Amazon Software Development Engineer Interview (questions, process, prep)

Today we’re going to show you what to expect during Amazon (or AWS) Software Development Engineer interviews, and what you should do to prepare. 

This guide has directly helped candidates (such as Jimmy C) to land SDE offers at Amazon, so take your time to understand the information provided in each section. 

And here’s one of the first things you’ll want to know:

Candidates often under-prepare for questions about Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles. This is a HUGE mistake because Amazon places much more emphasis on these behavioral questions than other top tech companies do. 

Here's what we'll cover:

• Role and salary
• Interview process and timeline
• Example questions
  • Coding interview
  • System design interview
  • Behavioral interview
• Interviewing tips
• Preparation plan

Thanks to Dessy and Bilwasiva, our expert Amazon interview coaches, for their insights on this article.

Note: We have separate guides for Amazon software development managers, machine learning engineers, and data engineers, so take a look at those articles if they are more relevant to you.

Click here to practice 1-on-1 with ex-Amazon SDE interviewers

1. Amazon Software Development Engineer Role and Salary↑

Before we cover your Amazon SDE interview questions, let’s take a look at the role first.

1.1 What does an Amazon Software Development Engineer do?

Software development engineers at Amazon are responsible for building, supporting, and optimizing applications and software systems across the company’s diverse ecosystem. This includes e-commerce, cloud computing, streaming, AI, consumer electronics, and more. 

As an Amazon SDE, you’re expected to be well-versed in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, and analysis. If you’re starting at Amazon as an entry-level SDE (SDE I), you’ll start by using your programming knowledge to develop test cases and fix bugs. You might also be asked to convert design documents into production-ready code. As you grow into your role, you’ll contribute to the entire software development life cycle. Through this, you should be able to advance your foundational skills.

As you progress into an SDE II / III role, you’re expected to take on more decision-making responsibilities, complex problem-solving, and high-level system design and implementation tasks. Amazon SDEs at this level also focus more on cross-functional collaboration, code quality control, project management, and mentoring of junior SDEs.

1.2 How much does an Amazon Software Development Engineer make?

According to Levels.fyi, the median total compensation for Amazon Software Development Engineers in the United States is $267k, 33% higher than the median total compensation for US software engineers.

Location also plays a big part. Here’s a comparison:

• Amazon India SDE:  $67.4K median total compensation
• Amazon US SDE: $267k median total compensation

Below you can see the average salary and compensation of the different SDE positions, as of early 2024, based on Levels.fyi data:

Ultimately, how you do in your interviews will help determine what you’ll be offered. That’s why hiring one of our Amazon SDE interview coaches can provide such a significant return on investment.

And remember, compensation packages are always negotiable, even at Amazon. So, if you do get an offer, don’t be afraid to ask for more. If you need help negotiating, consider booking one of our salary negotiation coaches to get expert advice.

2. Amazon SDE Interview Process and Timeline↑

The Amazon software development engineer (SDE) interview process takes about four to eight weeks on average. Below we’ve outlined the steps you can expect, and how Amazon evaluates interviews and decides on a hire.

2.1 What interviews to expect

First, it's important that you understand the different stages of your software engineer interview process with Amazon. Note that the process at AWS follows similar steps. Here’s what you can expect:

• Resume screening
• HR recruiter email or call
• Online assessment
• Interview loop: 4 interviews

2.1.1 Resume screening

First, recruiters will look at your resume and assess if your experience matches the open position. This is the most competitive step in the process—we’ve found that ~90% of candidates don’t make it past this stage.

So take extra care to tailor your resume to the specific position you're applying to (see our tech resume guide and examples).

If you’re looking for expert feedback, get input from our team of ex-FAANG recruiters, who will cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to fine tune your bullet points, and more.

2.1.2 HR recruiter email or call

Based on the official interview guide, if you pass the resume screening, you should receive an email with a link to an online assessment, which we’ll cover below. But based on candidate experience, some still do receive a call.

