Interview experience
Amazon Interview Questions
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Amazon’s loop runs an Online Assessment, then a 3-5 round virtual/onsite loop (coding, design, and a mandatory Bar Raiser) - with Leadership Principles questions woven into every single round, not held back for one “behavioural” stage.
Amazon interview process at a glance
Section titled “Amazon interview process at a glance”| Round | Duration | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Online Assessment (OA) | ~2-3 hrs total | 2 DSA problems + work-simulation module + LP-aligned behavioural questions |
| Virtual onsite - Coding (1-2 rounds) | 45-60 min each | DSA (medium-hard) + 1-2 Leadership Principle questions |
| Virtual onsite - Design | 45-60 min | OOD for SDE-1 (e.g. parking lot, bookstore); scalable system design for SDE-2+ |
| Bar Raiser | 45-75 min | Deep-dive Leadership Principles only, cross-checked against every other round |
| Hiring manager / offer | 20-30 min | Team fit, location, compensation, close |
Online Assessment (OA)
Section titled “Online Assessment (OA)”Amazon’s OA is longer and more varied than most FAANG assessments: 2 DSA problems (medium-hard, on HackerRank), plus - on most SDE drives - a separate work-simulation module where you react to email/scenario prompts the way an Amazon SDE would, and a set of behavioural MCQs aligned to the Leadership Principles. All test cases on the coding problems typically need to pass to advance; partial credit is less forgiving here than at some other companies.
Common questions
- Maximum sum subarray with at most k elements
- Clone a graph with random pointers
- Merge k sorted lists
- Word ladder / shortest transformation sequence (graph BFS)
- Work-simulation prompts: prioritizing conflicting tasks, responding to a customer escalation email
Full round-by-round breakdowns are on the Amazon interview experience page.
Virtual onsite: coding rounds
Section titled “Virtual onsite: coding rounds”One or two 45-60 minute rounds with live coding, each usually built around a single DSA problem with follow-ups. Interviewers also slip in 1-2 Leadership Principle questions here - Amazon doesn’t wait for a dedicated round to start evaluating LPs.
Common questions
- Longest substring with at most k distinct characters (sliding window)
- Design a data structure supporting insert/delete/getRandom in O(1)
- Maximum path sum in a binary tree
- Find all anagrams in a string
- Design an LRU cache
Virtual onsite: design round
Section titled “Virtual onsite: design round”SDE-1 loops usually ask for object-oriented design (OOD) - classes, relationships, and methods for a system like a parking lot or bookstore - rather than a full distributed-systems design. SDE-2 and above shift toward scalable system design: throughput, storage, and failure handling at Amazon’s scale.
Common questions
- Design a parking lot / bookstore system (OOD, SDE-1)
- Design a URL shortener
- Design a distributed cache or rate limiter
- Design a scalable order-processing or recommendation system (SDE-2+)
The Bar Raiser round
Section titled “The Bar Raiser round”This is Amazon’s most distinctive round, and it isn’t optional: every hire needs sign-off from a Bar Raiser, an interviewer trained specifically to protect the hiring bar and who sits outside your target team. Expect 2-4 Leadership Principle questions pushed far deeper than in earlier rounds - what other options you considered, what data you had, why you chose what you did. The Bar Raiser can see feedback from every other interviewer, so a story you already used in an earlier round is a well-documented way to lose credibility here.
Common questions
- Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer (Customer Obsession)
- Describe a decision you made with incomplete data (Bias for Action)
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with your team’s direction (Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit)
- Give an example where you simplified something that had become too complex (Invent and Simplify)
- Tell me about the highest standard you’ve held yourself or a project to (Insist on the Highest Standards)
Sample STAR frameworks for these - and the rest of the 16 Leadership Principles - are on the Amazon HR interview questions page.
Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles
Section titled “Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles”Every Amazon interview, technical or not, is scored against these principles - not just the Bar Raiser round:
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
Prepare at least one distinct STAR story for each of the principles most relevant to your role, and keep a different story in reserve for the Bar Raiser.
Frequently asked questions about Amazon interviews
Section titled “Frequently asked questions about Amazon interviews”What is the Amazon interview process?
Amazon’s loop usually runs: 1. Online Assessment (90-120 min core coding + MCQs, with a separate work-simulation module on many drives) - 2 DSA problems plus a scenario-based work-style assessment. 2. Virtual onsite (3-5 rounds, 45-60 min each) - one or two DSA/coding rounds, one OOD/system-design round, and always a Bar Raiser round. Leadership Principles questions are woven into every single round, not just one. Total timeline: 2-6 weeks depending on team and level.
What questions are asked in Amazon interviews?
Coding rounds lean on arrays/strings, sliding window, graphs (BFS/topological sort), linked lists, and caching structures (LRU cache) - medium-to-hard difficulty. Design rounds ask for OOD (e.g. a parking lot or bookstore system) at SDE-1, and scalable system design at SDE-2+. Every round also includes 1-3 Leadership Principle questions, and the Bar Raiser round is almost entirely LP-focused.
What is the Amazon Bar Raiser round?
A mandatory round conducted by a specially trained interviewer from outside your hiring team, whose only job is to protect the hiring bar. It’s built around 2-4 Leadership Principle questions probed in unusual depth - follow-ups on why you chose one option over another, and what the data showed. The Bar Raiser has access to every other interviewer’s feedback and can override a hiring decision, so reusing a story from an earlier round is a well-documented way to lose credibility here.
How many rounds are there in the Amazon interview?
Typically 4-6 touchpoints: the Online Assessment, then a 3-5 round virtual/onsite loop (coding, OOD/system design, and the Bar Raiser), sometimes with a separate recruiter or hiring-manager conversation. SDE-2+ loops usually add a dedicated system-design round; SDE-1 loops lean more on OOD.
How should I prepare for Amazon interviews?
Drill medium DSA patterns (sliding window, graphs, LRU-style caching) until you can explain trade-offs out loud, practice OOD for SDE-1 or scalable system design for SDE-2+, and prepare a fresh STAR story for as many of Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles as you can - with a different story ready for each round, since the Bar Raiser will notice repeats.