Amazon Interview Questions: What to Expect and How to Prepare

Amazon Technical Interview Questions and Patterns

When preparing for an Amazon software engineering interview, it’s crucial to focus on the fundamentals. The distribution does not deviate from typical coding interviews, with Basic DSA, Dynamic Programming and Two Pointers being dominant patterns in their coding interviews. While honing these areas, candidates should also be prepared for less frequent but challenging patterns like Backtracking, ensuring a well-rounded ability to tackle a variety of problems.

Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles

Amazon's behavioral interviews are structured around their 16 Leadership Principles (expanded from 14 in recent years). Expect 2-3 behavioral questions per interview round, with each interviewer assigned 1-3 specific principles to evaluate. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your responses.

1. Customer Obsession

Definition: Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult customer"
• "Tell me about one of your projects where you put the customer first"
• "Which company has the best customer service and why?"
• "Describe a time when a customer asked you for one thing, but you knew that they needed something else"
• "Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer"

How to Answer:

• Start with customer pain point or need
• Show how you prioritized customer experience over easier alternatives
• Demonstrate listening and understanding customer perspective
• Quantify customer satisfaction improvements
• Prove you earned/maintained customer trust

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Customer reported confusing checkout flow, causing cart abandonment
• Task: Improve UX while maintaining existing integrations
• Action: Conducted user interviews, created prototypes, A/B tested simplified 2-step flow
• Result: Cart abandonment dropped 35%, customer satisfaction score increased from 3.2 to 4.5

2. Ownership

Definition: Leaders are owners. They think long-term and don't sacrifice long-term value for short-term results.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you did something at work that wasn't your responsibility / in your job description"
• "Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond your job responsibility in order to help the company"
• "Tell me about a time when you had to make an important decision without approval from your boss"
• "How would you make Amazon.com better?"
• "Describe a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility"

How to Answer:

• Show proactive problem identification
• Demonstrate long-term thinking over quick fixes
• Explain how you took initiative without being asked
• Highlight accountability for outcomes
• Show you never say "that's not my job"

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Noticed declining code quality in adjacent team's repository affecting our integrations
• Task: Improve code quality even though not my team's responsibility
• Action: Volunteered to lead code review process, created quality guidelines, mentored their team
• Result: Bug rate decreased 60%, our integration stability improved, became standard across org

3. Invent and Simplify

Definition: Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you re-designed/improved a process and why"
• "Tell me about a time you solved a big problem in your company"
• "Tell me about a time when you had a plan but ran into some obstacles. What did you do about it?"
• "What is the most innovative idea you've ever had?"
• "Tell me about a time when you invented a simple solution to a complex problem"

How to Answer:

• Describe complexity of original problem
• Show why existing solutions were insufficient
• Explain your innovative, simpler approach
• Demonstrate it's actually simpler (fewer steps, less code, easier to understand)
• Quantify efficiency gains or cost savings

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Deployment process required 15 manual steps, 4 hours, frequent errors
• Task: Simplify without major infrastructure investment
• Action: Created one-command deployment script, automated validation, added rollback capability
• Result: Deployment reduced to 15 minutes, zero errors in 6 months, adopted by 5 other teams

4. Are Right, A Lot

Definition: Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about how you deal with ambiguity"
• "Tell me about a time when you were faced with a problem that had a number of possible solutions"
• "Tell me about a time you applied judgment to a decision when data was not available"
• "Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision without complete information"

How to Answer:

• Explain the ambiguity or lack of complete data
• Show your decision-making framework
• Demonstrate seeking diverse perspectives
• Prove your judgment was sound through outcomes
• If wrong, show how you recognized it and pivoted quickly

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Had to choose between two tech stacks for new product, limited time to evaluate
• Task: Make architecture decision with incomplete performance data
• Action: Created evaluation matrix, consulted experts, ran limited benchmarks, sought contrary opinions
• Result: Chose stack that scaled to 10M users, decision validated by production metrics

5. Learn and Be Curious

Definition: Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly"
• "Tell me about your biggest career failure and what you learned from it"
• "Tell me about a time you taught yourself a skill"
• "Tell me about something you learned that made you better at your job"
• "Tell me about a time when you learned a new skill to complete a project"

How to Answer:

• Show genuine curiosity and learning initiative
• Demonstrate quick learning ability
• Explain how you sought out knowledge
• Share how learning benefited the project and beyond
• Prove continuous improvement mindset

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Team needed to migrate to Kubernetes, no one had container orchestration experience
• Task: Learn Kubernetes and lead migration within 2 months
• Action: Took online courses, set up test cluster, experimented with deployments, joined K8s community
• Result: Successfully migrated 20 services, reduced costs 40%, now org's K8s expert

