Context: 

I am in grad school in the US, and will graduate in December 2024. 

A recruiter reached out in May for Full-stack SDE 2. I gave the interview loop and passed in July. The recruiter wanted to schedule hiring manager calls right away but told me it was too soon as soon as I mentioned the December graduation date. The calls are now tentatively going to be in November.

Questions:

1. What should I expect in the hiring manager calls? How many meetings should I expect?

2. Is it tough to get matched to a team right now at Amazon? How much competition am I dealing with to get matched? (Google apparently is a shit show)

3. I am an international student. If I am to start in Jan 2025, I will need help with premium processing so I can start on time. What is the best way to get Amazon to pay for it? ($1700 I think).

Thanks in advance!