Amazon Interview Guide

Amazon is one of the few tech companies where behavioral rounds carry as much weight as coding. The 16 Leadership Principles are not aspirational posters - they are a literal scoring rubric, and every interviewer arrives with 2-3 LPs they're responsible for probing. Understand that, and the whole loop becomes predictable.

Why Leadership Principles matter

At most companies behavioral questions are a formality - a box to tick before getting to the "real" part. At Amazon they are the real part. The 16 LPs were codified by Jeff Bezos and extended over time; every interviewer is trained to probe 2-3 of them using structured follow-up questions designed to surface whether a candidate genuinely operated that way or is just pattern-matching the answer they think Amazon wants.

The behavioral bar is deliberately set at least as high as the coding bar. A candidate who writes flawless code but whose LP answers signal poor ownership or an inability to earn trust will receive a no-hire.

Loop structure

A standard SDE on-site at Amazon runs 5-7 rounds, usually condensed into one day. Most rounds mix coding and behavioral - there is no clean separation between the two.

1. 1

   Recruiter screen

   Filter30 min

   Resume walk-through, level calibration, and logistics. No technical bar here, but compensation and timeline expectations are set in this conversation.
2. 2

   Technical phone screen

   1-2 rounds60 min

   1-2 coding problems in a shared editor plus 1-2 LP questions. This is the primary filter. Failing here means no on-site.
3. 3

   On-site coding rounds

   Core2-3 rounds

   LeetCode-style problems, typically medium difficulty, with an expectation of a working, reasonably optimal solution communicated out loud. Test cases are expected at the end.
4. 4

   Behavioral / LP rounds

   Core1-2 rounds

   Each interviewer probes 2-3 specific LPs using structured follow-up. They want a specific, recent example - not a hypothetical.
5. 5

   Bar raiser round

   Veto60 min

   A senior interviewer from outside the hiring team runs a mixed coding and behavioral round. Their explicit job is to raise - not merely maintain - the bar. They hold veto power.
6. 6

   Debrief & decision

   Decisionasync

   All interviewers submit written feedback with hire/no-hire votes. The bar raiser must agree for an offer to be extended. A single no from the bar raiser blocks the hire.

The bar raiser

The bar raiser is Amazon's most distinctive structural feature. They are a senior employee - often from a completely different part of the business - who has completed a multi-month training program to serve as a calibration point across all Amazon hiring. Two things define the role:

• Independence: they have no stake in whether this team fills the role. Their job is to ensure the hire raises the overall bar - not just fills an open headcount.
• Veto power: if the bar raiser votes no-hire, the offer cannot be extended even if every other interviewer voted hire. The hiring manager cannot override them.

The coding bar

Amazon's coding bar is roughly equivalent to medium LeetCode under time pressure. The expectation is that you arrive at a working, reasonably optimal solution while communicating your thinking throughout. Multiple signals are scored in each coding round:

Difficulty ramps with level. SDE I centers on clean, working mediums. SDE II and above see harder mediums and easy hards, with system design added for senior roles.

Building STAR stories per LP

The most efficient prep strategy is to prepare 6-8 strong STAR stories and map each to the 3-4 LPs it best illustrates. A single rich story about leading a high-stakes project might cover Ownership, Deliver Results, and Earn Trust - retold with a different emphasis depending on the LP being probed. See the STAR Method Examples guide for full worked answers.

The writing exercise

Some Amazon loops - particularly for senior and principal roles - include a written exercise. Amazon has a strong writing culture rooted in the 6-pager memo format, and candidates are occasionally asked to draft a short document (a design doc, a strategy brief) and present it in the loop.

• Writing is evaluated on clarity and structure first, detail second. A crisp one-page document beats a dense three-pager.
• Amazon's preferred narrative structure means full prose - not PowerPoint decks or bullet lists.
• If asked to prepare something in advance, treat it as seriously as the coding prep. It signals the level of written reasoning expected from you on the job.

How to prepare

Amazon prep has two tracks that must run in parallel. Most candidates under-invest in one or the other - usually the LP track.

• Coding track: drill LeetCode mediums with emphasis on arrays, trees, graphs, and dynamic programming. Practice writing working code with test cases in 30-40 minutes, not just arriving at the algorithm.
• LP track: write out 6-8 STAR stories. Map each to at least 2-3 LPs. Practice telling each one out loud in under 3 minutes, then answer cold follow-up questions. See the Behavioral Questions guide for the recurring themes.
• Read the LPs: go to amazon.jobs and read each principle carefully. Internalize what Amazon actually means - the content is often more specific than the label suggests.
• Mock with someone who has been inside the loop: solo prep reveals what you know; mock interviews reveal how you perform under pressure and what follow-up questions expose.

For a broader view of how Amazon fits into the FAANG landscape, see the FAANG Interview Process guide.