For those looking for remote online jobs, Amazon is a big industry player that’s always hiring. Are you interested in working for Amazon but are afraid of the complex interview process and tricky questions you might have to face?
We’ve got you covered! This guide will tell you everything you need to know about the Amazon interview process and common questions asked during it.
Read this guide to learn everything you need to know to ace your upcoming Amazon interviews!
A Few Words About Amazon
Amazon is an e-commerce company based in the United States that specializes in selling online retail products from a wide variety of different merchants. Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1994. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest companies in the world, with revenues exceeding $380 billion per year.
Amazon’s website currently offers more than 12 million unique items for sale across its websites worldwide. These include books, electronics, clothing, toys, kitchen supplies, home goods, beauty products, food, games, jewelry, tools, sporting goods, health and fitness products, and much more.
Why Is Amazon A Great Place To Work?
Amazon is great company to work for because they are big-name with robust benefits to match. The sheer size of Amazon’s presence around the globe means the conglomerate continuously has new positions opening up, including remote Amazon jobs.
They offer competitive pay, great benefits such as stock options, 401k matching, flexible hours, paid time off, medical coverage, and many other perks.
They also provide advancement and continuous learning opportunities through their internal programs such as Career Choice.
You’ll find many reasons why Amazon is a great employer and why you should consider applying there.
How To Get A Job With Amazon?
The key to getting hired at Amazon is first making sure that you first meet all of their requirements. After fulfilling these prerequisites, you will be eligible to participate in the rigorous hiring process.
The hiring process includes taking a series of tests and writing essays on various topics. You may even be required to complete a coding challenge or participate in an interview.
Once you’re accepted into the program, you will receive further instructions regarding how to proceed.
To get hired at Amazon, you must possess specific skills and abilities. Here are some of the most important ones:
- Strong communication skills – Amazon hires people who can communicate effectively verbally and nonverbally. They expect you to be able to express yourself clearly and concisely.
- Ability to solve problems quickly – Amazon employees need to be able to come up with solutions to problems when they arise. They need to think creatively and act decisively to accomplish tasks.
- Computer literacy – You will need to be familiar with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. You will also need to be comfortable using email, chat platforms, and social media.
- Good attention to detail – Amazon is known for having high standards. Therefore, you will need to be meticulous and detail-oriented. You will need to be able to follow instructions precisely without missing any details.
- Problem-solving ability – This is another highly valued skill at Amazon. Employees have to be able to identify issues and figure out ways to fix them. They need to be able to make decisions based on facts rather than emotions.
- Creativity – Amazon encourages employees to be creative and innovative. They look for people who can think outside the box and develop new ideas.
- Self-motivation – Amazon employees are self-starters who don’t like to wait around for things to happen. They thrive under pressure and always keep moving forward.
- Flexibility – Amazon has a lot of different shifts and schedules. If you aren’t willing to work whatever shift they assign you, then this job might not be suitable for you.
How Does the Amazon Interview Process Work?
The interview process for Amazon is pretty straightforward. Candidates must submit a resume and cover letter via the Amazon job application portal. After going through the first round of resume screening, you will be taken to the next rounds.
Initial Phone Screen
You’ll answer general questions about your background and experience during the phone screen. These include such topics as why you’d like to work for Amazon, why you think you would fit well within the company, and what you know about the position. About 1 in 2 candidates receive invitations to move to the next round.
Follow-Up Interviews
If you pass the initial screening, you’ll be invited to participate in a video interview. In most cases, this step takes place over Amazon Chime. You’ll meet with the hiring manager and possibly other team members as well.
From here on, it depends on the type of position you’re applying for. Programmers will be likely have to code on the spot and answer related programming questions in all interviews after the first. Expect lots of behavioral questions as well as quantitative questions about your past performance.
When I interviewed with AWS in the summer of 2021, they were looking for specific and quantitative examples of my abilities. It isn’t enough to say you improved your department’s efficiency with an algorithm you coded, you need to specify that you improved efficiency by 125% and cut-down 10K in associated costs.
Just remember that number are your friend here.
Offer or No Offer
If you pass the subsequent interviews, you’ll be offered a conditional offer. This means that you’ll be hired once you accept the offer. However, there may be certain terms and conditions attached to it. For example, you may be required to complete a probation period before being officially employed. Also take a look at stock vesting options if they are offered to you; Amazon back-loads these plans so that you only get the bulk of the stocks if you stay with the company for at least 3-4 years.
Other Potential Interview Assessments
There are other ways to assess potential hires. One way is to use behavioral interviewing techniques. Behavioral interviewing focuses on how people act rather than what they say.
Writing Assessment
You may also be asked to write a short essay. This can help determine if you’re able to communicate effectively.
The writing assessment will ask you to answer a prompt in around two pages. You will get to choose between these two prompts:
- Describing the most inventive or innovative thing you have done
- Describing a judgement call you’ve made that couldn’t be analyzed and describe your decision-making process
Make sure to use the STAR method (specific situation, task, action, result of the situation) to come up with concrete and specific details. Other than quantitative data, make sure your answer has a proper flow from beginning to end and that your answer is clear throughout and not muddled somewhere in the middle.
