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Amazon Leadership Principles interview guide

For anyone with an Amazon online assessment, phone screen, or loop coming up. You will finish with a story mapped to every principle that matters for SDE roles, 3 to 5 practice questions per principle, and a plan for the Bar Raiser.

How Amazon uses the principles

Amazon says every candidate is evaluated through its Leadership Principles (LPs), and its behavioral questions are built on them (Amazon interview loop). There are 16: the last two were added in July 2021 (About Amazon), and none have been added since (as of Oct 2026).

Stage What happens Where the LPs show up Source
Online assessment (students) Coding (about 70 minutes) plus a Workstyles Assessment (about 15 minutes); full-time adds a Work Simulation (about 60 minutes) The Workstyles Assessment is built on the LPs Amazon SDE OA
Phone screen Technical and behavioral questions Amazon publishes 5 sample behavioral questions; update within 2 business days Amazon phone screen
Loop 2 to 7 interviewers including a Bar Raiser, 45 to 60 minutes each Interviewers are assigned LPs to assess; each asks 2 or 3 behavioral questions Interview loop, SDE II prep
Weight For SDE roles, about half of the process is technical; the rest is LP questions LP answers weigh as much as code About Amazon
Decision Update within 5 business days of the loop; the whole process averages 3 to 6 weeks The debrief weighs the LP notes Interview loop, FAQ

When I went through my Amazon loop, it was three technical rounds plus a Bar Raiser (The job-search tool stack I'd actually use in 2026). Loop shape varies by role and level. Ask your recruiter for yours.

Amazon's own rules for LP answers, paraphrased:

  1. Keep each STAR answer to about 2 to 3 minutes (About Amazon).
  2. Focus on what you did and say "I", not "we" (Interview loop, About Amazon).
  3. Include metrics and data. Amazon calls itself data-driven (SDE II prep).
  4. Failures are welcome. What matters is what you learned and how you grew (Interview loop).
  5. Use recent examples (Amazon phone screen).
  6. Take responsibility for mistakes and don't blame others (SDE II prep).
  7. Don't share confidential information from current or past employers (About Amazon).
  8. Prepare "Why Amazon?". The loop page calls it a common question.

Jugal's summary of what the LP questions measure: "not whether you always made the right call, but whether you owned the outcome, demonstrated sound judgment, and evolved as a result" (How to Prepare for Behavioral Interviews at FAANG).

His warning from his internship prep guide: "Prepare Amazon's behavioral component separately. Leadership Principles preparation is required on top of technical prep, and candidates routinely underestimate it." (How to Prepare for FAANG AI Engineer Internship Season)

Which principles to prepare first

Amazon treats all principles as equal and says the job description usually shows which ones a role stresses (About Amazon, Bar Raiser Liz Jones). The order below is coach opinion for SDE roles, not official (IGotAnOffer, interviewing.io).

Priority for new grad SDEs Principles Stories needed
Prepare first Customer Obsession, Ownership, Deliver Results, Dive Deep, Bias for Action, Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit, Learn and Be Curious, Earn Trust 2 each (primary and backup)
Prepare next Invent and Simplify, Insist on the Highest Standards, Are Right, A Lot, Think Big 1 each
Cover with flex stories Frugality, Hire and Develop the Best Reuse a constraint story and a mentoring story
Low priority for SDEs Strive to be Earth's Best Employer, Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility interviewing.io says engineers are rarely asked these; have one story that shows you considered side effects

Jugal's top 4 to memorize are Customer Obsession, Bias for Action, Dive Deep, and Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit (The Definitive Guide for Meta and Amazon Engineering Interviews). All four sit in the first tier above.

Amazon's worksheet says it is normal if your experience does not cover all 16 (Amazon worksheet). Do this: open the job description, highlight words that match a principle (customer, ownership, deliver, dive deep), and move those principles to the top of your list.

All 16 Leadership Principles

The names below are official, in Amazon's order. The plain meanings are short summaries. Read the exact wording and watch each principle's short video on Amazon's Leadership Principles page.

"In the interview" notes draw on Bar Raiser Liz Jones's explainer (About Amazon) and Amazon's 2025 LP interview article (About Amazon). Question sources: AMZ = Amazon's pages, IGO = IGotAnOffer, IIO = interviewing.io, JB = Jugal's posts (roadmap, behavioral questions), TIH = Tech Interview Handbook.