6. Hire and Develop the Best

Definition: Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent and willingly move them throughout the organization.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you provided feedback that was helpful to a peer"
• "Tell me about a time you hired or worked with people smarter than you are"
• "Tell me about a time you stepped in to help a struggling teammate"
• "Who is your best employee/resource, and what makes them the best?"
• "Tell me about a time when you mentored someone and helped them grow"

How to Answer:

• Show investment in others' development
• Demonstrate ability to recognize and attract talent
• Explain specific mentoring/coaching approach
• Quantify the person's growth or team improvement
• Prove you hire people better than yourself

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Junior engineer struggling with system design concepts, affecting delivery
• Task: Help them level up without taking over their work
• Action: Weekly 1-on-1s, shared resources, pair programming, gradual responsibility increase
• Result: Promoted within 1 year, now leads own projects, mentors others

7. Insist on the Highest Standards

Definition: Leaders have relentlessly high standards. They continually raise the bar and drive their teams to deliver high-quality products, services, and processes.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about the most successful project you've done"
• "Tell me about a project that you wish you had done better and how you would do it differently today"
• "Tell me about a time when you had a goal that was hard to achieve. What did you learn from that experience?"
• "How would you improve this [project on your resume] if you had more time?"
• "Describe a time when you refused to compromise on quality"

How to Answer:

• Define what "high standards" meant in your context
• Show how you maintained quality under pressure
• Demonstrate continuous improvement mindset
• Quantify quality improvements
• Prove standards led to better outcomes

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Pressure to ship feature fast, team wanted to skip testing
• Task: Deliver quickly while maintaining quality
• Action: Automated testing, parallel development, aggressive code review
• Result: Shipped on time with 95% test coverage, zero critical bugs in 6 months

8. Think Big

Definition: Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about your most significant accomplishment. Why was it significant?"
• "Tell me about a time you proposed a non-intuitive solution to a problem and how you identified that it required a different way of thinking"
• "What was the largest project you've executed?"
• "Tell me about a time when you proposed a bold new idea"

How to Answer:

• Show vision beyond incremental improvements
• Demonstrate inspiring others with big ideas
• Explain how you made the vision tangible
• Quantify transformational impact
• Prove thinking big led to breakthrough results

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Company doing manual data entry, costing $500K/year
• Task: Eliminate manual work entirely
• Action: Proposed ML-based automation (bold for non-ML company), built POC, secured funding
• Result: Automated 90% of data entry, saved $450K annually, became competitive advantage

9. Bias for Action

Definition: Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you had to make an urgent decision without data"
• "Tell me about a time when you launched a feature with known risks"
• "Tell me about a time when you found an opportunity that no one else saw"
• "Describe a time when you had to make a decision with incomplete data"

How to Answer:

• Show calculated risk-taking
• Demonstrate speed over perfection
• Explain how you moved fast safely (reversible decisions)
• Quantify time saved or opportunity captured
• Prove action led to learning and iteration

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Competitor launching feature, had 2 weeks to respond
• Task: Ship competitive feature before market share loss
• Action: Built MVP with feature flags, launched to 10% of users, iterated based on data
• Result: Launched in 12 days, retained users, improved to full feature over 4 weeks

10. Frugality

Definition: Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you successfully delivered a project with a limited budget or resources"
• "Tell me about the last time you figured out a way to keep an approach simple or to save on expenses"
• "When managing a budget, what are some ways you get more out of less?"

How to Answer:

• Show creative problem-solving with constraints
• Demonstrate resourcefulness over asking for more resources
• Explain how you prioritized ruthlessly
• Quantify cost savings or efficiency gains
• Prove constraints led to better solutions

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Needed analytics platform, commercial solutions cost $100K
• Task: Get analytics capability for <$10K
• Action: Used open-source tools, built custom dashboard, leveraged existing infrastructure
• Result: Full analytics for $5K setup + $2K/month, better customization than commercial options

11. Earn Trust

Definition: Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing.

Common Interview Questions:

• "How do you earn trust within a team?"
• "Tell me a piece of difficult feedback you received and how you handled it"
• "A co-worker constantly arrives late to a recurring meeting. What would you do?"
• "Tell me about a time when you had to communicate a mistake to your team or manager"

How to Answer:

• Show vulnerability and transparency
• Demonstrate listening and self-criticism
• Explain how you admit mistakes quickly
• Share how you treat others respectfully
• Prove trust led to better team dynamics

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Made architectural decision that caused 3-month delay
• Task: Rebuild trust with team and stakeholders
• Action: Admitted mistake immediately, explained reasoning, created recovery plan, asked for input
• Result: Team appreciated honesty, worked together on solution, relationship strengthened

12. Dive Deep

Definition: Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a project in which you had to deep dive into analysis"
• "Tell me about the most complex problem you have worked on"
• "Tell me about a time when you used a lot of data in a short period of time"
• "Describe a time when you identified the root cause of a complex problem"

How to Answer:

