Interview Playbook / Big Tech

How Amazon Interviews in 2026: Process, Questions & What They Score

HOW TO READ THIS PLAYBOOK

Compiled from 22 public sources: candidate interview reports, coaching guides, and Amazon's own hiring pages. Interview processes change and vary by role, team, level, and region. This is one well-documented shape of Amazon's interviews to prepare against, not a script of what your interview will be. Confirm specifics with your recruiter. SupaCV is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon.

High confidenceLast verified JUL 202622 sourcesSources

Amazon's hiring process for technical (software development engineer / SDE) roles is a multi-stage funnel built around two things: technical ability (coding, and system design for more senior levels) and cultural fit against Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles (LPs). From the phone screen onward, nearly every live interviewer is trained to probe specific LPs alongside technical skill, and a "Bar Raiser," an interviewer from outside the hiring team with effective veto power, sits in the final loop specifically to keep the hiring bar consistent. The full process (first recruiter contact to signed offer) commonly takes 3 weeks to 2 months, though this varies significantly by role, level, team urgency, and whether reference/background checks add delay. Details below are drawn from career-coaching sites (IGotAnOffer, Interview Kickstart, TechPrep, Exponent), Amazon's own careers site (amazon.jobs, aboutamazon.com), and aggregated candidate-report sites (Glassdoor, onsites.fyi, LeetCode/DesignGurus); exact stage count, number of onsite rounds, and whether the OA/phone screen is skipped vary by level (new grad vs. experienced SDE1/2/3+) and by team, so treat specifics as directionally accurate rather than fixed for every requisition.

The Process

  1. 1

    Resume screen / recruiter outreach · Days to a couple of weeks to get scheduled

    A recruiter identifies or reviews a candidate (via application or outreach on LinkedIn) and does an initial eligibility check. This is the highest-elimination stage of the funnel.

  2. 2

    Recruiter screen · 15-30 minutes

    A short call where the recruiter asks about background, motivation for Amazon, logistics (location, visa, comp expectations) and gives an overview of the process; not usually a deep technical or LP evaluation.

  3. 3

    Online Assessment (OA) · Roughly 90-120 minutes total (varies by role; commonly broken into a ~20-30 min debugging section, a ~70-min coding section, and a separate 10-30 min work-simulation/workstyle survey)

    A timed, proctored test on HackerRank, most commonly used for new-grad/intern hiring and sometimes for experienced hires. Reported to include 1-2 LeetCode-style coding problems (medium-hard), a 'work simulation' section with scenario-based judgment questions, and a workstyle/personality survey mapped to the Leadership Principles.

  4. 4

    Technical phone screen · 45-60 minutes

    A live virtual interview (often over Amazon Chime) with one engineer, typically one coding problem plus a handful of behavioral/LP questions. For senior or experienced-hire roles this stage sometimes replaces the OA rather than following it; strong OA performers or some new-grad candidates occasionally have this stage skipped.

  5. 5

    Interview loop / virtual 'onsite' · One day; commonly 4-5 rounds at SDE1/SDE2 (L4/L5) and 5-6 rounds at senior levels (L6+), with some streamlined loops running fewer

    The main evaluation stage, now conducted virtually for most candidates: back-to-back 45-60 minute sessions in a single day, each led by a different interviewer who owns specific technical topics and specific Leadership Principles. Loops commonly include 1-2 coding rounds, one or more system design / OO design rounds (design rounds become more prominent at SDE2 and above), and dedicated behavioral/LP rounds. One interviewer in the loop is a Bar Raiser: someone from outside the immediate hiring team, trained to reduce bias and hold the hiring bar consistent, and who holds effective veto power over the hire decision.

    One interviewer in the loop is a Bar Raiser: someone from outside the immediate hiring team, trained to reduce bias and hold the hiring...

  6. 6

    Interviewer debrief / hiring committee · Behind the scenes; candidates typically hear back within about a week

    All loop interviewers (including the Bar Raiser) meet to share written feedback and debate the hire/no-hire decision. The Bar Raiser chairs this debrief and, together with the hiring manager, must both be inclined to hire for an offer to move forward; this is meant to counter groupthink and deference to the most senior voice in the room.

  7. 7

    Reference checks · ~15-20 minutes per call; roughly a week to complete

    Recruiter or team contacts 1-2+ professional references (former managers, peers). This step is reported inconsistently across candidates: more common and more rigorous for senior roles, sometimes skipped or folded into background checks for junior/new-grad hires.

  8. 8

    Offer and negotiation · 1-2+ days after references clear, though negotiation can extend this

    Recruiter extends a verbal/written offer with compensation package; a compensation committee may review adjustments if the candidate negotiates.