During this call, the recruiter will discuss your interests to see what group or team would be best for you. They will also use this conversation to confirm that you've got a chance of getting the job at all.

You should be prepared to explain your background and why you’re a good fit for Amazon.

2.1.3 Amazon online assessments

After passing the resume screen and/or HR screen, you’ll receive a link to a self-administered online assessment via email with a 1-week expiration. 

Based on Amazon’s interview guide for SDE-II, your online assessment may consist of three parts:

Coding (90 minutes)

This part will require you to answer two technical questions. You can use any of these coding languages: C, C++, C++14, C#, Go, Java7, Java8, JavaScript, Kotlin, Objective-C, PyPy2, PyPy3, Python2, Python3, Ruby, Scala, and Swift.

According to this SDE-I candidate report, the coding OA may include 4 questions: 2 for coding, and another 2 for explanation. While this wasn’t mentioned in the official guide, it would be best to prepare for both scenarios. 

System design (20 minutes)

For this part, you don’t need to complete a whiteboarding or diagram exercise. For each system design scenario, you’ll be asked to rate actions from most effective or ineffective.

Work style survey / Work sample simulation

After completing the system design module, you’ll be asked to fill in the Work Style Survey, which will assess your work style via statements. This is heavily based on Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Expect 30 to 40 multiple-choice questions.

One interview candidate reports receiving a Work Sample Simulation along with the Work Style Survey. The simulation is a sort of “day in the life” type of activity. Your prompts may come in the form of emails, videos, or instant messages from a virtual manager or team member. You’ll also receive materials to inform your decision. You’ll be tested on your problem-solving skills in alignment with Amazon’s Leadership Principles. 

If you pass the online assessment, you can expect a 15-minute preparation session on Amazon Chime, the company's video conferencing product. Your recruiter will brief you on the rest of the interviews you can expect. They’ll also give you a list of software development topics to prepare for.

2.1.4 Interview loop

After you pass the online assessments, the next step is the interview loop. For this round, you'll have a day packed with 4 interviews, which may be done virtually or in-person at an Amazon office.

Each interview will last about 55 minutes and be one-on-one sessions with a mix of people from the team you’re applying to join, including peers, the hiring manager, and a senior executive. 

Here’s a sample interview schedule from Amazon’s interview prep guide to give you an idea of what the interview loop looks like:

Question types

Three or four of your interviews will include coding questions (i.e. data structure and algorithm questions) which you'll need to solve on a whiteboard/online editor. One interview will cover system design questions. You'll be asked behavioral questions in all your interviews.

All candidates are expected to do extremely well in coding and behavioral questions. If you're relatively junior (SDE II or below) then the bar will be lower in your system design interviews than for mid-level or senior engineers (e.g. SDE III or above).

One common mistake candidates make is to under-prepare for behavioral questions. Each interviewer is usually assigned two or three Leadership Principles to focus on during your interview. These questions are much more important at Amazon than they are at other big tech companies like Google or Meta.

Bar Raiser

Finally, one of your last interviews will be with what Amazon calls a “Bar Raiser”. These interviewers are not associated with the team you’re applying for, and focus more on overall candidate quality than specific team needs.

They get special training to make sure Amazon’s hiring standards stay high and don’t degrade over time, so they are a big barrier between you and the job offer.

Learn more about the interview process by checking out Amazon’s official SDE interview process. Note that this official guide as well as ours (based on real candidate reports) may differ slightly, as the company often switches certain details to improve its processes.

2.2 What the Amazon interview evaluation form looks like

At the end of each interview, your interviewer will grade your performance using a standardized feedback form that summarizes the attributes Amazon looks for in a candidate. The form is constantly evolving, but we have listed some of its main components below.

A) Notes

The interviewer will file the notes they took during the interview. This usually includes the questions they asked, a summary of your answers, and any additional impressions they had (e.g. communicated ABC well, weak knowledge of XYZ, etc.).

