The interview was very clear-cut and transparent throughout the entire process. The recruiters were very knowledgeable and professional - always making themselves available for phone discussions and responding fairly quickly to email inquiries. The same with the hiring manager - even if I sent a question at midnight - he responded to my inquiry within a half-hour. I had a phone screen in mid Sept 2017 and then an onsite in December-end 2017. The process took 4 months because I think my team was a team in-the-making; I think most interviews can be wrapped up anywhere from a few weeks to 2 months. The phone screen consisted of general technical questions such as what do you like about AWS product XYZ and where do you think it can be improved. Why would you choose one product over another, what are some of the biggest flaws that you see in architectures these days, etc. as well as some general interview questions like: Why AWS? The onsite interview was a bit grueling with 6 people interviewing me and then my giving an architecture presentation to a panel group. The interview, however, focused entirely on the role for which I was interviewing, the associated skillset, and the Amazon leadership principles. Note: they don't ask you choppy questions like: "Give me an example of when you have demonstrated Leadership principle 10". They ask about the leadership principles in indirect ways. They were not interested much in my past projects or coding exercises (there were some coding questions) - they have their own subtle, investigative ways of determining intelligence, knowledge, passion, judgement, and potential. I thought the Big Data Specialty and Solutions Architect Professional certifications as well as reading a ton of whitepapers helped me in preparing (Note: don't just pass the exams - actually master the material). Also, know the STAR method for sharing anecdotes - very important, and be honest in your stories - they can smell truth holes like a shark smells blood in water! The architecture presentation was a bit nerve-racking in that I didn't know what they were looking for exactly or what I was being judged on - they simply said take 45 minutes to present a project architecture from your past that you are proud of and show us how it could be implemented in AWS if it isn't already. I received an offer three days after the onsite interview.