Coding Assessment
The interview is now becoming standard for technical roles like software engineering (which require preparation); however, it may also be given for other positions.
According to Coding Ninjas, the following topics can be presented in the online coding assessment:
- Number Theory
- Greedy Algorithm
- Binary Search
- Dynamic Programming
- Divide and Conquer
- Hash tables, maps
- Trees, BST
- Graph algorithms like DFS, BFS, Dijkstra
To prepare for the coding assessment, here are a couple sites you should be using to practice:
Lastly, check out these sample AWS coding questions for some specific examples.
Online Assessment
Some teams at Amazon incorporate these into the interview process. The assessment is composed of either a work-style or a work sample assessment.
To ensure that you perform well on an Amazon interview, you need to know as much as possible about their products and services. It’s essential to understand the basics of cloud computing because many of the positions involve working with data stored in the cloud.
What Are The Common AWS Interview Questions?
Amazon has several different types of interviews available. Depending on which type you’re applying for, you may be asked to participate in a written test, a phone interview, a video interview, or an onsite interview. You might have to face different kinds of questions.
AWS Behavioral Questions
You should be prepared for the behavioral questions. These questions will likely focus on how you interact with coworkers and customers. You’ll want to practice answering these kinds of questions so that you come across as genuine and comfortable with interacting with people.
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
3. Why Amazon?
4. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
5. What are your career goals?
6. What are three things we can improve upon?
7. Tell me about a difficult situation you had to deal with.
8. Describe a time when you were angry.
9. Describe a time you made someone else feel bad.
10. Talk about a time you solved a problem.
11. What are your hobbies?
12. Give me an example of a time you helped someone out.
13. What is one thing you like about working here?
14. What would you change about our company?
AWS Technical Questions
The technical questions asked during an Amazon interview include: how do you solve problems, what are your strengths and weaknesses, why did you choose this career path, and how would you describe yourself.
These questions can help determine whether you’d fit well within the company’s culture.
1. Which metrics do you use to evaluate whether an initiative was successful?
2. Describe an issue you resolved by implementing a particular feature or improvement.
3. What methods do you use to create positive relationships with developers and stakeholders?
4. What are the best practices you utilize to improve performance?
5. Using a binary tree, perform a depth-first search.
AWS Non-technical Questions
Besides technical and behavioral questions, they often ask some non-technical questions like:
1. How would you react if your supervisor made an unsafe decision against corporate policy?
2. Share with me an instance where you went over the management’s head to get your point across.
3. Can you recall when you led a group and failed to reach a goal?
4. How did you resolve a group conflict when you found yourself in conflict?
5. When you served as a leader, how did your actions improve productivity?
6. Describe a situation where you dealt with a poor-performing employee.
How To Answer Amazon Interview Questions
The best way to answer Amazon interview questions is to be honest, and tell them what you know about Amazon. If you don’t know anything about Amazon, you should research the company (and their leadership principles in particular) to prepare your answers for the interview.
You can start by reading articles about Amazon and its products. Once you feel confident enough, reach out to anyone you know who has worked for or interviewed with Amazon to get an insider’s perspective. If you don’t have anyone in mind, search up message boards on sites like Quora and Reddit to hear about other candidate’s experiences.
The hiring manager is more interested in candidates who have researched the job. So it is best if you read the job description thoroughly enough and then explore the company. Try to find out their latest achievements or learn about their recent projects. The recruiters spend more time with the candidates who show an avid interest in the company.
At Amazon, the STAR technique is usually preferred for answering interview questions. The STAR method is as follows:
- Situation: Describe the situation you found yourself in or the task you were given.
- Task: What was the objective of the task?
- Action: How did you handle the situation?
- Result: What were the results, or outcomes, of the situation?
By preparing your answer in this way, you will stand out from the crowd, increasing your chances of getting the job.
Things You Should Know Before Going to Your Amazon Interview
You can only excel in your interview if you know what they are going to ask. You need to prepare yourself for the interview by reading up on what you would be doing on the job. Also, you should ask a friend or family member to sit-down and do a mock-interview with you to get you ready,
Here are some tips that you can use during your preparation process.
- Read through the job description carefully. It will give you a good idea of what the company expects from its employees.
- Practice interviewing yourself. Ask friends and family members to listen to you talk about your experiences at work. This will help you to refine your talking skills.
- Prepare a list of questions that you want to ask the interviewer. This will help you stay focused and keep track of your conversation.
- Do not forget to dress appropriately for an interview. Be sure to wear clean clothes and shoes.
- Remember to focus on quantitative data points to showcase your accomplishments
How Long Does the Amazon Interview Process Take?
The interview process at Amazon takes anywhere from three weeks to four months or more depending on the role you’re applying for. Currently, interviews are being conducted online rather than scheduled in-person, meaning some parts of the application may be more streamlined.
Once all interviews are completed, you’ll be given a formal offer letter if you’ve passed.
Conclusions on the AWS Interview Process
Amazon is a top-ranking and highly sought-after company to work for. Their employees get competitive pay and many roles are currently virtual. Additionally, they offer a variety of perks to their employees, which helps them grow professionally. Therefore, you must be prepared for the interview and do well to land a job here.