• Show you go beyond surface-level understanding
• Demonstrate technical depth and analytical rigor
• Explain how deep understanding led to better solutions
• Quantify impact of finding root cause
• Prove you verify data vs. anecdotes

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: API latency increased 200ms, team blamed database
• Task: Find and fix root cause
• Action: Analyzed logs, traced requests, found issue in caching layer misconfiguration
• Result: Fixed in 2 hours, latency returned to normal, prevented wrong solution (DB upgrade)

13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Definition: Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a coworker or manager and how you approached it"
• "Tell me about a time when your work was criticized"
• "Tell me about a time when people in your team didn't agree with you"
• "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with your team but decided to go ahead with their proposal"
• "Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a decision but had to commit to it"

How to Answer:

• Show respectful but clear disagreement
• Demonstrate data-driven advocacy for your position
• Explain how you committed fully after decision
• Share that you supported the decision publicly
• Prove commitment led to success or learning

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Team wanted microservices, I advocated for monolith due to team size
• Task: Make case then commit to team decision
• Action: Presented trade-off analysis, listened to concerns, team chose microservices, I committed fully
• Result: Supported implementation, helped succeed despite reservations, learned when microservices work

14. Deliver Results

Definition: Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time when the deadline given to you for a project was earlier than expected"
• "Tell me about the most challenging project you've ever worked on"
• "Tell me about a time when you had to handle pressure"
• "Tell me about a time when you had two deadlines at the same time. How did you manage the situation?"
• "How do you prioritize tasks in your current role?"
• "Tell me about a time when you had to overcome significant obstacles to deliver"

How to Answer:

• Show focus on outcomes over activity
• Demonstrate perseverance through setbacks
• Explain how you prioritized for impact
• Quantify the results delivered
• Prove you never gave up

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Mission-critical migration needed in 3 months, team of 2
• Task: Deliver migration despite resource constraints
• Action: Broke into phases, automated where possible, worked weekends, got temporary contractors
• Result: Completed in 2.5 months, zero downtime, $2M cost savings annually

15. Strive to be Earth's Best Employer

Definition: Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment.

Common Interview Questions:

• "How do you manage a low performer in the team?"
• "Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for an employee"
• "Tell me about a time you saw an issue that could negatively impact your team. How did you deal with it?"
• "How do you identify a good performer in the team and help in their career growth?"

How to Answer:

• Show commitment to team member growth and safety
• Demonstrate creating inclusive environment
• Explain how you empowered team members
• Quantify improvements in team satisfaction or performance
• Prove you helped team members succeed

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Team member burning out from on-call stress
• Task: Improve work-life balance while maintaining service reliability
• Action: Rotated on-call, improved monitoring to reduce alerts, automated common fixes
• Result: On-call incidents reduced 70%, team satisfaction score increased from 6 to 9

16. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Definition: We started in a garage, but we're not there anymore. We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions.

Common Interview Questions:

• "Tell me about a time when you made a decision that impacted the team or the company"
• "Tell me about a decision you made about your work that you regret now"
• "Tell me about a time when you failed to do the right thing"

How to Answer:

• Show awareness of broader impact beyond immediate goals
• Demonstrate considering secondary effects
• Explain ethical decision-making
• Share how you thought about long-term consequences
• Prove responsible stewardship of resources/impact

Example Answer Framework:

• Situation: Feature would improve engagement but collect sensitive user data
• Task: Decide whether to build it
• Action: Analyzed privacy implications, consulted legal/ethics, proposed privacy-preserving alternative
• Result: Built alternative with 80% of benefit, zero privacy concerns, set company precedent

Behavioral Interview Tips for Amazon

Prepare 8-10 STAR Stories

• Each story should map to 2-3 different leadership principles
• Use recent examples (last 2-3 years)
• Include metrics and quantifiable results
• Practice concise delivery (2-3 minutes per story)

Common Question Patterns

• "Tell me about a time when..." (most common format)
• "Give me an example of..." (same as above)
• "Describe a situation where..." (same as above)
• Often followed by: "What did you learn?" or "What would you do differently?"

What Interviewers Look For

• Ownership and initiative
• Data-driven decision making
• Impact and results orientation
• Self-awareness and growth mindset
• Collaboration and communication skills

Additional Preparation Resources

Technical Preparation

• Focus on data structures and algorithms fundamentals
• Practice coding problems on platforms like LeetCode and AlgoMonster
• Review system design patterns for senior positions
• Understand Amazon's tech stack (AWS services, distributed systems)

Mock Interviews

• Practice behavioral questions with the STAR method
• Record yourself to improve delivery
• Get feedback from peers or use platforms like Pramp
• Time your responses (aim for 2-3 minutes)

Research Amazon

• Read about Amazon's services and recent initiatives
• Understand the specific team you're interviewing with
• Review the job description and align your stories
• Follow Amazon's tech blog and engineering posts