B) Technical competencies

Your interviewer will then grade you on technical competencies. They will be trying to determine whether you are "raising the bar" or not for each competency they have tested.

In other words, you'll need to convince them that you are at least as good as or better than the average current Amazon SDE at the level you're applying for (e.g. SDE III).

For coding, you’ll be evaluated on three competencies:

• Knowledge of data structures and algorithms
• Problem-solving skills
• Ability to produce logical and maintainable code

For system design, you’ll be evaluated on your working knowledge of common and useful design patterns and how to apply them to certain problems. You’ll also be tested on your ability to write software in an object-oriented way. 

C) Leadership Principles

Your interviewer will also grade you on Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles and assess whether you're "raising the bar" for those too. As mentioned above each interviewer is given two or three Leadership Principles to grill you on. We’ll cover these in detail in section 3.

D) Overall recommendation

Finally, each interviewer will file an overall recommendation into the system. The different options are along the lines of: "Strong hire", "Hire", "No hire", "Strong no hire".

2.3 What happens behind the scenes

Your recruiter is leading the process and taking you from one stage to the next. Here's what happens at each of the stages described above:

• After the online assessments, your recruiter decides to move you to the interview loop or not, depending on how well you've done 
• After the interview loop, each interviewer files their notes into the internal system, grades you and makes a hiring recommendation (i.e. "Strong hire", "Hire", "No hire", "Strong no hire")
• The "Debrief" brings all your interviewers together and is led by the Bar Raiser, who is usually the most experienced interviewer and is also not part of the hiring team. The Bar Raiser will try to guide the group toward a hiring decision. It's rare, but they can also veto hiring even if all other interviewers want to hire you.
• You get an offer. If everything goes well, the recruiter will then give you an offer, usually within a week of the onsite but it can sometimes take longer

It's also important to note that recruiters and people who refer you have little influence on the overall process. They can help you get an interview at the beginning, but that's about it.

3. Amazon Software Development Engineer Example Questions↑

Here at IGotAnOffer, we believe in data-driven interview preparation and have used Glassdoor data to identify the types of questions that are most frequently asked at Amazon.

For coding interviews, we've broken down the questions you'll be asked into subcategories (e.g. Arrays / Strings, Graphs / Trees, etc.) so that you can prioritize the most common ones in your preparation.

In addition, we've also listed 10 system design and 40+ behavioral questions asked at Amazon below. Let's start with coding questions.

3.1 Coding questions

Amazon software development engineers solve some of the most difficult problems the company faces with code. It's therefore essential that they have strong problem-solving skills.

This is the part of the interview where you want to show that you think in a structured way and write code that's accurate, bug-free, and fast.

Here are the most common question types asked in Amazon coding interviews and their frequency. Please note the list below excludes system design and behavioral questions which we cover later in this article.

1. 1. Graphs / Trees (46% of questions, most frequent)
   2. Arrays / Strings (38%)
   3. Linked lists (10%)
   4. Search / Sort (2%)
   5. Stacks & Queues (2%)
   6. Hash tables (2% of questions, least frequent)

We've also listed common examples used at Amazon for these different question types below. For each example, we've modified the phrasing of the question to match the closest Leetcode problem and we've linked to a free solution on Leetcode.

Finally, we recommend reading our guide on how to answer coding interview questions to understand more about the step-by-step approach you should use to solve these questions, as well as our list of 49 recent Amazon coding interview questions for more practice.

3.2 System design questions

Amazon products have millions of monthly active users. Amazon's engineers therefore need to be able to design systems that are highly scalable.

The coding questions we've covered above usually have a single optimal solution. But the system design questions you'll be asked are typically more open-ended and feel more like a discussion.

This is the part of the interview where you want to show that you can both be creative and structured at the same time. In most cases, your interviewer will adapt the question to your background.

For instance, if you've worked on an API product they'll ask you to design an API. But that won't always be the case so you should be ready to design any type of product or system at a high level.