1. Customer Obsession

Plain meaning: Start from the customer and work backwards. Earn their trust and keep it. Watch competitors, but focus on customers.

In the interview: Proof you went past the task for a customer. For an SDE the customer can be an internal team that uses your service.

A strong answer shows: who the customer was and what they really needed; a plan you changed because of their feedback or data; a customer-facing number that moved.

Student stories: users of your app, classmates using your tool, the team calling your API, students in your TA section.

Red flag: "I built what the ticket said" with no check on whether it solved the problem.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult customer. (IGO)
  2. Describe a time a customer asked for one thing but needed something else. (IGO)
  3. Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer. (IGO)
  4. Tell me about a time you overcommitted to a customer. (IIO)
  5. Tell me about a time you could not meet a customer's request. (IGO)

2. Ownership

Plain meaning: Think long term. Act for the whole company, beyond your own team. Never say "that's not my job."

In the interview: You found a problem yourself, took steps to fix it, and saw it through to the end. Amazon's 2025 article adds challenges beyond your role and projects finished despite obstacles.

A strong answer shows: nobody assigned it; you stayed through the boring parts (docs, alarms, handoff); you picked the long-term fix over a quick patch.

Student stories: fixing a broken team process during an internship, maintaining a club tool after launch, fixing a bug in a library you only used.

Red flag: "My manager told me to," or stopping the moment the code merged.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a time you did something that wasn't your responsibility. (IGO)
  2. Tell me about an important decision you made without your manager's approval. (IGO)
  3. Describe a time you took ownership of something outside your scope. (JB)
  4. Tell me about a time you took ownership of a critical issue. (IGO)
  5. Tell me about work you took on outside your comfort area. (IIO)

3. Invent and Simplify

Plain meaning: Expect new ideas, always look for a simpler way, and borrow good ideas from anywhere. Accept being misunderstood for a while when you do something new.

In the interview: A simple solution to a complex problem. Show how complex it was first, so the simplicity lands.

A strong answer shows: the before state in numbers (steps, minutes, lines); something you removed or reused instead of building; adoption by others.

Student stories: a script that replaced a manual process, a refactor that deleted code, reusing an existing tool instead of writing a new one.

Red flag: complexity for its own sake, or a framework nobody used.

Practice:

  1. Give an example of a complex problem you solved with a simple solution. (IIO)
  2. Tell me about a process you redesigned and why. (IGO)
  3. Tell me about a plan that ran into obstacles. What did you do? (IGO)
  4. Tell me about a time you improved a process. (JB)

4. Are Right, A Lot

Plain meaning: Good judgment and instincts. Seek different perspectives and try to prove your own beliefs wrong.

In the interview: This one is also about being wrong and changing your mind. Show how you reach decisions under uncertainty and handle one-way door decisions with care.

A strong answer shows: the options you weighed; who you asked for a different view; what evidence would have changed your mind; the outcome.

Student stories: choosing a database or framework for a project, picking which bug to fix first, changing your approach after a teammate's review.

Red flag: a story where you were right and everyone else was wrong.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a problem with several possible solutions. How did you choose, and what happened? (AMZ)
  2. Tell me about a judgment call you made when data was not available. (IGO)
  3. How do you deal with ambiguity? Give an example. (IGO)
  4. Describe a decision you made against your team's suggestion. (IGO)

5. Learn and Be Curious

Plain meaning: Never stop learning and improving. Explore new possibilities and act on them.

In the interview: Learning with a purpose: to solve a problem or improve something.

A strong answer shows: what you learned, how you learned it, how fast, and what you shipped with it.

Student stories: learning a new language for an internship, reading a codebase to fix an open-source bug, picking up a tool for research.

Red flag: a list of courses with nothing built from them.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly. (IGO)
  2. Tell me about a skill you taught yourself. (IGO)
  3. Tell me about a time you realized you lacked a skill the job needed. (IGO)
  4. What have you done to improve your own effectiveness at work? (IIO)
  5. What did you learn recently? (IGO)

6. Hire and Develop the Best

Plain meaning: Raise the bar with every hire and promotion. Spot talent, coach people, and build ways for others to grow.

In the interview: For non-managers this means coaching, mentoring, and sharing knowledge with peers.

A strong answer shows: a specific person you helped, what you did, and how they improved.

Student stories: TA office hours, onboarding a new intern, writing a guide your club still uses, pairing with a struggling teammate.