Evaluation Framework

Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles

Customer ObsessionOwnershipInvent and SimplifyAre Right, A LotLearn and Be CuriousHire and Develop the BestInsist on the Highest StandardsThink BigBias for ActionFrugalityEarn TrustDive DeepHave Backbone; Disagree and CommitDeliver ResultsStrive to be Earth's Best EmployerSuccess and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Verified against aboutamazon.com/about-us/leadership-principles and amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-principles: this is the complete, current, officially named 16-item list, used consistently across all roles and levels, not just engineering. The first 14 principles were in place by 2015 (with 'Learn and Be Curious' added as the 14th); 'Strive to be Earth's Best Employer' and 'Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility' were added on July 1, 2021, bringing the total to 16; no further additions have been confirmed since. Every interviewer in the loop is typically assigned specific LPs to probe via behavioral questions, and Amazon's online assessment includes a 'workstyle' survey explicitly built around these principles. Candidates are coached to map every behavioral story to one or more named LPs rather than answering generically.

Sample Interview Questions

Coding / Data Structures & Algorithms9 questions
  • Two Sum (find pairs in an array summing to a target)
  • Number of Islands (find/count connected land regions in a 2D grid via DFS/BFS)
  • Design and implement an LRU Cache
  • Reorder Data in Log Files (parsing/sorting mixed log entries)
  • Word Break (determine if a string can be segmented into dictionary words)
  • Task Scheduler (schedule tasks with cooldown constraints)
  • Sliding Window Maximum
  • Valid Anagram / string manipulation problems
  • Identify the Largest Outlier in an Array
System / Object-Oriented Design7 questions
  • Design TinyURL (a URL shortening service)
  • Design a parking lot system
  • Design an elevator system for a multi-story building
  • Design a rate limiter
  • Design a file upload/download service
  • Design a search/autocomplete feature
  • Design a notification or messaging service
Behavioral / Leadership Principles8 questions
  • Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer
  • Tell me about a time you took on something outside your job description and drove it to completion
  • Tell me about a time you simplified a complex process or invented a new solution
  • Tell me about a time you had to make an urgent decision without complete data
  • Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision but committed to it anyway
  • Tell me about a time you failed and what you learned from it
  • Tell me about a time you had to leave a task unfinished
  • Tell me about a time you influenced a change by only asking questions
Work-simulation / Situational Judgment (Online Assessment)4 questions
  • Given a workplace scenario involving a conflicting deadline, rank the most and least effective responses
  • Given a scenario about a dissatisfied customer, choose the response that best reflects Customer Obsession
  • Workstyle survey: choose which of several statements best reflects how you personally approach ambiguous or resource-constrained problems
  • Scenario: a teammate proposes a risky shortcut to hit a deadline; evaluate possible responses

Coach's Tips

Build a tight bank of 8-10 STAR stories (Situation, Task, Action, Result) before the loop, each mapped to one or more of the 16 named Leadership Principles, and explicitly reference the relevant LP in your answer rather than leaving the interviewer to infer it.

Prepare specifically for 'conflict' and 'failure' style prompts (e.g., disagreeing with a decision, leaving something unfinished, making a call without full data) since these map to less-obvious LPs like Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit and Bias for Action, and are repeatedly cited as under-prepared-for by candidates.

Quantify outcomes in every story (metrics, scale, business impact): Amazon interviewers and Bar Raisers are trained to probe for concrete, data-backed results rather than vague descriptions of involvement.

Treat the online assessment's 'work simulation'/workstyle section as seriously as the coding problems: it is explicitly scored against the Leadership Principles, so review all 16 LPs before sitting it, not just before the behavioral loop rounds.

Remember one interviewer in the loop will be a Bar Raiser from outside your hiring team whose job is to check whether you'd be better than at least half of Amazon's existing employees at that level, and who can effectively veto a hire the rest of the panel favors; treat every round as equally consequential rather than assuming only the 'hiring manager round' matters.

For SDE2+ and senior candidates, expect system/OO design (e.g., TinyURL, rate limiter, parking lot) to carry real weight alongside coding: practice explicitly stating assumptions, discussing trade-offs out loud, and scaling a design rather than jumping straight to an architecture diagram.

Common questions

How many stages are in Amazon's interview process?+

Amazon's process has 8 stages, in order: Resume screen / recruiter outreach, Recruiter screen, Online Assessment (OA), Technical phone screen, Interview loop / virtual 'onsite', Interviewer debrief / hiring committee, Reference checks, Offer and negotiation.

What framework does Amazon use to evaluate candidates?+

Amazon evaluates candidates against Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles: 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.

What kinds of questions does Amazon ask?+

Amazon's question bank spans 4 categories: Coding / Data Structures & Algorithms; System / Object-Oriented Design; Behavioral / Leadership Principles; Work-simulation / Situational Judgment (Online Assessment).

How reliable is this Amazon interview playbook?+

This playbook is high confidence, compiled from 22 public sources, and last verified July 7, 2026. It describes one well-documented shape of Amazon's interviews, not a guarantee of what any individual loop will look like.

Sources

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