As mentioned previously, if you're a junior developer the expectations will be lower for you than if you're mid-level or senior. In addition, for certain roles (e.g. infrastructure, security, etc.) you will likely have several system design interviews instead of just one.

Amazon recommends brushing up your knowledge of distributed systems, SOA, and n-tiered software architecture for this section. Also, practice drawing by hand and prepare to whiteboard.

Below are the most common system design questions according to the Amazon interview reports which can be found on Glassdoor. For more information, we recommend watching the following Amazon video guide and using our list of 31 system design questions if you need more practice.

3.3 Behavioral questions

Amazon’s SDE interview process heavily focuses on assessing if you live and breathe the company’s 16 Leadership Principles. The main way Amazon tests this is with behavioral questions, which you'll be asked in every interview.

SDE interviews tend to primarily focus on the first four principles we have highlighted below, according to the Amazon ex-interviewers on our coaching team. The other twelve topics also come up but less frequently.

Amazon's Leadership Principles:

• Customer Obsession
• Ownership
• Bias for Action
• Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
• Invent and Simplify
• Dive Deep
• Are Right, A Lot
• Deliver Results
• Think Big
• Hire and Develop the Best
• Frugality
• Learn and Be Curious
• Insist on the Highest Standards
• Earn Trust
• Strive to be Earth's Best Employer
• Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

Below is a breakdown of each leadership principle and how you’ll be asked about them during your interview process with Amazon.

3.3.1 "Customer obsession" interview questions

Customer obsession — "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”

Customer obsession is about empathy. Interviewers want to see that you understand the consequences that every decision has on customer experience. You need to know who the customer is and their underlying needs, not just the tasks they want done.

This is by far the most important leadership principle used at Amazon. Therefore, it is the most critical one to prepare for.

According to Bilwasiva, Amazon interview coach, here are the best ways to answer ‘customer obsession’ questions: 

• Provide examples of how you've prioritized customer needs in your previous roles, showcasing your commitment to understanding and addressing customer pain points.
• Discuss specific initiatives or projects where you've gone above and beyond to deliver exceptional customer experiences, highlighting the outcomes and impact.

3.3.2 "Ownership" interview questions

Ownership — "Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.”

Interviewers at Amazon want to avoid hiring people who think, “That’s not my job!” When answering ownership questions, you’ll want to prove that you take initiative, can make tough decisions, and take responsibility for your mistakes.

Dessy, ex-Amazon interviewer advises preparing a situation that shows how you take ownership of a project even when you work cross-functionally, and how you go above and beyond to follow through and deliver.

3.3.3 "Bias for action" interview questions

Bias for action — "Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk-taking.”

Since Amazon likes to ship quickly, they also prefer to learn from doing (while also measuring results) vs. performing user research and making projections. They want to see that you can take calculated risks and move things forward.

Bilwasiva, Amazon interview coach advises preparing examples that “emphasize the importance of learning from failures and iterating on ideas to continuously improve and move forward.

3.3.4 "Have backbone; disagree and commit" interview questions

Have backbone; disagree and commit — "Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.”

Any group of smart leaders will disagree at some point. Amazon wants to see that you know when to challenge ideas and escalate problems to senior leadership. At the same time, they want to know you can sense the right time to move forward regardless of your disagreement.

3.3.5 "Invent and simplify" interview questions

Invent and simplify — "Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here." Because we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.”

Amazon relies on a culture of innovation. Answering invent and simplify questions is an opportunity to show your ability to create solutions when there is no obvious answer. 

You’ll also want to show that you know how to execute big ideas as simply and cheaply as possible. “Think about examples where you've come up with innovative, alternative solutions instead of building a feature that required engineering resources,” Dessy, ex-Amazon interviewer says.

3.3.6 "Dive deep" interview questions

Dive deep — "Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.”

When something isn’t working, SDEs need to quickly find a solution. Interviewers want to see that you are excited to dive deep when problems arise.