Red flag: "I helped everyone" with no specific person or result.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about feedback you gave a peer that helped them. (IGO)
  2. Tell me about a time you stepped in to help a struggling teammate. (IGO)
  3. Tell me about negative feedback you received. (IIO)
  4. Tell me about a time you mentored someone. (JB)

7. Insist on the Highest Standards

Plain meaning: Keep a very high bar and keep raising it. Don't pass defects down the line. Fix problems so they stay fixed.

In the interview: You challenged the status quo and refused to settle. Amazon also talks about a minimal lovable product, so show the trade-off with speed.

A strong answer shows: a bar you set (tests, review, alarms); what it caught; a quality number that moved; how you balanced it against the deadline.

Student stories: adding tests that caught a real bug, pushing back on shipping a broken feature, a review checklist your team adopted.

Red flag: perfectionism that blew a deadline with no conversation about the trade-off.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a project you wish you had done better. What would you change? (IGO)
  2. Tell me about a time you would not compromise on quality when others said it was good enough. (IIO)
  3. Describe a time you raised the bar for your team. (JB)
  4. Tell me about a goal that was hard to reach. (IGO)

8. Think Big

Plain meaning: Small thinking limits results. Set a bold direction, think differently, and look ahead for ways to serve customers.

In the interview: Solving a problem bigger than the one you were handed.

A strong answer shows: the bigger idea, how you got others to back it, and the first concrete step you shipped.

Student stories: turning a class project into a tool other courses used, proposing a feature that changed a hackathon project's direction.

Red flag: a big vision with nothing built.

Practice:

  1. What is your most significant accomplishment, and why? (IGO)
  2. Tell me about a non-obvious solution you proposed. (IGO)
  3. Give an example of a creative idea that was hard to implement. (IIO)
  4. Tell me about a time you challenged the status quo. (IGO)

9. Bias for Action

Plain meaning: Speed matters. Many decisions can be reversed and don't need long study. Take calculated risks.

In the interview: Weigh the risk quickly, act on two-way door decisions, measure, then adjust.

A strong answer shows: why the decision was reversible; what risk you accepted; how you limited the damage if wrong; the result.

Student stories: a hackathon call at 3 a.m., a hotfix during an incident, shipping a small version to get feedback.

Red flag: rushing a one-way door decision, or waiting weeks for perfect data on a reversible one.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about an urgent decision you made without data. (IGO)
  2. Give an example of a calculated risk where speed was critical. (IIO)
  3. Tell me about a time you launched with known risks. (IGO)
  4. Tell me about a decision you made without complete information. (JB)
  5. Describe a decision you made quickly. (JB)

10. Frugality

Plain meaning: Do more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness. No extra credit for bigger headcount or budget.

In the interview: Getting the most out of what you had.

A strong answer shows: the constraint (no budget, free tier, two people, one week); the creative workaround; what it saved.

Student stories: running a project on free tiers, reusing open-source code, a hackathon with limited APIs.

Red flag: "We needed more people, so we waited."

Practice:

  1. Tell me about delivering a project with a limited budget or resources. (IGO)
  2. Give an example of how you saved cost or removed waste. (IIO)
  3. Tell me about the last time you kept an approach simple to save time or money. (IGO)

11. Earn Trust

Plain meaning: Listen, speak candidly, treat people with respect. Be openly self-critical, even when it is awkward. Compare yourself to the best.

In the interview: Over-communication and honesty. This principle shows most when things go wrong.

A strong answer shows: you admitted a mistake early, told the right people, and rebuilt trust with actions.

Student stories: telling your mentor you would miss a date, owning a bug you shipped, repairing a tense project team.

Red flag: hiding a problem until it exploded.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about difficult feedback you received and how you handled it. (IGO)
  2. Describe a time you had to influence a peer who disagreed with you about a shared goal. (IIO)
  3. How do you earn trust on a new team? Give an example. (IGO)
  4. Describe a time you had to earn trust. (JB)

12. Dive Deep

Plain meaning: Work at every level and stay close to the details. Audit often, and be skeptical when the metrics and the anecdotes disagree. No task is beneath you.

In the interview: Root cause analysis and asking "why" until you hit bottom. The panel's interview style is itself an exercise in Dive Deep, so expect layered follow-ups.

A strong answer shows: the exact data you looked at; the moment the numbers and the user reports disagreed; the root cause; how you confirmed it.

Student stories: a hard bug, a performance problem you profiled, research results that did not match the paper.

Red flag: you can't answer the second "why".

