Amazon interview guide

The Leadership Principles are the rubric. Amazon says they are the foundation of every hiring decision.

Interview process

Amazon publishes that its process differs by role, that you can expect one or two phone screens possibly followed by role-specific assessments, and that the interview loop puts you in front of two to seven employees: a mix of managers, potential colleagues and stakeholders, plus a Bar Raiser. Amazon describes the Bar Raiser as a specially trained interviewer from outside the hiring team who has no day-to-day stake in the role, who keeps the hiring bar consistent and reduces bias, and who reaches the decision together with the hiring manager. Interviews are behavioural and rooted in the 16 Leadership Principles, asked and answered in STAR format. Anything more specific than this, including round counts, interview lengths, how feedback is written up and how the decision meeting runs, is not published by Amazon, so ask your recruiter rather than trusting a number you read online.

The loop, to scale

5 rounds, 3h 45m of interviewing

1Application and recruiter contact · Varies by roleAmazon says the process differs from role to role, so ask your recruiter for your loop
2Phone screen · One or two screensAmazon describes one or two initial phone screens that assess basic qualifications
3Role-specific assessment · Varies by roleAmazon says screens may be followed by assessments specific to the role
4Interview loop · Two to seven interviewersA mix of managers, potential colleagues and stakeholders, plus a Bar Raiser
5Bar Raiser (part of the loop) · One of the loop interviewsA trained interviewer from outside the hiring team, there to keep the hiring bar consistent

Most asked questions

1. Tell me about a time you made a decision with incomplete information.

LP: Are Right, A Lot

2. Describe a time you went above and beyond for a customer.

LP: Customer Obsession

3. Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn?

LP: Learn and Be Curious

4. Tell me about a time you simplified a complex process or system.

LP: Invent and Simplify

5. Describe a time you had to deliver results under difficult constraints.

LP: Deliver Results

6. Tell me about a time you hired or developed a high-performing team member.

LP: Hire and Develop the Best

7. Describe a time you disagreed with your manager and what you did.

LP: Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Interview tips

Answer in STAR shape: situation, task, action, result. Amazon names STAR as the format it interviews in
Build your examples against the Leadership Principles, since Amazon calls them the foundation of every hiring decision
Say "I" rather than "we" when describing your own actions, so your specific contribution is clear
Quantify the result: metrics, percentages, dollar impact, time saved
Prepare more than one story per principle, because the same principle can come up more than once across a loop
Expect a Bar Raiser from outside the hiring team, whose job Amazon describes as keeping the hiring bar consistent
Amazon describes the Bar Raiser standard as bringing skills better than 50% of your would-be peers in similar roles, so pitch your examples at that bar

Compensation by level

Medians read from levels.fyi on 2026-09-12. A median is the middle reported package, not a floor or a ceiling.

Amazon managers are SDMs, software development managers, on the same numeric ladder as engineers. The level names and the pay figures below come from the levels.fyi page cited under each row, which is public salary data. L6 is an SDM, L7 a senior SDM, L8 a director, and an L5 manager rung exists.

Level	Base	Total	Basis
L6Software development manager	median $241K	median $449K	US
L7Senior software development manager	median $278K	median $618K	US
L8Director of engineering	median $307K	median $1.27M	US
L5Software development manager, entry manager rung	median $191K	median $312K	US

L6: Stock reported at about $208K a year.
L7: Stock reported at about $330K a year.
L8: Stock reported at about $959K a year, which is where nearly all of the increase sits.
L5: Listed for completeness. Most external manager hiring starts at L6.

Equity. Equity is RSUs, restricted stock units, meaning company shares handed to you over time. The vesting is back-loaded, which means most of the value arrives in the later years, so leaving early costs you most of the grant. Amazon does not publish the year-by-year split and neither will we: read your own offer letter, which states the exact schedule and cliff you are being offered.

Negotiation. Commonly reported as negotiable: the two-year sign-on bonus and the stock grant. Base salary runs into a company-wide cap that most reports put near $350K to $360K, so above that the money moves into equity.

Source: levels.fyi. Verify before you negotiate; see the negotiation guide.

What they really evaluate

Working Backwards: Amazon defines it as starting from the customer experience and working back to what to build
The PR/FAQ, which Amazon describes as a press release under one page plus an FAQ of five pages or less
Data behind every claim, because "how do you know?" is a fair question about any result you cite
Frugality, one of the 16 principles: achieving more with less
Long-term thinking, which Amazon states plainly in its principles and shareholder letters

Candidacy killers

Saying "we" throughout, so nobody can tell what you actually did
Blaming others for a failure without owning your part in it
Stories with no measurable result
Arguing against the Leadership Principles rather than engaging with them
Going passive on a disagreement question, when Have Backbone asks for the opposite