3.3.7 "Are right, a lot" interview questions

Are right, a lot — "Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.”

Amazon expects its Software Development Engineers to produce solutions as quickly as possible and to make a lot of decisions with little information. You’ll want to demonstrate skill in taking calculated risks and show that you're comfortable disproving your own opinions before moving ahead.

3.3.8 "Deliver results" interview questions

Deliver results — "Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.”

Amazon values action over perfection. When answering questions related to delivering results, you’ll want to indicate that you dislike slipped deadlines and failed goals.

3.3.9 "Think big" interview questions

Think big — "Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.”

Amazon is huge and its SDEs need to build products that reach significant scale to make a difference for the business. As a result, interviewers will want to see that you can develop and articulate a bold vision.

To demonstrate your ability to ‘think big’, Bilwasiva, Amazon interview coach says: “Share examples of how you've challenged the status quo, pursued innovative ideas, and inspired others to think beyond conventional boundaries.”

3.3.10 "Hire and develop the best" interview questions

Hire and develop the best — "Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.”

As mentioned above, Amazon wants new hires to “raise the bar.” Interviewers will want to see that you are not afraid of working with and hiring people smarter than you.

You should also show you enjoy coaching younger colleagues and know how to get the most out of top performers. You’ll notice the examples listed here are general interview questions, but they provide a perfect opportunity for you to address this principle.

This leadership principle is typically discussed in interviews for very senior engineering positions that involve people management or building a team (e.g. Software Development Manager, Director, etc.).

3.3.11 "Frugality" interview questions

Frugality — "Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.”

At every touchpoint, Amazon tries to provide customers with as much value for as little cost as possible. Interviewers will be looking for how you can support this idea while maintaining a constant drive for innovation.

3.3.12 "Learn and be curious" interview questions

Learn and be curious — "Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.”

Amazon demands constant improvement in every part of their business. You’ll want to show that you are interested in learning new things and exploring new ideas.

Some examples listed here are general interview questions, but they provide a perfect opportunity for you to address this principle.

3.3.13 "Insist on the highest standards" interview questions

Insist on the highest standards — "Leaders have relentlessly high standards — many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.”

Amazon takes the view that nothing is ever “good enough.” They’d like to see that you push for standards that are difficult to meet.

To demonstrate your commitment to high standards, Bilwasiva, Amazon interview coach says to cite examples from your previous roles where you established processes, guidelines, and quality assurance measures to uphold standards and drive continuous improvement.

3.3.14 "Earn trust" interview questions

Earn trust — "Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.”

The key part of that principle that candidates often miss is the “vocally self-critical” bit. Amazon wants SDEs who focus on fixing mistakes instead of figuring out who to blame.

You’ll want to show that you take action when something is wrong and acknowledge your own faults before blaming other people and teams.

Bilwasiva, Amazon interview coach also advises discussing “your approach to building relationships based on mutual respect, open communication, and delivering on promises.”

3.3.15 "Strive to be Earth's best employer" interview questions

Strive to be Earth's best employer — "Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. They lead with empathy, have fun at work, and make it easy for others to have fun. Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what's next? Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees' personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere.”

Similar to the principle “hire and develop the best,” this principle is more likely to come up in interviews for senior and/or managerial positions. In this case, you’ll want to show that you’ll not only boost your team, but also create a safe, diverse, and just work environment.

Essentially, if “hire and develop the best” means picking and training a top team, being “Earth’s best employer” means keeping that team safe, enriched, and engaged once you’ve got them.

3.3.16 "Success and scale bring broad responsibility" interview questions

Success and scale bring broad responsibility — "We started in a garage, but we're not there anymore. We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions. Our local communities, planet, and future generations need us to be better every day. We must begin each day with a determination to make better, do better, and be better for our customers, our employees, our partners, and the world at large. And we must end every day knowing we can do even more tomorrow. Leaders create more than they consume and always leave things better than how they found them.”

Amazon wants its employees to understand the responsibility of working for a vast, impactful company.