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a project where you had to analyze data in detail. (IGO)
  2. Tell me about the most complex problem you have worked on. (IGO)
  3. Tell me about being thrown into a project where you had no experience. (IIO)
  4. What was the most difficult bug you fixed in the past 6 months? (TIH)

13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Plain meaning: Respectfully challenge decisions you disagree with, even when it is uncomfortable. Don't give in just to keep the peace. Once a decision is made, commit fully.

In the interview: Standing up for an idea with data, not opinion, then committing. interviewing.io calls this the most misunderstood principle. It is not a story about winning.

A strong answer shows: the disagreement and your data; the respectful way you raised it; the decision (maybe not yours); how you committed and helped it succeed; a point to revisit.

Student stories: a code review debate with a senior engineer, a team project design choice, a research method dispute.

Red flag: "I was right, and eventually they agreed with me."

Disagree-and-commit script (adapted from interviewing.io):
"I don't agree, for these reasons: [data]. I think it will not work because [risk].
That said, I'm on board so we can move forward. If [signal] shows up by [date],
can we revisit?"

Practice:

  1. When did you disagree with your manager? (JB)
  2. Give an example of committing to a group decision you disagreed with. (IIO)
  3. Tell me about a time your team did not agree with you. (IGO)
  4. Tell me about persuading a stakeholder to take a different approach. (IGO)

14. Deliver Results

Plain meaning: Focus on the inputs that matter. Deliver them on time and with the right quality. Rise to setbacks and don't settle.

In the interview: Overcoming obstacles. When you missed, show that you understood why.

A strong answer shows: the goal; the obstacle; what you cut or re-planned; the delivered result with a date and a number.

Student stories: shipping an intern project on time, finishing a capstone after a teammate left, a hackathon demo that worked.

Red flag: effort without outcome ("I worked really hard").

Practice:

  1. Describe a time you had to meet a tight deadline. (JB)
  2. Tell me about your most challenging project. (IGO, JB)
  3. Tell me about a goal you did not hit. How did you handle it? (IGO)
  4. Tell me about a time you missed a deadline. (IGO)
  5. Describe a time you delivered results under pressure. (JB)

15. Strive to be Earth's Best Employer

Plain meaning: Work every day to make the workplace safer, more productive, more diverse, and fairer. Lead with empathy and help colleagues grow.

In the interview: Empathy and helping colleagues grow. Liz Jones's example is a teammate who runs learning sessions for the team. interviewing.io says software engineers are rarely asked about it.

A strong answer shows: you noticed someone's situation and changed something so they could do better work.

Student stories: making a club more welcoming, running study sessions, fixing an onboarding doc for new members.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a colleague. (IGO)
  2. Tell me about an issue you saw that could hurt your team. What did you do? (IGO)
  3. How would you handle a teammate who is underperforming? (IGO; manager-leaning)

16. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Plain meaning: Amazon is large and affects the world. Be humble and think about the secondary effects of your work. Leave things better than you found them.

In the interview: Thinking through the consequences and wider impact of a decision. interviewing.io says it is usually asked of managers.

A strong answer shows: you considered who else your change would affect (accessibility, privacy, cost, other teams) and acted on it.

Student stories: adding accessibility to an app, removing personal data from logs, deprecating a tool without breaking its users.

Practice:

  1. Tell me about a decision that affected your team or company beyond your own work. (IGO)
  2. Tell me about a decision you made that you now regret. (IGO)
  3. Tell me about a time you failed to do the right thing. (IGO)

The Bar Raiser

What Amazon says officially:

  • A Bar Raiser is an interviewer brought into hiring loops as an objective third party, usually from another team, who acts as a steward of the 16 LPs (About Amazon: how Amazon hires).
  • The program started in 1999, first called the Barkeeper program. Its goal: every new hire should be better than 50% of the people already in similar roles (same source).
  • The Bar Raiser assesses you for the role and for long-term success, makes sure every interviewer is heard in a fair assessment, and coaches hiring managers and interviewers (same source).
  • The Bar Raiser runs the debrief and makes the final hiring decision together with the hiring manager (About Amazon: what is a Bar Raiser).
  • Bar Raisers are nominated and train for three months to a year, including shadowing (same source).

