Amazon SDE Interview Process: Online Assessment, Loop and Leadership Principles

Overview

Amazon hires software development engineers (SDEs) at several levels, from SDE-1 for fresh graduates to senior and principal roles for experienced engineers. Its interviews are known for two features: strong data structures and algorithms questions and detailed behavioural questions based on Amazon's Leadership Principles. Amazon's own careers site confirms that candidates meet several interviewers, each assessing different aspects of skills and experience, and that the Leadership Principles and the STAR method are core preparation topics.

The usual stages

1. Application and recruiter contact: resume screening, or a campus or hiring event.
2. Online assessment (OA): commonly reported as coding problems (often two) plus a work-style or behavioural simulation and sometimes a short reasoning section. Time limits are strict.
3. Phone or video interview (not always): one coding conversation.
4. The interview loop: typically three to five interviews on one day or spread over a few days. Each interview is usually about 45–60 minutes, and mixes a behavioural portion with a technical one.
5. Debrief and decision: interviewers share feedback. Amazon is known for including a Bar Raiser, an experienced interviewer from outside the hiring team whose role is to keep the hiring standard high.

For experienced candidates, the loop usually includes system design (high-level and sometimes low-level design) in addition to coding.

The Leadership Principles

Amazon evaluates how you think and act using a set of Leadership Principles, such as Customer Obsession, Ownership, Bias for Action, Dive Deep, Earn Trust, Deliver Results, Invent and Simplify, Learn and Be Curious, Insist on the Highest Standards and Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit. Amazon's page currently lists 16 principles: 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, and Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility. The list is updated from time to time, so read the current version on Amazon's careers site.

Plan to prepare 6–8 real stories from projects, internships, college life or work. Each story should be flexible enough to fit multiple principles. Structure each one with STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and emphasise what you did and the measurable outcome (STAR guide).

Coding preparation

Expect typical topics: arrays and strings, hash maps, two pointers and sliding window, linked lists, trees and graphs (BFS/DFS), heaps, binary search, recursion and basic dynamic programming. Questions are commonly in the medium range.

Interview habits that help:

1. Repeat the problem and clarify constraints
2. Start with a simple solution, then improve it
3. State time and space complexity
4. Write clean code and test it with examples
5. Talk through your thinking continuously

Follow the 12-week DSA study plan and use online assessment tips for the timed OA.

Design preparation (experienced candidates)

Learn how to approach designing a service: clarify requirements, estimate scale, outline APIs, choose storage, add caching and queues, and discuss trade-offs (system design basics). For lower-level design, practise object-oriented design problems such as a parking lot or a vending machine (OOP and design).

Mistakes to avoid

• Saying "we" for every achievement; interviewers want to know your personal contribution
• Stories with no numbers or clear result
• Jumping into code before understanding the problem
• Ignoring the behavioural portion because you prefer coding
• Going silent when you are stuck. Talk through your options.

Next steps

Revise core CS subjects and read how Google's process differs in the Google engineer interview guide. See openings for experienced engineers and freshers on this site.

What the company's own pages say (checked 28 October 2026)

Confirmed on the Amazon interviewing page and the Leadership Principles page:

• The listed steps are online application, assessments, phone screening and interview loop, and the process "differs from role to role". Interviews can be remote.
• Bar Raisers are named as part of the process. Amazon lists 16 Leadership Principles (see above).

Not confirmed on that page: the number of interviews in the loop, interview lengths, and the content of the online assessment. Those come from candidate reports and Amazon's linked prep pages, which change over time.

Latest changes (2025–2026)

Updated 28 October 2026.

• AI rules: Amazon is widely reported to tell candidates not to use generative AI in interviews unless it is explicitly permitted, with disqualification possible. Some coaching sites also describe an AI-assisted coding assessment for early-career roles in 2026. These reports conflict, so follow your own invitation exactly.
• The official interviewing page still lists the same four steps: application, assessments, phone screening and interview loop.

For the wider picture, read how tech hiring has changed in 2025–2026.

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Please note: hiring processes change between campuses, drives and years, and companies update their rounds without notice. This guide describes the commonly reported structure so you know what to expect and how to prepare. Always confirm the current process on the company's official careers page or in your invitation email. This site is not affiliated with any company mentioned, and company names belong to their owners.