I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in May 2013
Interview
A amazon recruiter contacted me and I was given the opportunity to take an online test. The test was very straight forward and pretty easy. About a month later I was given a phone interview, that took 2 weeks to set up. The questions were very straight forward and about my past experience. At this point he wanted to set up a second phone interview that would focus more on my technical experience. This interview happened about a month after the first phone interview. The interview was about an hour long and was comprised of about 5 questions. The questions were very long and somewhat complex, you had to keep a lot in your head and describe how you would solve a problem through an architecture. I don’t think the questions would have normally been difficult, but you could tell the interviewer was reading from a paper, on a speaker phone and had a thick accent. This made it VERY difficult to understand, keep track of, and design as he read the long scenarios. I had to continually ask him to repeat and clarify what he was asking. As I was explaining the design, he would dive deeper (as expected) which required me to ask him to repeat some of the other aspects I didn’t not completely hear. He was a very nice guy, but I knew at that point the interview did not go well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I don't think the questions would have been difficult, there was just a language barrier over a speaker phone. From what I could make out of the last question, it was how would you deal with a project that was delayed for 4 months you had a month to complete it, you also have 3 other projects that were due at the same time, you were under staffed and could only get 1 additional developer. As I explained how I would approach it, he would keep adding complexity (i.e one of them is a high value customer).
El proceso es largo, en total son en promedio 7 entrevistas, de las cuales 5 son en loop, lo que significa que estas 5 entrevistas pueden ser el mismo dia, una tras otra, de una hora cada una
Followed the same Amazon process intial meeting with a recruiter, then multiple rounds with various team members, and the hiring manager. They use the STAR method or variations to answer with the situation, the challenge you faced, then the actions you take, and the result. If you don't use that format, you will not get positive feedback from the interviewer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions around handling difficult situations or how to handle disagreements within the team were a common theme.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Los Angeles, CA) in Jan 2026
Interview
Recruiter screening friendly. Consistently great experiences with recruiters. Got HM interview but HM didn't do the interview. Guy who did lacked the background to assess my background in AI/ML. Amazon is now kicking people out of ATS for 6 months for related roles if you don't progress.
