the stuff required for interviews from these books
Crackn the codn interview
Geeks For Geeks

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Do codechef cookoff's, TC SR's, COdejam (Google), FB Hackathon, and sometimes spoj.. That should do..
Disclaimer: I myself didnt do all this!
SO u are on my league! I wont say I dont like, but I am lazy enough to code 

Anonymous:
Is it compulsory ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Not much! U are done with basic algos and ds right?

Anonymous:
yea
I mean decently good
I know good deal of Java

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
I think that should do for clearing PPO (as such, from my interview experience and I didnt know a good deal of them)

Anonymous:
And I love hacking and coding applications

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Oh, great! So u have an added advantage..
k.. U have done sth? have a github profile?
Thats not compulsory.. just asking out of curiosity..

Anonymous:
I dont have one !!!
But I did work on few web applications , web pages !!!

11:56pm
Sugavanesh Balasubramanian
If u love hacking, coding, create an account with github and start doing what u love..

Anonymous:
Have them on my local git

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U can find many freaking stuff! Oh, good.. Somewhere online or offline..

Anonymous:
offline
I will better have them on git hub
Not very great stuff

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Just upload them on github or code.google.com.. Never mind.. That doesnt matter..

Anonymous:
Btw , can you tell me when did your intern start
when did it end ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
They ll ask u for the dates..

Anonymous:
Oh !!!
And how much did they pay you  ?
I dont know anything
They never mentioned

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Me and the other guy from our college decided to ve 1 week before and after the intern as holidays.. so accordingly it turned out to be 2 months and 2 weeks as holidays

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
30 + 30

Anonymous:
ohk

11:59pm
Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Just tell them, I dont know.. I maintain the same even after knowing the package..

Anonymous:
and food , Is something avlbl in the company ?
That was the the thing I mentioned to everyone , "I DO NOT KNOW"
Easiest way out !!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
They ll give u food coupons but that ll be hardly enough for more than 15 days.. There is a food court where u have many stalls like KFC (This is in Chennai, not sure abt the rest), etc.. Also u would have cafeteria in every floor which is absolutely free.. U get soup, all milk stuff..

Anonymous:
oh ok !!!
What time do you need to be there and when do you leave from work ?
Does a cab pick you up ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
In our team, there was no restrictions.. From what I heard, he also didnt have any restrictions... I used to come by noon (12!!) and leave by midnight.. My staying place was sloppy so I chose to go there only for sleeping..
It depends on the team u are put in and the kind of work assigned!

Anonymous:
Thats osum and cool

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U have cabs to pick u up and drop!

Anonymous:
great !!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Mine was completely independent work from the entire office so I just wanted to disturb my mentor if at all otherwise i got to work in my own pace.. So it didnt matter much for me..

Anonymous:
How did it go about

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
what?

Anonymous:
The entire thing
when you went to the company till you got your ppo ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U mean.. the intern?

Anonymous:
yea
you had some explicit training ?? !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
I didnt go to the company till I got PPO. The results were conveyed only after a month or so. and he opted to have his PPO interviews here in campus after college started!

Anonymous:
I dint get you !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
It depends.. I didnt have any. As I said, no one knew anything abt what I was working on.. But he had a bootcamp for about a week, I think

Anonymous:
You had your ppo interview during ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
my intern.. But he had his interviews only when Amazon came to campus (he opted that way!)

Anonymous:
oh !!!
And you got a confirmation on ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
After a month or so. they called me and informed..
and also sent a mail

Anonymous:
Oh no one would know ryt after their interviews ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
?? I didnt get the question..
You wont know right after the interviews...

Anonymous:
Oh !!!
So when was this , after a month
I mean which month ?
August ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
I am not sure abt the exact date.. It was a Friday though..
after fb initial screening.. May be..

Anonymous:
Oh
Okay get it !!!
July 20 or so

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
May be..

Anonymous:
And how are the people there ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
again, it depends on the team and place.. One of my friends' friend had a 'not so good' time due to the high demand placed by his mentor.. But for me, like I said, I was left to work in my own pace..

Anonymous:
Oh
And what do they offer in Amazon as CTC ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
same as Microsoft.. should be 16.. I think But all that matters is what that comes in hand..

Anonymous:
"I do not know" - not for me 

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
*to hand.

Anonymous:
yea !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
??

Anonymous:
And how are people in general 
Do they work extremely hard ?
Do you know of any interns who were denied a PPO ?


Sugavanesh Balasubramanian
some, yeah.. few ppl like me, No!! Ask Harish!! he would give u a great narrative.. He used to work his ass off that his mentor called him and told this is just intern dont work this much but my manager always told u got to do more.. I worked at my own pace. 
Yeah, many..

Anonymous:
Oh

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
In our office, me and only three others made it, out of say 15 roughly..


