The Big Tech Playbook: Interview with Dhruvi Shah (Amazon, Google Engineer)

Securing internships at Amazon and Google before graduation, Dhruvi Shah shares her strategy: 650+ LeetCode problems, mastery of core CS fundamentals, and leveraging her competitive programming background.

The path to Big Tech is famously competitive, a goal many work towards for years. Dhruvi Shah has already done it twice, securing spots at Amazon and now Google before even finishing her degree. This is not a story about luck. It is a look into the modern playbook for high achievers. A playbook that includes shipping code on projects valued over $120,000 and building a top-tier competitive programming record. In this edition of Young and Ambitious I sat down with Dhruvi to understand the thinking, the sheer force of will that gets a person to the top of the tech world so fast, and what she plans to conquer next.

Landing internships at Amazon and now Google is incredibly impressive. What is some crucial strategies or mindsets that helped you secure these top-tier opportunities while still in college?

One of the biggest strategies for me was consistency with the right resources. I religiously followed Striver’s DSA Sheet, completed 650+ LeetCode questions, and solved 400+ problems on GeeksforGeeks: but more than just solving, I focused on understanding patterns deeply. I also went beyond DSA to really strengthen my core CS fundamentals, OS, DBMS, CN, and OOPs, often revising them through structured notes and mock tests. Another mindset that helped was not chasing shortcuts. I did not just prepare to crack interviews; I prepared to think like an engineer. That helped during Amazon and Google interviews, and more importantly, during the actual internships. And yes, I treated failures as…

With strong LeetCode/CodeChef ranks, how has competitive programming shaped your problem-solving skills for real-world challenges, like those at Amazon or for your Google prep? Do you feel that it prepared you for the challenges you face in big tech?

Honestly, LeetCode has been the foundation of my entire interview prep journey. I have participated in 30+ contests, reached a peak rating of 1700+, and solved over 650+ problems across all tags and difficulty levels. I made a conscious decision to focus on one platform consistently and build a strong, credible profile that recruiters could trust, especially since companies like Amazon and Google looked closely at LeetCode profiles during screening. LeetCode contests in particular trained me to think under pressure, manage edge cases smartly, and optimize not just for correctness but for time and space, skills that directly translated to solving real-world problems during my internship at…