Blind 75 vs LeetCode patterns: Best for Amazon interviews
At Amazon, every technical interview is more than solving problems. It’s a test of how you think like an owner. The Leadership Principles aren’t just culture. They drive the questions you’ll face. You’ll be expected to Dive Deep, Think Big, and Deliver Results, sometimes all in a single 45-minute coding round.
Like other top companies, Amazon values engineers who think beyond memorized patterns. But what sets it apart is the focus on clarity, efficiency, and ownership in every solution. Preparing for this means going beyond popular question lists and asking what helps you show those traits in the room.
Blind 75 and Amazon Top 75 are popular choices. They cover a lot of ground. But is that enough for Amazon’s specific expectations, or is there a better way to prepare?
Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns
With thousands of potential questions to account for, preparing for the coding interview can feel like an impossible challenge. Yet with a strategic approach, coding interview prep doesn’t have to take more than a few weeks. Stop drilling endless sets of practice problems, and prepare more efficiently by learning coding interview patterns. This course teaches you the underlying patterns behind common coding interview questions. By learning these essential patterns, you will be able to unpack and answer any problem the right way — just by assessing the problem statement. This approach was created by FAANG hiring managers to help you prepare for the typical rounds of interviews at major tech companies like Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. Before long, you will have the skills you need to unlock even the most challenging questions, grok the coding interview, and level up your career with confidence. This course is also available in JavaScript, Python, Go, and C++ — with more coming soon!
In this blog, I’ll compare Blind 75 and Amazon Top 75 to the 28 core LeetCode Patterns featured in the “Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns” course. I’ll use real examples and interview debriefs to build a prep strategy that aligns with what Amazon tests.
A quick refresher on Blind 75, Amazon 75, and LeetCode patterns#
Blind 75 is a curated set of 75 frequently-asked LeetCode problems spanning key topics like arrays, trees, and dynamic programming. Its popularity comes from its focused, manageable size, giving candidates a clear, finite list of must-know questions that often surface in interviews across the tech industry.
Amazon Top 75 lists the 75 LeetCode questions that candidates have often seen in recent Amazon interviews. This list is designed to reflect current trends and the challenges Amazon engineers are asked to solve, making it a useful snapshot of what’s being tested at Amazon today.
LeetCode patterns takes a different approach. Instead of memorizing individual problems, it groups questions into 28 core problem-solving patterns, such as Sliding Windows, Two Pointers, or Backtracking. The goal is to help candidates recognize underlying structures and adapt to new problems on the fly, a skill especially valuable in interviews where twists and follow-ups are the norm.
Can Blind 75 alone get you through Amazon’s interview?#
Amazon’s interviews are as much about how you solve problems as whether you can solve them. The process assesses your ability to navigate ambiguity, make thoughtful trade-offs, and demonstrate Amazon’s core Leadership Principles under pressure.
However, even beyond that, the real curveball is Amazon’s emphasis on ownership and big-picture thinking. Interviewers expect you to proactively consider edge cases, think aloud about business implications, and suggest ways your solution could be improved or extended in a real-world context. It is not just about reaching the correct answer but about proving you can handle problems that truly matter.
Relying solely on Blind 75 might get you comfortable with common algorithm questions, but it often leaves a gap regarding the deeper, more nuanced follow-ups that Amazon interviewers love to ask. To truly excel, you must be prepared for a broader range of problem-solving scenarios and demonstrate the ability to think beyond just the code.
Why pattern-based prep works for Amazon’s interviews#
It’s not surprising in Amazon coding interviews that a simple array question might morph into discussing time-space trade-offs or scaling the solution for millions of users. By training with patterns, you develop the mental flexibility to pivot and think aloud. This demonstrates the kind of big-picture, ownership-driven mindset Amazon values.
Ultimately, a pattern-based approach gives you more than just answers; it provides a toolkit for adaptable thinking. And in Amazon’s interview rooms, that’s often the real differentiator.
An overview of patterns for Amazon coding interviews#
With 28 essential patterns to master, it helps to break them down. For your Amazon prep, I’ve organized these patterns into four practical categories:
Let’s see what each category means:
Must-know patterns: These foundational techniques appear repeatedly in Amazon’s technical screens. Mastering them is essential, as they form the basis for many initial questions.
Very common patterns: These patterns frequently appear in Amazon interviews, often as the core challenge or as part of follow-up questions. Being comfortable with them allows you to handle typical Amazon twists with confidence.
Solid but situational patterns: These are less likely to be the centerpiece of a question but can emerge in more specialized rounds or when an interviewer wants to see how you handle edge cases. Spotting them quickly can make a strong impression.
