From big company recruiting I've seen like here at Amazon they definitely do at least consider it inferior to "real" experience. SDE2 is not given for new coop grads or returning interns with 2 years exp, but you can get SDE2 if you worked at another place full time or at AMZN for 1-2 years. It's pure BS.

Here is an example for you of explicitly requesting non-intern experience:

> BASIC QUALIFICATIONS · 2+ years of non-internship professional software development experience

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/918696/software-development-...