🚀 Amazon Interview Guide

The ultimate interview guide to crack Amazon in both India and USA!

💡 Good news:

Getting a callback from Amazon is often easier than other FAANG companies, but PREPARATION is key.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the entire process:

📝 Step 1: Online Assessment (OA)

⏳ Duration: ~105 minutes

Components:

• Coding (~60-90 mins)

  • 2-3 Leetcode Easy to Medium Questions.

  • Sample Questions:

"Two Sum: Given an array of integers, return indices of the two numbers that add up to a target"

"Valid Palindrome II: Check if a string is a valid palindrome after removing at most one character"

"Number of Islands: Count the number of islands in a 2D grid"

"Merge Two Sorted Lists: Merge two sorted linked lists into one"

""Amazon Warehouse Optimization: Find optimal package arrangement"

• Debugging Assessment (~30-45 mins)

  • Fix buggy code snippets

  • Identify logical errors in existing functions

  • Common topics: Array manipulation, string processing, basic algorithms

• Work Simulation Assessment (~20-30 mins)

  • Scenario-based test aligned with Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles

  • Purpose: Tests behavioral decision-making

  • Structure: Choose best/worst responses to workplace scenarios

  • Sample Scenario:

    "You're leading a project with a tight deadline. A team member says they can't complete their task on time due to technical blockers. What do you do?"
    
    Options typically test: Customer Obsession, Ownership, Dive Deep, Bias for Action

• Work Style Assessment (~15-20 mins)

  • Tests work style preferences and personality traits based on Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles

  • Purpose: Assesses cultural fit and work approach compatibility

  • Response: Rate preferences, agree/disagree with statements

  • Choose responses showing: collaboration, initiative, customer focus, data-driven decisions

"I prefer to work independently vs. collaboratively" or 
"I make decisions quickly vs. I gather extensive data first"

• Feedback Survey (~5 mins)

  • General feedback (not scored).

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📞 Step 2: Technical Phone Screen

⏳ Duration: 45–60 minutes

1. Coding (1–2 problems)

   • Difficulty: Medium (Leetcode)

   • Topics: Trees, Graphs, Dynamic Programming, String Manipulation

   • Sample Questions:

“Serialize and deserialize a binary tree”

“Find the longest substring without repeating characters”

2. Behavioral Questions

• All tied to Leadership Principles

• Always answer in STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

• Sample Questions:

“Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete data”

“Describe a time you disagreed with a team member. How did you handle it”

3. Resume Discussion

• Be ready to deep-dive into projects:

  • Challenges faced

  • Tech stack used

  • Performance optimizations

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💻 Step 3: Virtual Onsite (Final Round)

⏳ Duration: 4–5 hours (4–5 interviews)

🧮 Coding Interviews (2–3 rounds)

• Difficulty: Medium → Hard

• Expect hints from the interviewer — optimize based on feedback

• What Amazon Looks For:

  • Code optimization during runtime

  • Clear variable naming

  • Edge case handling

  • Proper complexity analysis

Sample Questions:

“Design and implement an LRU Cache”

“Find the median from a data stream”

“Merge k sorted linked lists”

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🗣 Leadership Principles (1–2 rounds)

• Deep behavioral discussions where common principles tested are:

  • Customer Obsession, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Dive Deep, Handling Ambiguity, Learn and Be Curious, Bias for Action

• Sample Questions:

"Tell me about a time you took ownership of a project that wasn’t your responsibility"

"Give me an example of when you improved a process without being asked"

"Describe a time you had to simplify a complex process or system"

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🛠 System Design (SDE II+ only)

💡 Amazon-Specific Tip: Feel free to incorporate AWS services in your design (Lambda, ECS, DynamoDB, S3, etc.) when appropriate. Amazon interviewers appreciate when candidates leverage existing AWS building blocks efficiently. However, always explain WHY you chose a specific service and understand its limitations.

• E-commerce Focus examples Amazon loves:

  1. Product Catalog System

     • Handle millions of products, Search & filtering, Real-time inventory updates

  2. Shopping Cart Service

     • User session persistence, Concurrent updates, Payment system integration

  3. Amazon Prime Video

     • Video streaming architecture, Content Delivery Network (CDN), Personalized recommendations

  4. AWS S3

     • Distributed object storage, Replication & consistency, Access control

System Design Framework (Amazon Style):

1. 📋 Requirements Gathering (10 mins)

   • Functional: What features must exist?

   • Non-functional: Scale, latency, availability

   • Constraints & assumptions

2. 🗺 High-Level Design (15 mins)

   • Core services & APIs

   • Data flow diagrams

3. 🔍 Deep Dive (15 mins)

   • Database schema

   • Caching & indexing

   • Load balancing

4. 📈 Scale & Optimize (10 mins)

   • Bottlenecks & mitigation

   • Monitoring & alerts

   • Disaster recovery plans

Sample Questions:

“Design a scalable URL shortening service like Bitly”

“Design a system to handle Amazon’s order tracking at global scale”

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🏆 Bar Raiser Round

• Evaluates culture fit and long-term potential

• Heavy focus on Leadership Principles

• Sample Questions:

“Describe a time you had to make a high-stakes decision under pressure”

“How do you ensure quality in a fast-paced environment”

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📌 Final Tips

To crack Amazon:

1. Master DSA with consistent Leetcode practice.

2. Understand Leadership Principles and prepare personal STAR stories.

3. Prepare thoughtful questions about the team, role, and Amazon's culture

Thanks for reading!
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