Securing a role as a Software Development Engineer (SDE) at Amazon is both challenging and rewarding. Known for its emphasis on innovation and scale, Amazon’s interview process tests your technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and alignment with its 16 Leadership Principles.

This guide dives deep into every stage of the Amazon SDE interview process, helping you prepare strategically and confidently.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Overview of Amazon SDE Interview Process
3. Behavioral Interviews
4. Technical Interviews
5. Coding Assessments
6. System Design Interviews
7. Key Tips for Success
8. Sample Questions for Practice
9. Conclusion

Introduction

Amazon’s SDE interview process is known for its rigor and emphasis on both technical skills and cultural alignment. The company’s dedication to its 16 Leadership Principles shapes every aspect of its hiring process, ensuring candidates align with its culture of innovation and ownership. This guide provides an in-depth overview of the interview process, from resume screening to the final "bar raiser" interview.

Overview of Amazon SDE Interview Process

The process generally spans 4–8 weeks and includes the following steps:

1. Resume Screening
   Recruiters assess your resume for alignment with the role’s technical and leadership expectations.
2. Recruiter Phone Screen
   A brief call to understand your background, motivations, and technical skills.
3. Online Assessment
   A self-administered coding and situational assessment.
4. Interview Loop
   Four one-on-one interviews covering coding, system design, and behavioral questions.
5. Bar Raiser Interview
   A unique Amazon interview designed to ensure the candidate raises the team’s overall standard.

Each step tests your ability to innovate, solve problems, and align with Amazon’s culture of customer obsession and ownership.

PRO TIP: Browse phone screen and onsite SDE interview experiences from Amazon on Onsites.fyi. Efficiently prepare by reading past interview experiences, understanding the interview process, and applying the right strategies.

Amazon Software Development Engineer Role and Salary

Before diving into Amazon’s SDE interview questions, let’s explore the role in detail.

What Does an Amazon Software Development Engineer Do?

Amazon Software Development Engineers (SDEs) are responsible for designing, building, and maintaining software systems that power Amazon’s vast ecosystem. This includes areas like e-commerce, cloud computing (AWS), streaming services, artificial intelligence, consumer electronics, and logistics.

At the SDE I (entry-level) role, responsibilities often include:

• Writing and debugging code.
• Developing test cases to ensure software reliability.
• Translating design documents into production-ready code.
• Building a strong foundation in software engineering through practical experience.

As you grow into SDE II and SDE III roles, your responsibilities expand to include:

• High-level system design and implementation.
• Solving complex, large-scale technical challenges.
• Ensuring code quality through reviews and best practices.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams on large projects.
• Mentoring junior engineers and contributing to project management tasks.

In these senior roles, Amazon expects SDEs to demonstrate leadership in decision-making, technical execution, and long-term product innovation.

Skills Required for an Amazon Software Development Engineer Role

To secure an SDE role at Amazon, candidates typically need:

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 2+ years of professional software development experience (non-internship).
• Proficiency in at least one programming language, such as Java, Python, C++, or Go.
• Knowledge of system design, data structures, algorithms, and the software development life cycle.

For more advanced roles, candidates may need:

• 3+ years of experience working on full software development life cycle projects.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and experience working with large-scale distributed systems.
• Leadership qualities for managing teams and mentoring junior developers.

Compensation for Amazon Software Development Engineers

According to Levels.fyi, the median total compensation for Amazon Software Development Engineers in the United States is approximately $267k, which is 33% higher than the median total compensation for US software engineers. This figure includes base salary, performance bonuses, and equity components.

Compensation packages vary by level:

• SDE I (Entry-Level): ~$150k–$180k total compensation.
• SDE II: ~$200k–$300k total compensation.
• SDE III: ~$300k–$400k total compensation or higher.

Amazon’s competitive compensation reflects its commitment to attracting top-tier talent and rewarding innovation and performance.

Amazon Compensation from Levels.fyi

Behavioral Interviews

The behavioral interviews at Amazon are designed to assess how well you align with the company’s 16 Leadership Principles, which form the backbone of Amazon’s culture. These principles, such as “Customer Obsession,” “Ownership,” and “Invent and Simplify,” guide how employees approach challenges, solve problems, and work together. Expect a significant portion of the interview to revolve around these principles.

Key Aspects

• Duration: Typically 30–60 minutes.
• Format: A conversational interview with an emphasis on real-life examples.
• Focus Areas: Past experiences, decision-making processes, and how you handle challenges.

What Interviewers Look For

1. Leadership Principles in Action: Interviewers want to hear how you’ve applied these principles in your previous roles. For instance, when discussing “Ownership,” you might be asked to describe a situation where you took responsibility for a project’s success or failure.
2. Resilience and Adaptability: Amazon operates in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. Candidates should demonstrate their ability to adapt to changing priorities, navigate ambiguity, and deliver results under pressure.
3. Team Collaboration: Highlight examples where you’ve worked effectively with others, resolved conflicts, or influenced a group toward a common goal.