Finishing-line helpers: These patterns are rare, but surface in particularly challenging or final-round interviews. Knowing them can set you apart when interviewers decide to dig deeper or raise the bar.
While Amazon interviews emphasize certain problem types, the most effective preparation covers all 28 patterns. That way, you’re ready for whatever comes your way.
Maximizing your pattern coverage: An Amazon-focused interview prep plan#
Preparing for Amazon interviews is about working smart, not just hard. Here’s a focused strategy to make sure you cover all the patterns you need without wasting effort or getting bogged down:
Build on the common ground: Start with problems and patterns appearing in both Blind 75 and Amazon Top 75. This gives you a strong foundation in the questions Amazon likes to revisit.
Zero in on Amazon-focused patterns: Next, identify the patterns that Amazon emphasizes but may be underrepresented in Blind 75. Pay extra attention to these to avoid being blindsided in the interview.
Finish remaining Blind 75: Go back and work through any Blind 75 problems you haven’t tackled yet. This ensures you’re well-versed in all core topics.
Close the pattern gaps: Review your prep for any patterns you missed. Spend time on these to prepare you for even the rare or advanced questions.
As you progress, use the same simple rubric: aim to solve one easy, two medium, and one hard problem for each pattern. This helps you quickly see which areas need more attention and ensures your prep is as comprehensive as it is targeted.
This approach keeps your study time efficient and purposeful. By layering your prep, you avoid repetition, solidify the essentials, and meet Amazon’s expectations for both basics and curveballs.
Here’s a quick visual to show how this approach ensures you’re prepared for what Amazon asks or can ask.
Why start with the overlap in Amazon prep?#
The first step in your Amazon prep is tackling the patterns and problems in both Blind 75 and Amazon Top 75. This overlap isn’t accidental. These shared questions reflect the essential data structures and algorithms that Amazon consistently tests in their technical screens.
Let’s compare both lists side by side to understand the extent to which there is overlap and where the unique opportunities lie.
Blind 75 (Problem Name) | Amazon 75 (Problem Name) |
Two Sum | Two Sum |
Best Time To Buy And Sell Stock | Best Time To Buy And Sell Stock |
Merge Intervals | Merge Intervals |
Number Of Islands | Number Of Islands |
Valid Parentheses | Valid Parentheses |
Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters | Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters |
Longest Palindromic Substring | Longest Palindromic Substring |
Meeting Rooms II | Meeting Rooms II |
Group Anagrams | Group Anagrams |
Top K Frequent Elements | Top K Frequent Elements |
3Sum | 3Sum |
Merge K Sorted Lists | Merge K Sorted Lists |
Container With Most Water | Container With Most Water |
Spiral Matrix | Spiral Matrix |
Maximum Subarray | Maximum Subarray |
Merge Two Sorted Lists | Merge Two Sorted Lists |
Course Schedule | Course Schedule |
Minimum Window Substring | Minimum Window Substring |
Jump Game | Jump Game |
Find Median From Data Stream | Find Median From Data Stream |
Word Search | Word Search |
Product Of Array Except Self | Product Of Array Except Self |
House Robber | House Robber |
Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum | Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum |
Word Break | Word Break |
Unique Paths | Unique Paths |
Missing Number | Missing Number |
Rotate Image | Rotate Image |
Climbing Stairs | Minimum Number of Primes to Sum to Target |
Longest Consecutive Sequence | LRU Cache |
Alien Dictionary | Trapping Rain Water |
Valid Palindrome | Subarray Sum Equals K |
Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Analyze User Website Visit Pattern |
Coin Change | Longest Common Prefix |
Valid Anagram | Generate Parentheses |
Palindromic Substrings | Copy List With Random Pointer |
Set Matrix Zeroes | Reorganize String |
Contains Duplicate | Maximum Frequency After Subarray Operation |
Reverse Linked List | Sudoku Solver |
Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree | Concatenated Words |
Longest Repeating Character Replacement | First Missing Positive |
Longest Increasing Subsequence | Jump Game II |
Combination Sum | Dungeon Game |
Clone Graph | Contains Duplicate II |
Remove Nth Node From End of List | Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree |
Word Search II | Vertical Order Traversal of a Binary Tree |
Reorder List | Maximum Subarray Sum With One Deletion |
Maximum Product Subarray | Add Two Numbers |
Sum of Two Integers | Median of Two Sorted Arrays |
Decode Ways | String to Integer (atoi) |
Linked List Cycle | Palindrome Number |
Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Search Tree | Roman to Integer |
Number of Connected Components in an Undirected Graph | Letter Combinations of a Phone Number |
Implement Trie (Prefix Tree) | Next Permutation |
