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Data Engineer Prep Doc - V3

Data engineers at Amazon are responsible for building scalable data infrastructure and ensuring data accuracy and availability. To prepare for an interview, candidates should be proficient in SQL, understand data modeling and ETL processes, and be ready to discuss their technical experiences and problem-solving approaches. The interview process may include whiteboarding solutions, writing code, and demonstrating knowledge of distributed computing and database optimization.

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24 views3 pages

Data Engineer Prep Doc - V3

Data engineers at Amazon are responsible for building scalable data infrastructure and ensuring data accuracy and availability. To prepare for an interview, candidates should be proficient in SQL, understand data modeling and ETL processes, and be ready to discuss their technical experiences and problem-solving approaches. The interview process may include whiteboarding solutions, writing code, and demonstrating knowledge of distributed computing and database optimization.

Uploaded by

HariSimha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INTERVIEW PREP

Data
engineer
WHAT DOES A DATA ENGINEER DO AT AMAZON?

Data engineers are knowledgeable in a variety of strategies for


ingesting, modeling, processing, and persisting data. They have
expertise in building scalable data infrastructure, and they
understand distributed systems concepts from a data storage and
compute perspective. Data Engineers are experts in SQL and have
a strong understanding of ETL and data modeling. They are also
proficient in one or more scripting or programming languages.
They ensure the accuracy and availability of data to their
customers, and they understand how technical decisions can
impact their business’s analytics and reporting. Data engineers
work with data in large volume and velocity, often using the
latest AWS and open source technologies.

Want to become an Amazon data engineer? Let’s walk through


some helpful tips for the interview process.
How to prepare for a data engineer interview

Be prepared to discuss technologies listed on your resume. i.e. if you list Python or
big data, expect technical questions about your experiences with these
technologies. It is helpful to review the job description before your interview to
align your qualifications against the job’s specific requirements and
responsibilities. Also connect with your recruiter to ensure you are being aligned
with a job that is the right fit.

Be comfortable with writing SQL fluently and thinking about edge cases.
Understand different types of joins and how condition filters affect the joins. Be
familiar with ways of simplifying a complex query and optimizing performance.
Practice writing queries that are correct and free of syntax errors without
submitting to an interpreter.

Be ready to write syntactically correct code in your preferred language. Expect to


utilize common data structures and algorithms, and to compare and contrast their
usage in various applications.

Be prepared to understand and identify underlying business problems and choose


the right technologies when providing your solution. Given an ambiguous business
scenario, be able to propose a data model and end-to-end data architecture that
will solve for the needs.

Understand the differences and trade-offs between types of databases and when
each is useful in building a system. Know what different styles of schema design
exist and when to use each.

Be able to demonstrate your understanding of how to tune database components


to meet reporting needs and also to transform data more quickly. Be comfortable
explaining how to optimize and debug ETL jobs in your most frequently used
environment. Be prepared to demonstrate your knowledge of distributed
computing from a storage and compute perspective, and how you can use
distributed computing to meet high performance standards.

Understand what technologies are used for ETL. Be able to design an ETL pipeline
in both serverless and persistent compute and discuss the tradeoffs of each for the
problem statement provided.

Understand how to build/optimize logical data models and data pipelines for a
given data set.

Be familiar with concepts such as “Workflow as code” and “Infrastructure as code”.


Data engineer technical tips
Final round interviews tend to be more Please brush up on your fundamental
in-depth compared to the types of SQL and python knowledge including
questions asked during your phone but not limited to: table joins, data
interview. The interview will likely grouping, data structures, use of
include qualifying requirements, window functions, aggregations, etc.
checking edge cases, and white
boarding solutions with our engineers. Knowledge of big data technology and
AWS is not a requirement, though it
When solving problems during the may be preferred by some teams.
interview, think about scalability. The
code you write and solution you provide
should be able to handle data that
scales.

White boarding

 Be prepared to write code by hand for SQL and scripting questions. You will
have the option of using either white board or a code sharing link on a laptop.
 Write a list of requirements on the board, and keep asking questions, as the
initial problem statement may be vague. Requirements should be the first thing
you write out.
 Dig for clarification. Your interviewer will not try to trick you. Questions may be
intentionally vague to push your innovation. We recommend that you ask
clarifying questions if you are unsure as to what the interviewer is asking you.
Interact with your interviewer. Engage with your interviewer with necessary
questions to complete the exercise.
 Know how your solution solves the problem. If you suggest technology to help
solve, understand how that technology works. Be prepared to provide alternate
solutions. When appropriate, always conclude your answers with an end result
or overall impact.
 Think out loud as you work through the problem. This allows the interviewer to
better follow and understand your thought process.

LEARN MORE
Help make
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starting witha tech
Interviewing for Dayrole?
1 Explore our common technical topics
Explore Interviewing at Amazon for FAQs, prep guides and more

QUESTIONS? R EA CH OUT TO YOUR RECR UITI NG POI NT OF CO NTACT


AMAZON IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

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