Amazon interviews are heavily behavioral — far more than any other FAANG. Even coding rounds have behavioral components. If you're not prepared for the Leadership Principles, you will not pass Amazon's interview regardless of your technical skills.
Amazon's Interview Process (SDE I / SDE II / SDE III)
- Online Assessment (OA) — 2 LeetCode coding problems + work simulation survey (2 hrs)
- Phone screen — 1 coding problem + 2–3 LP behavioral questions
- Virtual loop (5–6 rounds):
- 2× Coding
- 1× System Design (SDE II+)
- 2–3× Behavioral (LP-focused)
- 1× Bar Raiser round (any format)
The Bar Raiser is a specially trained interviewer from another team. Their job is to maintain Amazon's hiring bar — they have veto power over the hiring manager.
The 16 Leadership Principles (2026)
Amazon has 16 LPs. Know them all. Every behavioral question maps to at least one:
- Customer Obsession
- Ownership
- Invent and Simplify
- Are Right, A Lot
- Learn and Be Curious
- Hire and Develop the Best
- Insist on the Highest Standards
- Think Big
- Bias for Action
- Frugality
- Earn Trust
- Dive Deep
- Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
- Deliver Results
- Strive to be Earth's Best Employer
- Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility
For SDE roles, the most frequently tested LPs are: Customer Obsession, Ownership, Deliver Results, Dive Deep, Bias for Action, Have Backbone.
How to Structure LP Stories
Amazon uses a modified STAR format they call STAR + impact. Every story needs:
- Situation: Specific context (team size, company stage, timeline)
- Task: What was your role and what were you responsible for?
- Action: What did you specifically do? (not "we" — Amazon wants individual contribution)
- Result: Quantified outcome — numbers, percentages, dollar impact, time saved
Prepare 3–4 stories that can flex across multiple LPs. A story about a difficult production incident can cover: Ownership, Dive Deep, Deliver Results, Bias for Action.
Common Amazon behavioral questions
- "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager." (Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit)
- "Describe the most complex technical problem you've solved." (Dive Deep)
- "Tell me about a time you made a decision without having all the data." (Bias for Action)
- "Give an example of when you delivered a project under a very tight deadline." (Deliver Results)
- "Tell me about a time you improved a process to reduce cost." (Frugality)
- "Describe a situation where you had to earn someone's trust." (Earn Trust)
Coding Rounds
Amazon's coding is LeetCode medium, rarely hard. Speed and correctness matter more than elegance. Common patterns:
- Arrays, two pointers, sliding window
- Trees (especially BST operations)
- Graphs (BFS for shortest path)
- String manipulation
- Linked lists
Amazon coding rounds almost always include 2–3 LP questions before and after the coding problem. Don't let the behavioral context make you rush the code.
System Design (SDE II+)
Amazon system design focuses on AWS-native patterns. Know:
- S3, DynamoDB, SQS/SNS, Lambda, EC2, RDS — understand when to use each
- Event-driven architectures — Amazon loves async/queue-based designs
- Microservices — Amazon pioneered the "two-pizza team" model; design accordingly
- Cost trade-offs — Amazon is frugal; discuss cost as a first-class concern
Strong Amazon system design answers frame decisions in terms of customer impact and operational cost.
The Bar Raiser Round
The Bar Raiser can be any format — coding, system design, or pure behavioral. Their specific focus is on raising the bar: they're asking "Is this person better than 50% of the people currently in this role at Amazon?"
To pass the Bar Raiser:
- Give more depth than you think is necessary
- Connect every answer to customer impact
- Show intellectual humility — "I don't know, but here's how I'd find out"
6-Week Amazon Prep Plan
| Week | Focus | |------|-------| | 1 | Learn all 16 LPs, write 2 flexible stories | | 2 | LeetCode: arrays, trees, graphs (40 problems) | | 3 | Write 6 more LP stories (8 total), practice LP delivery | | 4 | System design: 4 designs with AWS-native components | | 5 | Mock full loops: code + LP in same session | | 6 | Bar Raiser prep: deep dive on your biggest projects |
Practice the Full Amazon Experience
Amazon interviews require practicing LP delivery AND coding in the same session — which is cognitively different from pure coding practice. CareerLift.ai lets you run Amazon-style mock interviews with both components, giving you real-time feedback on your delivery, structure, and technical accuracy.