Basic Information

• Name Anmol Saraf
• Curriculum: Electrical Engineering BTech
• Year of Study: 4th
• Company/University of Internship: Amazon (Software)
• Year of Internship (eg. '23 Summers, '22 Winters): ‘23 Summers
• Mode of Internship (Online/Offline/Hybrid): Offline
• Duration of Internship: 8 weeks

While applying for internships during the selection period, my target was to get a Software or an ML Oriented Intern. However, I was only applying to some of the software companies offering internships, this choice was made by me based on certain aspects like the company’s work, the scope of learning, etc. To prepare for Software related internships, I mainly used leetcode to practice my coding skills, which has a range of questions that have a high chance of being asked in interviews. Apart from this, some fundamental revisions of OOPs and DSA are required, for which I used various random web pages and books that can be easily found online. For Amazon, the coding round was straightforward and was just a test of CS101. For the interview round, the interviewer asked me some basic questions about DSA and their applications. After this, I was asked to write the code on paper for various functions needed for one application using the Data Structure. Some relevant questions by the interviewer followed this, but this was mainly for the software part of the interview. The interviewer can ask some basic HR-related questions, but mostly this was the whole interview. So during internship applications, as we get into the semester, it becomes harder and harder to give time to preparation and academics. It helps to start preparing for the interviews early so you don’t have to juggle the two later.

My project in Amazon comes under the DBMS system of AWS called Aurora Storage. This is the patent storage system that Amazon manages and provides to its customers. My job profile was to add a feature to it. Amazon has an extensive procedure for managing and deploying packages, which takes time to digest and understand. Overall, half of the internship duration will feel overwhelming, but then it gets easier to understand once you start to get a hold of things. This is universal to any big company as they usually have curated procedures and methods. Everyone is quite helpful, you can ask them any doubt in person or over Slack, and no one ever turns you down. Everyone is friendly, and there are no set working hours. You can work according to your schedule on your project( although I recommend going to the office daily as the interactions can be fun).

So for someone looking to get into Software, Amazon is pretty good and has a lot of ongoing and upcoming projects. The work is quite good regarding Software Development, and you can pick up many things along the way. If you are looking for a lot of coding/programming in your internship, then I don’t think you will find Amazon that interesting as the coding part is there, but the whole project focuses on the Development side and not just the Software. The project would require you to make a design plan, code out the different packages or changes, get code reviews, manual and unit testing and final deployment. The internship entails all the aspects of an SDE, and they also expect you to deliver up to the standards of an SDE-1. Overall, Amazon is a great place to get a real-world experience in Software Development that is taking place right now.