Amazon.com Interview Questions & Reviews in Seattle, WA Area
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Updated Feb 14, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 603 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 603 ratings
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| 1–10 of 600 Amazon.com Interviews | Sort by |
Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 3, 2012 — 6 of 6 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 6 weeks)
3 Phone Screens + 1 in-house interview day
First phone screen: Development Manager position. I felt like I did good enough to warrant further consideration, but I knew I wasn't likely the best software manager candidate they ever interviewed. Interviewer was professional and friendly. He indicated there would be more screening.
Second phone screen: Senior Development Manager position. Interviewer was a very senior director level manager of a large organization within Amazon. When answering questions about about project scheduling and live site issues, I failed to realize that Amazon's highest priority is keeping their existing services working perfectly and that trumps any new development. If I had recognized that part of their business before the call, I may have given more impressive answers.
Third phone screen: Software engineering (individual contributor position). This was a very comfortable interview for me. Mostly all technical and programming questions. I knew I had done well when I got off the phone.
Between each phone screen, a few weeks would go by without hearing anything. I would wait at least a week and then politely email the recruiter about next steps. Each time, the recruiter would apologize for the delay and setup the next phase (which would usually be for the subsequent week). Treat those Amazon recruiters nicely - Amazon is going through a huge growth spurt right now and their recruiters have way too many positions to fill to give anyone individual attention. So if you get anxious, wait at least a week, and send very short and professional mails to the recruiters asking about next steps. They are good about following up to any email you send within a few days.
In person interview: 6 hours of interviews. This included 4 separate hour-long interviews of coding and design problems on the white board. I felt like I did very well.
Interview Questions
But I will say this: Almost every coding and design question asked has been posted on Glassdoor. While I am a very experience programmer, I recognized long before the interview process, that I would need to put in some long hours preparing for this company. I spent a lot of time spent refreshing myself on data structures and applying that to problem solving. I went through like fifty Amazon programming questions posted here. I copied each one down, and made a note of the number of times an equivalent variation of that question was posted. Then I made sure I could solve each one with my own code. Extra attention given to the problems posted multiple times.
Prior to my interview, I had heard from many friends who interviewed at Amazon that they were asked at least one question involving a hash table. Amazon is famous for asking questions about hash tables. Either they ask about the hash table constructs in various programming languages (like Java and Perl, hash vs. map, etc..), or a coding problem where the hash table affords an O(N) or O(1) solution. So if you are asked a question that involves looking up a value in one array and searching for a corresponding value in the same or other array - the answer likely involves "use a hash table".
Also, Amazon quizzes candidates on their ability to recognize runtime ordering of the coding solutions. So know your "big-O" notation (e.g. O(N), O(N lg N), polynomial, exponential, etc...)
Reason for Declining
Amazon is likely a good company to work for as an engineer.
If I wasn't gainfully employed with a good salary and benefits, I would likely have taken this job. As it was an exciting product group among a strong set of software developers. But my job search goal was to find a position that was a step up from where I was now. I had been looking for a job that was a change from where I was at, but would still allow me to be in a leadership role (software manager, architect, or developer with a large scope). The position offered was for an individual contributor role. I knew I would be in for a long learning curve and long hours to ramp up on their code base and tools before I would be on par with the rest of the group.
The compensation package was near equivalent to my existing salary and bonus structure at my current company. But there were some important benefits related to health, retirement, and wellness that I would have lost or had reduced if I had signed on. A friend of mine who works at Amazon suggested that I could have negotiated for more compensation to make up the difference.
That, and there is just a lot going on with my family right now. It would have been a very stressful time to switch. Maybe next year....
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Technical Program Manager at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 9, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 6 weeks)
Amazon.com contacted from a resume posting on Ladders.com.
Actually had two go rounds. The first was two phone interviews then a trip to Seattle and one on interviews with six interviewers. The first interview was technical in nature and came down to basically how do you scale systems. The second was a senior program manager, which was a good talk on management style.
The on-site interview was 11-4 and consisted of six one-hour interviews including one over lunch. I was interviewed for two positions. Questions weren't particularly tough and technically mostly about scalability of systems. Some of the younger interviewers seem to be following a script or were responsible to get an answer on a specific area.
I thought it went well but never heard back from Amazon.inc for six weeks and, of course, with no feedback.
I was surprised to hear back from them in January 2012 to set up another set of interviewers. This time, the recruiter was a total flake. On the first attempt for the initial phone interview, the interviewer was a no show. The interview was rescheduled for two weeks later. Amazon offered no explanation or apology.