What others report:

  • Veto power is not stated on Amazon's pages. Former Bar Raisers Steve Huynh (Pragmatic Engineer) and Dave Anderson (Scarlet Ink) say they had it.
  • Fortune reported in August 2024, citing an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, that Amazon brought Bar Raisers back into entry-level SDE-1 (L4) loops after removing them during the pandemic hiring boom (Fortune). As a new grad, expect one. Confirm with your recruiter.
  • Amazon's pages do not say you will be told which interviewer is the Bar Raiser. The loop page says to treat every interviewer the same and not to tailor answers to their role (Interview loop).
  • Ex-Bar Raiser David Markley told Business Insider in May 2025 that a candidate can get an "inclined to hire" status that "sticks around for six more months" even without an offer, which may help if you apply to another Amazon role in that window (Business Insider). This is his account, not an official policy.

How to prepare for the Bar Raiser

  1. Pick your 3 deepest stories and prepare five layers of "why" for each. interviewing.io reports interviewers can spend 10 to 15 minutes on a single point (interviewing.io).
  2. Drill the follow-ups in the table below with a friend, or with the AI prompt on How behavioral interviews work.
  3. Be self-critical. Bar Raisers advise being honest about your own mistakes and never quick to blame others (About Amazon).
  4. Use a different story with each interviewer. Amazon's worksheet asks you to use a range of examples.
  5. Keep "I". Jugal: "'We built this feature' means nothing. 'I designed the caching layer, reducing latency by 40%', that's what they want to hear." (Your 6-Week Amazon Interview Roadmap)
  6. If your mind goes blank, say: "Give me 30 seconds to think through this." (same post)
Follow-up you will hear What it tests Have this ready
What exactly did you do? Contribution 3 actions only you did
Why that approach and not another? Are Right, A Lot The option you rejected and why
How did you know it worked? Dive Deep, Deliver Results The metric and where it came from
What would you do differently? Earn Trust (self-critical) One honest change
What did the other person think? Earn Trust Their best argument, stated fairly
What if your manager had said no? Ownership, Disagree and Commit Your plan B
What happened after you left or launched? Ownership (long term) Status 1 to 3 months later

Common LP answer mistakes

Mistake Fix Source
No metrics (the most common critical feedback) Put a before and after number in every result interviewing.io
Conflict stories that argue who was technically right Spend the time on how the decision was made and how you committed same
Team story with no individual contribution "I" for every action you took same
Treating Disagree and Commit as winning the argument Show the commit part, especially when you lost same
One story for every interviewer 8 to 10 stories, a different one per round Amazon worksheet
Twisting a story to fit a principle Ask "When have I actually done this?" Jugal's roadmap
Oversharing negative detail Brief setup, then your actions About Amazon
Reading from a script Memorize bullets, tell it fresh each time Amazon worksheet

Work Style Assessment

The student SDE online assessment includes a Workstyles Assessment of about 15 minutes, built around the LPs, where you choose statements that describe how you work; Amazon says no practice is needed. Full-time new grad assessments add a Work Simulation of about 60 minutes, and the SDE II assessment has an 8-minute Work Style Survey (Amazon SDE OA, SDE II prep).

  1. Read all 16 principles on the official page the day before.
  2. Take the practice test linked from the SDE OA page.
  3. Use Amazon's free prep course: full-time SDE or SDE intern.
  4. Answer the way you actually work. Amazon says there is no practice needed for the Workstyles part, so don't try to game it. Jugal's tip: stay consistent, because similar statements come back in different words (The Definitive Guide for Meta and Amazon Engineering Interviews).
  5. For the Work Simulation (emails and chats from a fictional team), use Jugal's three tie-breakers from the same post: customer over everything, propose a solution yourself instead of "checking with the boss", and ask for logs or metrics instead of guessing. Ignore that post's "20-minute" length; Amazon lists the average as 60 minutes.
  6. Block about 2.5 hours for the full-time OA. Amazon's page says to set aside up to two hours, but its listed section averages (70 + 15 + 60 + 5 minutes) add up to 150 minutes. Interns: about 90 minutes.

Full OA details: OA formats by company and the Amazon company page.

Two-week LP prep plan

Built on Week 2 of Jugal's 6-Week Amazon Interview Roadmap.