Example Questions

• Describe a time when you made a significant mistake at work. How did you handle it, and what did you learn?
• Tell me about a time when you had to work on a project with a tight deadline. How did you prioritize and manage your tasks?
• Share an example of when you introduced a new idea or process that simplified a task or improved efficiency.

Tips for Success

1. Use the STAR Framework: Structure your responses with Situation, Task, Action, and Result to create clear, concise, and impactful answers.
2. Be Specific: Avoid vague or generic examples. Provide detailed accounts of your actions and their impact.
3. Review the Leadership Principles: Prepare examples that align with each principle to showcase your cultural fit.

Technical Interviews

The technical interviews focus on evaluating your knowledge of data structures, algorithms, system design, and your ability to solve complex technical problems. Amazon’s approach emphasizes clarity, efficiency, and scalability in problem-solving.

Key Topics

• Data Structures: Arrays, linked lists, hash maps, stacks, queues, and trees.
• Algorithms: Sorting, searching, graph traversal, and dynamic programming.
• System Design: Scenarios involving large-scale system architecture and scalability.

What to Expect

• Each technical interview typically lasts 45–60 minutes.
• You’ll solve 2–3 problems per session, with a focus on correctness, efficiency, and scalability.
• Interviewers will evaluate not only your solution but also your thought process, including how you approach and break down problems.

Example Questions

• Implement a function to find the intersection of two arrays.
• Design a scalable URL shortening service like TinyURL.
• Write a function to check whether a binary tree is balanced.

Tips for Success

1. Ask Clarifying Questions: Before jumping into the solution, make sure you understand the problem’s requirements and constraints.
2. Think Aloud: Communicate your thought process to demonstrate how you approach the problem logically.
3. Discuss Trade-offs: Explain the time and space complexities of your solution and suggest potential optimizations.

Expanded Insights

Amazon values engineers who can think on their feet and provide innovative solutions. Practice problems involving real-world scenarios and focus on explaining how you would handle edge cases or unexpected behaviors in your code. Additionally, study Amazon’s technical stack if available for the specific role, as familiarity with their tools and systems can be a significant advantage.

Coding Assessments

Amazon’s coding assessments are an integral part of the interview process, assessing your coding skills in a practical, real-time environment. These assessments are conducted using platforms like CoderPad, CodeSignal, or CodePair, allowing you to write and execute code while interacting with the interviewer.

Key Features

• Live Coding: You’ll solve problems in a collaborative environment where the interviewer observes your approach and execution.
• Test Cases: Expect to write your own test cases to validate your solution.
• Optimization: Beyond solving the problem, interviewers may ask for improvements or alternative approaches.

What to Expect

• Problems often focus on arrays, strings, graphs, and recursion.
• Assessments are timed, typically lasting 60–90 minutes.
• You may need to debug or optimize existing code in addition to writing new solutions.

Example Problems

• Write a function to find all permutations of a given string.
• Implement a sliding window algorithm to find the maximum sum of a subarray.
• Write a function to determine if a directed graph contains a cycle.

Tips for Success

1. Practice Common Patterns: Recursion, backtracking, and sliding window techniques are common in Amazon’s coding challenges.
2. Focus on Efficiency: Aim for optimal solutions while balancing readability and performance.
3. Test Your Code: Cover edge cases and demonstrate how you would handle unexpected inputs.

Expanded Insights

Amazon uses coding assessments to evaluate your ability to solve problems under time pressure, communicate effectively, and deliver robust, production-ready solutions. Practicing in environments like LeetCode or HackerRank can help you simulate real interview conditions. Additionally, review Amazon-specific patterns, such as scenarios involving large-scale data handling or AWS-based solutions.

System Design Interviews

System design interviews are an essential part of Amazon’s Software Development Engineer (SDE) hiring process, particularly for mid-level and senior roles. These interviews assess your ability to design scalable, efficient, and fault-tolerant systems that align with Amazon’s large-scale operational needs.

Key Aspects

• Duration: 45–60 minutes.
• Focus Areas: Scalability, reliability, performance, and cost optimization.
• Interviewer: Senior engineers or architects familiar with distributed systems.

System design problems are open-ended and evaluate your ability to break down complex requirements, collaborate effectively, and make informed architectural decisions.

What Interviewers Look For

1. Understanding Requirements:

   • Clarify functional and non-functional requirements, including scalability, availability, and latency constraints.
   • Discuss trade-offs between consistency and availability in distributed systems (e.g., CAP theorem).

2. High-Level Architecture:

   • Propose a modular design with clearly defined components (e.g., APIs, databases, caching layers).
   • Explain how these components interact and handle failures.

