The Ultimate Guide to Amazon Software Development Engineer Interview Questions

Getting an interview with Amazon is a huge accomplishment. As one of the largest and most prestigious tech companies in the world, Amazon only accepts the best of the best. If you’ve got an Amazon SDE interview lined up, congratulations! Now it’s time to prepare.

This complete guide will teach you everything you need to know to do well in your Amazon software development engineer interview, such as:

• The interview format and timeline
• Examples of the most common coding, system design, and behavioral questions
• Top tips to help you prepare

Let’s get started!

Overview of the Interview Process

The SDE interview process typically takes 4-8 weeks and consists of:

• Initial resume screen
• Call with an HR recruiter
• 1-2 technical phone screens
• 4-6 onsite interviews (mixed coding, system design, behavioral)

The process is very rigorous. Out of all applicants only about 10% even make it past the initial resume screening!

During the technical interviews. you’ll be assessed primarily on

• Coding – data structures, algorithms
• System design
• Leadership principles

Amazon puts a huge emphasis on their leadership principles, even more so than companies like Google and Facebook. You’ll need to demonstrate these principles throughout the interviews, especially during the behavioral questions.

Now let’s look at the types of technical questions you’ll get.

Coding Interview Questions

Coding questions make up the bulk of the technical interviews. I analyzed thousands of interview reviews to find the most frequent topics:

• Graphs/trees (46%)
• Arrays/strings (38%)
• Linked lists (10%)
• Search/sort (2%)
• Stacks/queues (2%)
• Hash tables (2%)

Let’s look at some examples for the top categories:

Graphs and Trees

• Serialize/deserialize a binary tree
• Find the maximum path sum between two nodes in a binary tree
• Construct a binary tree from inorder and preorder traversals
• Check if a graph’s edges make up a valid tree
• Print an airline itinerary given tickets forming a graph

Arrays and Strings

• Two Sum – find indices of elements adding to a target
• 3Sum – find triplets adding to zero
• Longest palindromic substring
• Maximum profit from buying/selling a stock once
• Convert integer to English words

Linked Lists

• Reverse a linked list in groups of k nodes
• Merge two sorted linked lists
• Merge k sorted linked lists
• Deep copy a linked list with random pointers

Brush up on data structures like arrays, strings, trees, graphs, linked lists, stacks, queues, and hash tables. Know common algorithms like BFS, DFS, sorting, etc.

LeetCode is great for practice – focus on medium questions. Study until you can solve most problems optimally within 30 minutes.

System Design Questions

You’ll likely get 1-2 system design questions during your onsite interviews. Some examples:

• Design a scalable system for an Amazon warehouse
• Design Amazon’s website to handle 10x more traffic
• Design Amazon’s customer database
• Design TinyURL or an API rate limiter
• Design a parking payment system

For system design, interviewers want to see that you can be both creative and methodical. Clarify requirements, sketch high-level designs, point out bottlenecks, and discuss solutions.

Focus on scalability, reliability, and practicality. Brush up on topics like load balancing, caching, databases, microservices, etc.

Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral questions are asked in every interview to assess your fit with Amazon’s leadership principles. The most common principles tested are:

Customer Obsession

• Tell me about a time you made something simpler for customers
• How have you earned and kept customer trust?

Show that you empathize with users’ underlying needs and frustrations. Know who the customer is and how each decision affects them.

Ownership

• Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside your job scope
• When have you sacrificed long-term goals for short-term results?

Prove you take initiative, make tough calls, and own mistakes. Avoid anything suggesting “that’s not my job”.

Bias for Action

• Tell me about a time you made a quick decision with incomplete data
• When have you delivered something quickly by breaking it into simple pieces?

Show you move fast, take calculated risks, and learn by doing. Speed and agility matter.

Backbone; Disagree and Commit

• Tell me about a conflict you had at work and how you handled it
• When have you committed to a decision despite disagreeing with it?

Demonstrate you voice concerns respectfully, but also know when to move on. Show conviction and tenacity.

Other principles like frugality, high standards, and inventiveness also come up occasionally.

Frame your answers using the STAR method – describe the Situation, Task, Action you took, and the Result. Use concrete examples and highlight successes, learnings, and client impact.

Tips to Prepare for Your Amazon Interview

With an intense interview process, thorough preparation is key. Here are my top tips:

• Thoroughly study Amazon’s leadership principles and prep answers using the STAR method. This part is critical!
• Grind LeetCode. Aim to solve 200-300+ coding problems.
• Master data structures, algorithms, system design, OO design, databases, etc.
• Practice out loud or use a whiteboard for coding. Get used to talking through your solutions.
• Do several full-length mock interviews with ex-Amazon engineers.
• Review the most frequently asked questions listed in this guide.
• Brush up on Amazon products, tech, and business. Know the company.
• Get plenty of rest beforehand. Eat well and avoid caffeine day-of.

If you put in the hard work, you can absolutely nail your Amazon interview. Trust the process, stay confident, and show them what you’ve got! You’ve got this.