I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Jul 2014
Interview
Amazon is similar to other larger tech companies. Best advice, be prepared and understand the leadership principles.
Phone Interview(s) - I only had one. Focused on my experience and specific examples that showed how I managed a group of software engineers. Questions like, "tell me a time you overcame a significant challenge or problem".
In-Person Interviews - This was a half-day event where I was interviewed by 4 people separately. Each had a specific focus and area they were questioning. Two were clearly focused solely on my experiences with many similar questions to my phone screen, but more detailed. Two had some similar question, but also gauged my technical background and they did ask me coding questions. While I was told I would not be expected to code on the job, the role does expect you to be a competent in software design and development.
Overall the experience was very good. The recruiter from the very beginning gave me all I needed to survive the process so long as I also planned well and knew my own personal examples well. I studied the amazon leadership principles and had examples that met each criteria. I brushed up on my coding skillz... basics, trees, data structures, big o, etc.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Job experience questions mostly. Know what you have done, be specific.
For coding - know the basics and practice the most common questions out there.
No brain teasers.
Phone screen, 5 1 hour interviews for loop
Each hour was dedicated to 2 LPs. System design was more collaborative than i anticipated which was a pleasant surprise. The phone screen mostly focused on my previous experiences
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard LP based scenarios, system design was actual system the team owns
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Tokyo) in Feb 2026
Interview
The interview process is straightforward but intense.
First interview was with another Software Dev Manager in the same team. After that the famous loop interview where I had to take 5 interviews in a row over two days ( using paid holidays at work ). Recruiter gave a lot of information about possible questions and helped with materials. However, I had to use same stories few times as the different interviewers asked same questions few times.
Everything is okay, I had a good time during the interviews and it was a good exercise. However, I simply do not understand why they have to call to reject? I am not a customer to be obsessed with. A straight cut rejection via email works better than taking time out of my busy schedule.
If they used this time to share some feedback, that would be useful. If they do not share any reason why I have to continue formal small talk just to get the rejection on my face?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A time you were driving toward a goal and realized more than halfway in that it may not be the best goal.
Had 1 round of System design interview. I thought the interview went ok, if not bad, it went decently well. Received a rejection response, while asking to apply 6 months later.