Days Do this Output
1 to 3 Read all 16 principles and watch every video on the official page. Read Liz Jones's explainer and the loop page. For each principle ask: "When have I actually done this?" 1 to 3 candidate moments per principle
4 to 7 Start a doc called "My Stories" (Jugal's name). Write 6 to 10 STAR stories with the story card. Map each to 2 or 3 principles in the template below Filled LP map, no empty rows in the first two tiers
8 to 9 Answer Amazon's 5 sample questions and Jugal's 8 questions (below) out loud, recorded 13 recorded answers
10 Audit: every "we" that hides your action becomes "I"; every result gets a number Fixed story cards
11 to 12 Two mocks, each 45 minutes, behavioral only. Use a friend, Aced Practice, or interviewing.io (paid) Notes on the 2 weakest answers
13 Re-read the job description. Pick the 3 principles it stresses and put your best stories on them Final LP map
14 Prepare "Why Amazon?" and 3 questions per interviewer. Read titles only Ready
  • I can name all 16 principles in order.
  • I have 2 stories each for the 8 first-tier principles.
  • Every story has a number and uses "I" for my actions.
  • I have a failure story and a disagree-and-commit story where I did not win.
  • I rehearsed the Bar Raiser follow-up table on my 3 deepest stories.
  • My "Why Amazon?" names a specific team, service, or product.

LP story map template

| Leadership Principle                         | Primary story | Backup story | Key line I will say |
|----------------------------------------------|---------------|--------------|---------------------|
| Customer Obsession                           |               |              |                     |
| Ownership                                    |               |              |                     |
| Invent and Simplify                          |               |              |                     |
| Are Right, A Lot                             |               |              |                     |
| Learn and Be Curious                         |               |              |                     |
| Hire and Develop the Best                    |               |              |                     |
| Insist on the Highest Standards              |               |              |                     |
| Think Big                                    |               |              |                     |
| Bias for Action                              |               |              |                     |
| Frugality                                    |               |              |                     |
| Earn Trust                                   |               |              |                     |
| Dive Deep                                    |               |              |                     |
| Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit           |               |              |                     |
| Deliver Results                              |               |              |                     |
| Strive to be Earth's Best Employer           |               |              |                     |
| Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility |               |              |                     |

Tilt one story to the principle being asked

Jugal's example story about failing gift card checkouts (full text) covers several principles. Keep the facts. Change what you expand.

Principle asked Lead with Expand
Customer Obsession Support was drowning in tickets Why customers were blocked and what the fix meant for them
Ownership "I was the junior dev, but I owned this service" Owning it end to end, including the alarms
Bias for Action Two days to a fix during the busiest week Why acting fast was the right risk
Dive Deep Instrumenting every error path, 12 edge cases How the root cause was found
Insist on the Highest Standards Alarms so it never happens again Making sure the fix stayed fixed

Questions Amazon and Jugal say to expect

Amazon's 5 sample questions from the phone screen page, paraphrased:

  1. Tell me about a problem that had several possible solutions. How did you choose, and what happened?
  2. When did you take a risk, make a mistake, or fail? How did you respond and grow?
  3. Describe a time you took the lead on a project.
  4. What did you do when you needed to motivate a group or promote collaboration?
  5. How have you used data to develop a strategy?

Jugal's "Questions they'll definitely ask" (Your 6-Week Amazon Interview Roadmap):

  1. Tell me about a time you failed
  2. Describe a time you had to work with a difficult team member
  3. When did you disagree with your manager?
  4. Tell me about your most challenging project
  5. Describe a time you had to meet a tight deadline
  6. When did you go above and beyond?
  7. Tell me about a time you had to make a decision without complete information
  8. Describe a time you took ownership of something outside your scope
Why Amazon (45 to 60 seconds):
1. The work: I want to work on [specific team, service, or product]
   because [your related project or interest].
2. How Amazon works: [one principle] matches how I already work.
   For example, [one-line proof from a story].
3. What I want to learn: [scale, customers, or technology you can only get there].

Logistics worth knowing (as of Oct 2026)

  • Amazon is piloting AI transcription of interviews with your explicit consent. Its FAQ says it is voluntary, does not affect your evaluation, and transcripts are not shared with candidates (FAQ, About Amazon, Jan 2026). It only runs on some Zoom interviews, and only if you opted in under the AI preferences in your amazon.jobs account settings (Phone screen).
  • In remote interviews a second Amazonian may shadow. It does not affect the outcome (SDE II prep).
  • Remote loops run on Zoom or Amazon Chime; your recruiter tells you which. Test your camera and screen sharing the day before (Remote interviews).
  • You can ask for a Candid Chat with an employee from an affinity group during the process (Candid Chats). Accommodations are requested through the accommodations page.

Resources

Official, free:

Coaches and practice:

From Jugal:

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