This interview did not go well. I took an immediate dislike to the interviewer, a eastern European of some sort. He was arrogant and disinterested. I think this was a check box interview and a waste of both of our time.
Overall, Amazon's interview process is, well, a bit moronic. Very few organizational "fit" questions. It felt scripted and mechanic.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Product Manager at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 14, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took a day)
Was interviewed by two people. They were very nice.
First one started asking me if I had any question for him. We spent about 50% of the interview time in my questions. Then went to questions I cannot share with you, but nothing unexpected.
Second one was more typical, just regular questions and a few minutes for my questions.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
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Business Analyst at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 13, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 5 weeks)
Interviewed for a business analyst position in Seattle. I was very disappointed by the interviewers and the overall process. From the first two interviews, I sensed that the interviews had very big egos, but gave it a chance by going to the in-person interviews. There, I was met with more egotistical people who unfortunately were condescending at times and made it seem as if anyone working for Amazon.com was a genius and that person should count their blessings that Amazon.com thought they were "good enough." I still love the company, but was very, very disappointed by the quality of the people that worked there. Also, when they finally told me no, the recruiter basically was laughing at me since no one else had called me yet and that he was the first one - very professional.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Software Development Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 13, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2010 in Seattle, WA (took a day)
It was an in person interview with one of the direct members of the hiring team. It asked a question on algorithm to find the shortest prefix string. We went between brute-force solution to the optimal. Follow up questions were related to scaling, which points to the need to cache the right branches and sharding on disk. Finally, the interviewer talked about the team itself, and was really responsive to questions.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I applied In-Person and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
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Merchandiser at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 4, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 in Seattle, WA (took 6 weeks)
I had a phone interview and an on site interview where I met 6 people. I applied to offer and also got a referral from an employee. HR called me quickly to set up a phone interview with the hiring manager a few days later. The hiring manager was nice, he asked me basic questions and also how I would implement a wine shop on amazon.com.
Apparently I did well because they asked to set up a on site interview. They wanted to move fast and see me before I left for the holidays.
I had several 1:1 interviews. and one of them with someone else watching and taking notes, in the later case, the person interviewing was nice but the other did not smile at all.
They all asked me questions about my experience with a focus on my data analysis skills.
The boss of the hiring manager was really not likeable and made me feel like I was wasting his time. He told me that he worked a lot and came to the office when it was dark, left when it was dark... that he had no work-likfe balance.
I also met a HR representative that explained some formalities, she seemed professionnal.
They told me they would contact me the following week, 2 weeks later, I still didn't get any news, I sent several emails to the HR I met to follow up with her, never got an answer, I called her (I still had the phone number from which they called me for the phone interview) but there was not even a voicemail to answer. Finally a week later after back and forth and being able to leave a message she called me back and left me a message saying just her name, her position at Amazon and her phone number and thank you. I knew at that point that I would not get the job, but they could at least tell me. Called her back, voicemail. She called me back and was very rude, She told me they considered other candidates, I said thank you for letting me know and she replied some thing like "hum hum". She was very rude and unprofessional.
Overall this experience doesn't make me want to work for amazon.com.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Development Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 7, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 2+ weeks)
I had 2 phone screens and than was invited to Seattle for a visit which included 5 interviews and meeting with recruiting manager.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
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Software Development Engineer Intern at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 6, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 1+ week)
Contacted for a phone interview that took place a week after initial contact. Phone interview consisted of two 45-min technical interviews back to back. Questions consisted of algorithm designs, OOP principles, and basic screening questions. Both interviewers were very nice and helpful.
First interview: I had to find out if two numbers in a given array summed to a given value x. OOP question was to design a hierarchy for a furniture store.
Second interview: I honestly forget my technical question, but the OOP question was to design a hierarchy and methods for an Airport.
I received an offer two days after my phone interviews, and accepted a week later. Very good total package including relocation, discount, and extremely competitive salary. I also was told I can rank the "organization" i would like to work with (Kindle, AWS, etc) but have not received my official assignment yet.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
N/A
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
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Investigative Specialist at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 6, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Seattle, WA (took 5 days)
Interviewed me re. my language experience; first tasks were using Chinese and English to translate a paragraph; generic interview questions on working with colleagues, conflict with your boss etc.
Couldn't go on with the interview because they wanted to fill the position ASAP.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Amazon.com
Posted Feb 6, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2012 in Seattle, WA (took a day)
Got call from Amazon HR after I posted resume in Monster. Interview was schduled according to my available time. HR requested me to have paper/ pen & provided interview topics.
Interviewed called me on my phone ontime, discuss started with my current role & expectation for Software Engineer role.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, an IQ/Intelligence Test and a Skills Test.
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