Anonymous
Oh theres a high chance of not making also then
:|

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Never mind.. U still didnt even join..
Just keep ur options open!

Anonymous:
hmm
he did it at B lore ryt ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
yeah!
how I wish he was with me...

Anonymous:
any differences here and there ?
And do they ask you for your preference of location?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
ask him.. I dont know much.. Few things i know are, climate, clubs, fun outside office, cheap rooms..

Anonymous:
oh !!!
Btw all these 15 ppl are from ?
I mean which colleges ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Yes! But in my case it turned out to be exact opposite! My choices in order was B'lore, Hyderabad, Chennai.. But I was posted to Chennai. (I dont regret it now, though!)
IIT K, IIT KGP, Anna University, few other NIT's, Delhi University and few others!

Anonymous:
Oh !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
And IIT guy was the first guy to get it.. (to my knowledge)

Anonymous:
So tell me things I need to do and shouldnt do

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
He did an excellent work it seems..

Anonymous:
to ensure I get a PPO
Oh !!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Shouldn't do: Dont think about PPO ever.. I never thought about that till they called me to schedule the PPO interview..

Anonymous:
Oh !!
but somehow this thing is making me more anxious !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
2) Dont ever hesitate to ask doubts and get it clarified. They are uber-cool. And try to create some kind of bonding and friendship..
Never mind, as soon as u go there.. u have better things to worry about..

Anonymous:
lol
and 3 ) ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Also, there were events for interns from US (I found it through internal wiki!) and try to have such events in India. I have already put forward that notion... I was the only one to participate from India in all those coding contests, puzzle champs!
they didnt have any when i went there..

Anonymous:
Oh !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Hope they ll come up with sth when u guys go.. otherwise u take the initiative.. (if u are interested, i mean)

Anonymous:
Oh cool
and technologies ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
i mostly worked on opensource software except for some proprietary code.. Its no big deal.. U can figure that out there..

Anonymous:
Oh

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Just be comfortable with debugging, eclipse... that should do
*get comfortable

Anonymous:
Any idea why people were denied ppos
i mean any obvious reasons ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Few reasons as I heard, 1) they weren't productive enough (as was expected, I wonder why I didnt become a victim of this reason! :P)
2) didnt fit in the team
3) didnt have the expected talent or knowledge (this one too!)
4) not so committed to work like being unable to figure out the problems (again, I might have gone down here!)..

As I said earlier, just care about the quality of work u do.. Do u work for the money's worth they are paying u? Thats all that matters!

Anonymous:
And yea the quality of work is it in our hands ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Dont care about PPO.. U know ******?! He was denied a PPO, it seems! But look at the bright side, he made it to MS IDC (though personally i think working in Amazon is better!)
most of the time, yeah!

Anonymous:
Oh cool
****** is from your batch ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
dude, ******* is the same batch of ******* blah blah (edited for privacy!)

Anonymous:
Oh
cool
sugavanesh
Let me start thinking on real stuff
than ppo ppo

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
like?!
hehe.. exactly!

Anonymous:
coding something
improving myself
on algos , ds ,
Ok Comp Arch ?
will this serve any purpose ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
think about how u wanna see urself after say 4 yrs! do some projects, participate in competitions.. learn some other stuff..

Anonymous:
I mean shld I learn ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
i dint get u..
do u mean, should I learn comparch?!

Anonymous:
Computer Architeture
yea

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
depends.. u again have a subject in 7th sem! also, if u are interested u can further pursue a carrier in that.. Also, few companies might require that knowledge.. Just know the basics. that should do if u dont like the subject..

Anonymous:
OHk

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Try to be strong in networks and OS (general advice! nothing related to Amazon!)
Though, my OS knowledge helped me a lot!

Anonymous:
and OS DBMS ALGOS DS C Java Networks 
anything more ?
I am not good at C++
I mean I knw stuff but then I dont use it

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Get comfortable with linux and shell. I was able to automate a lot of stuff in my intern for trivial stuff like logging and settting flags..

Anonymous:
Okay linux and shell
I dint get you
you mean writing scripts and all that ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
yeap! exactly!

Anonymous:
Oh cool
I will meet you in person and know more on this !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U are CSE student! u are expected to know basics of everything.. so try to cover that! it should be helpful in future in some form or the other!
Sure!

Anonymous:
Okay
I indeed bugged you
And thanks for this

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
No issues, buddy! All the best!
Just think beyond 3 yrs and ur career.. THat should do!

Anonymous:
Bye

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Can I make this conversation public (a part of it?! ) l
Never mind, bye!

Anonymous:
cool !!!
you are making it now ?
Let me also watch 

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Nah! I shall edit some stuff and post it on my blog..

Anonymous:
oh cool
give the link
whats your blog ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
k... ll do once i post.. amastersidea.blogspot.in (not that active, actually!)