House Robber II | Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array |
Binary Tree Level Order Traversal | Edit Distance |
Longest Common Subsequence | Search a 2D Matrix |
Non-Overlapping Intervals | Reverse Words in a String |
Meeting Rooms | Majority Element |
Pacific Atlantic Water Flow | Count Primes |
Maximum Depth of Binary Tree | Kth Largest Element in an Array |
Encode and Decode Strings | Palindrome Linked List |
Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array | Odd Even Linked List |
Kth Smallest Element in a BST | Design Tic-Tac-Toe |
Validate Binary Search Tree | Asteroid Collision |
Insert Interval | Koko Eating Bananas |
Same Tree | Rotting Oranges |
Design Add and Search Words Data Structure | Capacity to Ship Packages Within D Days |
Construct Binary Tree From Preorder and Inorder Traversal | Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended |
Invert Binary Tree | Find the Median of the Uniqueness Array |
Reverse Bits | Reschedule Meetings for Maximum Free Time I |
Graph Valid Tree | Reverse Integer |
Counting Bits | Regular Expression Matching |
Number of 1 Bits | Reverse Nodes in K-Group |
Subtree of Another Tree | Permutations |
The comparison above shows that 28 out of 75 problems overlap, making up almost half the set. That’s striking. By starting here, you’re ensuring you’ve mastered the basics that will most likely come up, regardless of who your interviewer is or which team you’re interviewing for.
As you work through these overlapping problems, don’t just aim to get them right. Pay attention to the underlying pattern in each one. Ask yourself, “What’s the technique here? Could I recognize this if the question looked a little different?” This mindset will help you move beyond memorization and build real pattern recognition.
Let’s examine the patterns this problem set covers and their alignment with our rubric. In the bar chart below, each bar represents a pattern. The length of the bar shows what percent of the full 15 points you’ve earned for that pattern, while the label highlights how many easy, medium, and hard problems went into that score.
The chart above shows that while only 28 questions overlap, they cover several key patterns. For most patterns, just two or three additional problems at the right difficulty level can bring your coverage closer to the ideal. Some patterns, including Stacks and Cyclic Sort, are only minimally represented, so they need your extra attention.
The real value is in identifying these patterns. Once you do, you can use the rubric to guide and complete your practice.
How does solving Amazon-only problems help?#
Once you’ve covered the shared ground, it’s time to address the patterns and problem types that are particularly important for Amazon, but might not be as well represented in Blind 75.
Let’s look at which patterns you unlock when focusing on Amazon-only problems.
The analysis above reveals two important benefits:
First, by solving Amazon-specific problems, you reinforce the patterns you’ve already started to master in the overlap.
Second, you get introduce to 9 new patterns that didn’t appear before.
Suppose you solve at least 4 questions (per our rubric) for each pattern, which adds up to 36 questions (a significant portion of your prep). Skipping these could leave major gaps in your readiness and take you off track when aiming to excel at Amazon’s coding interview.
Next, let’s break down how many additional questions are added to the patterns we’ve already covered, and see how these new patterns measure up against our “one easy, two medium, one hard” rubric and the scoring method. For most patterns, just two or three additional problems at the right difficulty level can bring your coverage closer to the ideal.
The chart above shows you’ve already achieved solid coverage on several core patterns. Consistent progress in areas like Two Pointers, Dynamic Programming, and Modified Binary Search reflects focused effort on the high-value overlaps.
Several patterns, such as Sliding Window, Tree traversals, and Heaps, hover in the partial coverage range. Adding just one easy or medium problem will quickly move them closer to the ideal. Patterns like Subsets, Hash Maps, and Custom Data Structures are still in the lower zone, so they’ll benefit most from targeted practice, especially if you focus on the missing problem types.
The good news is that this breakdown gives you a clear roadmap. You can now prioritize the patterns that need a final push and approach your prep purposefully, making your Amazon interview practice much more efficient and focused.
Does completing all of Blind 75 give you an edge?#
After you’ve covered the overlapping and Amazon-specific problems, working through the rest of Blind 75 offers two clear benefits: Strengthening your grasp on already identified essential patterns and adding a few new tools to your toolkit. This extra layer of practice ensures you’re ready for unexpected twists and rare question types that could come up during your Amazon interview.
Let’s see what additional patterns come into play when you work through every Blind 75 problem.