Show how you measure the impact of your decisions, both in your workspace and in the world around you (e.g. sustainability, justice, etc.). You must always be willing to improve.

Click here for an in-depth guide on how to answer Amazon’s behavioral interview questions.

In some cases, if you’re a fresh grad applicant, you may also get questions on computer science fundamentals as mentioned in this Medium article. So it would be helpful to brush up on that as well.

4. Interviewing Tips for Amazon Software Development Engineer↑

 

You might be a fantastic software engineer, but unfortunately, that won’t be enough to ace your interviews at Amazon. Interviewing is a skill in itself, that you need to learn.

Let’s look at some key tips to make sure you approach your interviews in the right way.  

4.1 Ask clarifying questions

Often the questions you’ll be asked will be quite ambiguous, so make sure you ask questions that can help you clarify and understand the problem.

4.2 Be concise but detailed

When answering behavioral questions, start with a short description of a situation you want to cite and be prepared to go into further detail once asked. 

Always use specific information and never generalize. The best way to do this is to prepare a single specific example of a past experience to illustrate your answer to a question.

When talking about your past accomplishments, Bilwasiva, Amazon interview coach advises quantifying your achievements wherever possible. “Use metrics and data to demonstrate the impact of your contributions.”

4.3 Think out loud

You need to walk your interviewer through your thought process before you actually start coding or designing a system. Amazon also recommends that you talk even while coding as they want to know how you think. Your interviewer may also give you hints about whether you’re on the right track or not. 

4.4 State and check assumptions

In your system design interview, you need to explicitly state assumptions and check with your interviewer to see if those assumptions are reasonable. 

4.5 Present multiple possible solutions

When you code, present multiple possible solutions if you can. Amazon wants to know your reasoning for choosing a certain solution. 

4.6 Strike a balance between your ambitious and collaborative nature

The ideal Amazon candidate is ambitious and driven, but your interviewer will also want to see evidence of how well you collaborate with others. 

So in your behavioral answers, be sure to get the right balance between ‘we’ and ‘I’. Acknowledge team effort by talking about what 'we' did as a team, and use 'I' to clearly demonstrate your own actions and elaborate on the impact YOU had.

4.7 Center on Amazon’s Leadership Principles

Go deep on Amazon’s Leadership Principles. We can’t stress enough how heavily Amazon emphasizes culture alignment, so be sure to prepare for this as much as you prepare for your technical interviews.

While we mentioned the first four values as the ones given focus in SDE interviews, the best way to prepare is to have at least one story for each LP.  To be more efficient, you can adapt your stories so they can respond to various leadership principles.

4.8 Make your code organized and production-ready 

Keep your code organized so your interviewer won’t have a hard time understanding what you’ve written. Amazon wants to see that your code has captured the right logical structure.

While your code won’t be tested, you’ll be more impressive if you write testable code. Prepare to explain the Time/Space Complexity of your solutions, and how to better optimize for  Time/Space Complexity.

Also, don’t use random/variable function names. Be sure to write descriptive, meaningful ones.

4.9 Get comfortable with coding on various mediums

Amazon advises SDE candidates to be ready to write code in real-time on an online editor. If the interview is in person, you might be asked to code on paper or a whiteboard. You can check with your recruiter which it will be if you’re not sure which medium to use.

5. Preparation plan↑

Now that you know what questions to expect, let's focus on how to prepare. Here are the four preparation steps we recommend to help you get an offer as an Amazon (or Amazon Web Services) software development engineer.

5.1 Learn about Amazon's culture

Most candidates fail to do this. But before investing tons of time preparing for an interview at Amazon, you should take some time to make sure it's actually the right company for you.

Amazon is prestigious and it's tempting to assume that you should apply, without considering things more carefully. But, it's important to remember that the prestige of a job (by itself) won't make you happy in your day-to-day work. It's the type of work and the people you work with that will.