3. Scalability:

   • Describe how your system can handle traffic spikes or growth over time.
   • Incorporate horizontal scaling (e.g., adding more servers) and techniques like sharding or partitioning.

4. Fault Tolerance:

   • Include mechanisms to detect and recover from system failures (e.g., retries, failovers).

5. Cost Efficiency:

   • Address how you balance performance with cost, especially when leveraging cloud-based resources like AWS.

Common Scenarios

1. Design a URL Shortening Service (e.g., TinyURL):

   • Requirements: Create unique short links, handle billions of requests, and allow link expiration.
   • Key Components:
     • Hashing algorithms for generating short links.
     • Database for mapping short links to original URLs.
     • Caching for frequently accessed URLs.

2. Design a Scalable Notification System:

   • Requirements: Deliver notifications to millions of users via email, SMS, and push.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Queue management for processing notifications.
     • Rate limiting to prevent overloading services.

3. Design an E-commerce Search Engine:

   • Requirements: Support fast and relevant search queries across millions of products.
   • Challenges:
     • Indexing product catalogs for search efficiency.
     • Ranking algorithms for relevance.

4. Build a Real-Time Chat System (e.g., WhatsApp):

   • Requirements: Enable real-time messaging, group chats, and message persistence.
   • Key Components:
     • WebSocket connections for real-time communication.
     • Persistent storage for chat history.

Tips for Success

1. Clarify Requirements:

   • Start by asking questions to fully understand the problem scope.
   • Identify must-have features versus optional enhancements.

2. Think in Phases:

   • Begin with a high-level design before diving into detailed implementation.
   • Break the problem into smaller, manageable components (e.g., API design, database schema).

3. Explain Trade-Offs:

   • Discuss alternative approaches and why you chose one over the other.
   • Consider trade-offs like read/write efficiency, latency, and cost.

4. Draw Diagrams:

   • Visual aids help explain your architecture and component interactions clearly.
   • Use diagrams to show data flow, system boundaries, and points of failure.

5. Be Ready for Follow-Ups:

   • Interviewers may dive deeper into specific aspects, such as database indexing, caching strategies, or security considerations.

Practice Problems

Here are some additional scenarios to practice:

1. Design a File Storage System (e.g., Google Drive):

   • How would you manage uploads, version control, and access permissions?

2. Design a Content Delivery Network (CDN):

   • How would you optimize content distribution globally while reducing latency?

3. Build a Rate Limiting Service:

   • How would you prevent a single client from overloading your APIs?

4. Design a Ticket Booking System:

   • How would you handle simultaneous bookings for high-demand events?

5. Build an Inventory Management System for Warehouses:

   • How would you track stock levels, shipments, and order fulfillment?

Expanded Insights

System design interviews at Amazon are an opportunity to showcase not just your technical expertise but also your ability to think critically and collaboratively. Practice articulating your thought process and make an effort to tie your solutions back to Amazon’s focus on scalability and customer obsession. Reviewing case studies of real-world systems like DynamoDB, S3, and Lambda can provide additional context and inspiration for your solutions.

Key Tips for Success

1. Understand Amazon’s Leadership Principles: Prepare at least one example for each principle.
2. Simulate Real Interviews: Practice coding and system design under timed conditions.
3. Communicate Clearly: Explain your thought process during every stage.
4. Ask Questions: Clarify ambiguities to align with the interviewer’s expectations.
5. Seek Feedback: Learn from mock interviews and refine your approach.

Sample Questions for Practice

Behavioral:

• Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer.
• Describe a situation where you made a mistake. How did you rectify it?

Technical:

• Implement a function to detect a cycle in a directed graph.
• Write an algorithm to find the median of two sorted arrays.

System Design:

• How would you design Amazon’s recommendation engine?
• Architect a scalable online bookstore system.

Conclusion

The Amazon SDE interview process is challenging but rewarding. By understanding the format, focusing on preparation, and aligning with Amazon’s culture, you can position yourself for success. For more resources, explore Onsites.fyi to supercharge your preparation.

Additional Resources

• Company Specific Interview Guides
  • The Comprehensive Guide to Big Tech Interviews: Proven Strategies for Every Stage of the Process
  • Meta Software Engineer Interview Questions: An In-Depth Guide to Success
  • Microsoft Software Engineering Interview Questions and Process: A Complete Guide
  • Meta Behavioral Interview Guide: A Comprehensive Guide
  • Mastering the Google Software Engineer Interview: A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide
  • Apple Phone Screen CoderPad Interview for Software Engineers in 2025
  • Cracking the Amazon Software Development Engineer (SDE) Interview Process: A Comprehensive 2025 Guide
  • Meta Software Engineer Phone Screen and Onsite Technical Interview Questions 2025