This step uncovers 2 additional patterns that were missing before, highlighting the value of including this stage in your Amazon interview prep roadmap.
Let’s see how these patterns align with our 1-2-1 rubric and identify any final gaps in your coverage.
The chart above highlights that you’ve mastered core patterns such as Tree Traversals, Sliding Window, Two Pointers, and Dynamic Programming. Even Modified Binary Search and Topological Sort are nearly complete, needing one more problem at a particular difficulty level to hit the ideal mark.
A few patterns, including Merge Intervals, Knowing What to Track, and Bitwise Manipulation, are at about 60% coverage. Just one hard problem could quickly close those gaps. Meanwhile, patterns like Union Find, Matrices, and Graphs hover below, and Fast and Slow Pointers are just starting. These represent the most important opportunities to strengthen your prep further.
Is the Amazon interview prep done?#
This bar chart offers a quick overview of how well your prep approach covers each of the 28 patterns, making it easy to spot your next priorities.
The chart above shows that while some underrepresented patterns need one easy and one hard problem to reach full coverage, one important pattern, Sort and Search, wasn’t covered in the earlier steps.
Aim to practice one easy, two medium, and one hard problem for this remaining pattern.
Pattern | Easy Problem | Medium Problems | Hard Problem |
Sort and Search |
|
|
|
Pattern coverage recap#
It’s eye-opening to see just how much each stage of your prep moves you closer to full coverage. Common Patterns alone account for 57% of the total, covering a major portion right from the start. Adding Amazon-only patterns brings up to 89%, showing that company-specific questions fill substantial additional gaps. Including the Blind-only patterns raises the overall coverage to approximately 96%. Finally, by targeting any patterns that still haven’t been addressed, like Sort and Search, you add the last 3.6%, bringing you to a complete 100% pattern coverage. By layering these sets together, you systematically build up your prep and ensure you’re not missing any critical patterns on your way to 100% coverage.
How each stage contributes to pattern coverage#
This progress chart tracks how each problem set contributes to the ideal interview prep score of 420. While the Common Patterns provide a solid starting point with 89 points, the biggest boost comes from the Amazon-only problems, which add 120 points on their own. This is by far the largest single contribution. Blind 75–only problems bring in an additional 61 points, bringing the total to 270 points so far. Despite this strong progress, there are still 150 points remaining to reach full coverage, highlighting the importance of targeted practice to close the final gaps.
Now that you have a clear breakdown of where your remaining 150 points lie, it’s easier than ever to target exactly which problems still need work. With focused effort on these areas, reaching the ideal score is completely within reach, giving you the confidence that your prep is as thorough and complete as possible.
Final thoughts#
Mastering Amazon’s coding interview is about more than just finishing a list. The smartest prep starts with the shared essentials, targets Amazon’s unique patterns, fills in the gaps with Blind 75, and ensures every core pattern is covered.
Focus on understanding the “why” behind each pattern, not just the solution. Practice explaining your thinking and weaving in Amazon’s Leadership Principles. This well-rounded approach will give you the confidence to handle common questions and unexpected challenges.
Prep with intention, track your progress, and trust your toolkit. You’ll be ready for whatever Amazon puts on the whiteboard.
Recommended resources to level up your interview prep#
While this blog gives you a data-driven way to measure and close your prep gaps, the right learning tools can accelerate your progress even further. Here are two highly effective resources to complement your study plan:
Educative’s Personalized Interview Prep: It’s your tailored prep companion that adapts to your skill level and focuses on the 28 essential LeetCode patterns we’ve been talking about. You can work on the patterns that need the most attention, track progress with clear metrics, and know exactly what to tackle next. Whether it’s adding an easy problem to build confidence or a hard one to push for mastery, you’ll always be working on the right problems at the right time.
Educative’s Mock Interviews: Practicing is not just about solving problems. It is also about handling real interview pressure. Educative’s AI mock interviews let you simulate actual interview conditions, get actionable feedback, and improve in areas like problem-solving speed. This way, you are not only technically prepared but also confident and ready to perform under time constraints.
Curious how the Blind 75 vs LeetCode patterns debate plays out at other top tech companies? Expand your prep insight with these company-specific breakdowns:
Google: Discover which approach gives you the edge in their coding interviews
Microsoft: Learn what structure works best for their problem-solving style
Apple: Explore how pattern-based prep stacks up in their technical screens
Netflix: See which coding roadmap aligns with their fast-paced interview process
Equip yourself not just for Amazon—but for confidence across the entire FAANG landscape. Dive in!
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