If you know engineers who work at Amazon or used to work there, talk to them to understand what the culture is like. The Leadership Principles we discussed above can give you a sense of what to expect, but there's no replacement for a conversation with an insider.

We would also recommend checking out the following resources:

• Amazon's technology culture video mix (by Amazon)
• Amazon vision and mission analysis (by Panmore Institute)
• Amazon strategy teardown (by CB Insights)
• Amazon Software Development Topics (by Amazon)
• The Leadership Principles Explained by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy 
• An Amazon interviewer dives deep into how she uses the Leadership Principles (by Amazon)
• SDE Interview Prep (by Amazon)

5.2 Practice by yourself

As mentioned above, you'll have to answer three types of questions at Amazon: coding, system design, and behavioral. The first step of your preparation should be to brush up on these different types of questions and to practice answering them by yourself.

5.2.1 Coding interview preparation

For coding interviews, we recommend getting used to the step-by-step approach demonstrated by Amazon in the video below.

Here is a summary of the approach:

• Step 1: Clarify
  • Ask clarification questions to remove ambiguity about the problem
  • Explore the edges of the problem
• Step 2: Plan
  • Discuss potential approaches you could take
  • Pick an approach and lay out the high level steps
• Step 3: Implement
  • Write clean code, not pseudocode
  • Comment on your code as you go
• Step 4: Test
  • Start by testing with a simple example
  • Try breaking your code with edge and corner cases
• Step 5: Optimize
  • Calculate time complexity
  • Discuss how you can optimize your solution

We recommend using our coding interview prep article as your one-stop shop to guide you through this preparation process.

5.2.2 System design interview preparation

For system design interviews, we recommend getting used to the step-by-step approach demonstrated at by Amazon in the video below.

Here is a summary of the approach:

• Step 1: Ask clarification questions
  • Understand the goal of the system (e.g. sell ebooks)
  • Establish the scope of the exercise (e.g. end-to-end experience, or just API?)
  • Gather scale and performance requirements (e.g. 500 transactions per second)
  • Mention any assumptions you're making out loud
• Step 2: Design at a high level then drill down
  • Lay out the high-level components (e.g. front-end, web servers, database)
  • Drill down and design each component (e.g. front-end first)
  • Start with the components you're most comfortable with (e.g. front-end if you're a front-end engineer)
  • Work with your interviewer to provide the right level of detail
• Step 3: Bring it all together
  • Refer back to the requirements to make sure your approach meets them
  • Discuss any tradeoffs in the decisions you've made
  • Summarize how the system would work end-to-end

We'd also recommend studying our system design interview guide and learning how to answer system design interview questions. These guides cover a step-by-step method for answering system design questions, and they provide several example questions with solutions. 

5.2.3 Behavioral interview preparation

For behavioral interviews, we recommend learning our guide on how to answer Amazon behavioral interview questions. It's particularly important that you are able to demonstrate some of Amazon's Leadership Principles as you answer behavioral questions

Finally, a great way to practice coding, system design, and behavioral questions, is to interview yourself out loud. This may sound strange, but it will significantly improve the way you communicate your answers during an interview.

Play the role of both the candidate and the interviewer, asking questions and answering them, just like two people would in an interview.

5.3 Practice with peers

Practicing by yourself will only take you so far. One of the main challenges of coding interviews is that you have to communicate what you are doing as you are doing it.

To get used to this kind of "thinking out loud" we strongly recommend practicing live coding interviews with a peer interviewing you. 

If possible, a great place to start is to practice with friends. This can be especially helpful if your friend has experience with software engineer interviews, or is at least familiar with the process.

5.4 Practice with ex-interviewers

Finally, you should also try to practice software engineer mock interviews with expert ex-interviewers, as they’ll be able to give you much more accurate feedback than friends and peers.

If you know a software engineer who has experience running interviews at Amazon or another big tech company, then that's fantastic. But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.

Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can practice 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from leading tech companies like Amazon. Learn more and start scheduling sessions today.