Amazon interview questions are notoriously tough. With the tremendous business analyst and post-consulting leadership jobs at Amazon, there's a reason why. Named by Forbes as a Top 10 most reputable company, Amazon originally began as a bookworm's dream come true. Now, the Seattle based company has changed the landscape of online retail.
Enjoy!
Amazon History & Culture
Amazon.com, Inc. is a Fortune 100 company based in Seattle, WA. It was founded in 1994 and incorporated in 1996 by Jeff Bezos (still the Executive Chairman). Amazon has over 1M employees and generated revenues of ~$514B in 2022.
Bezos named Amazon after the "exotic and different" Amazon, something he wanted his new company to be known for. Staying true to the original vision, Amazon has gone on to become a global force, market disruptor, major innovator, and a helluva lot more than just an online bookstore.
Today, Amazon sells everything under the sun. It has its own TV streaming service, has cornered the e-book market with Kindle, groceries with AmazonFresh, and knocked Black Friday off its perch with Prime Day - becoming the nation's biggest shopping day.
Along the way, Amazon has been sued by some of the biggest names in the game, including Barnes & Noble and Walmart, but that hasn't stopped the company from becoming a household name and one of the most recognizable brands on the planet.
Have you ever noticed that the arrow on the Amazon logo goes from the A to the Z? It's a representation of the fact that Amazon carries every product from A-Z. How about the fact that the arrow is shaped like a smile? If you offer service with a smile, you'll be successful. Amazon is simply Exhibit A of this principle.
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Life At Amazon
In late August 2015, the New York Times ran a no-holds-barred article on life at Amazon. From grown men crying at their desks to employees being pushed further creatively than they ever thought possible, one word sums up life at Amazon - intense.
Working for a market leading, world dominating brand name is a dream for anyone who has even the slightest bit of ambition. But are you willing to give 110% all day, every day? If not, don't even think about trying to navigate Amazon interview questions.
However, if you can make it through the Amazon interview gauntlet, you'll be more than richly rewarded. The company gives above industry average compensation and benefits.
Amazon Job Opportunities
Pathways Operations
This role is designed to rapidly develop talented MBA and Masters-level graduates with the skills needed to be Amazon General Managers, Directors, and VPs. Pathways members are highly visible inside of the organization and have the flexibility to change roles, sites, and geographies. This program takes participants through a series of intense, progressively challenging opportunities across the core of Amazon’s established operations network. The goal of this program is to stretch participants’ leadership capacity to its full potential.
Retail Leadership Development Program – RLDP
This role is designed to rapidly develop talented MBA and Masters-level graduates with a desire to own, build, and grow a business unit of their own. Participants will rotate through start-up and established business lines, be responsible for delivering innovative solutions to large scale problems that no company has had the opportunity to solve before and assume responsibility to make decisions that will impact long-term free cash flow.
Finance Leadership Development Program – FLDP
This role is designed for recent MBA graduates. Through the program, participants will receive a broad understanding of the business, helping build a robust professional network, and preparing to lead a team. Most participants enter as a Senior Financial Analyst and become a key finance partner to a business team. They will build financial models and perform analyses to make recommendations that deliver results.
Product Manager
As a Product Manager, you will manage the entire product cycle from strategic planning to tactical execution. This could include such things as leading workshops with customers to understand their key business challenges, using Amazon’s working backwards product development process to define requirements, designing exciting features that solve customer challenges, and many other responsibilities. Amazon hires hundreds of Product Managers annually primarily from MBA programs.
Program Manager
Program Managers at Amazon are expected to deliver quality customer service to the organization’s many diverse businesses. This role requires people to review programs and processes, identify gaps, perform research and tests, and validate results while also making recommendations for improvement.
Technical Product Manager (PMT)
As a PMT, you’ll be the end-to-end owner of a software, hardware, or technical service. You’ll dive deep to understand the product from both a technical and customer perspective and collaborate with engineers and business partners across Amazon to build, launch, and grow solutions that transform how your customers do business.
Amazon Interview Tips & Tricks
Amazon hustles MBA programs from across the spectrum - not just the usual suspects - to fill strategy, operations, and product management roles as it seeks out the next Amazonian with a spirit of innovation.
The Amazon interview process is known to be extensive in duration (about 4 months start to finish). It's also extensive in the number of interviews (multiple phone interviews and potentially 5 in-person interviews in a day). Finally, it's extensive in the depth of interview questions. Life at Amazon is intense, and you are initiated into this culture via the interview process.
Amazon Interview Questions
Common Amazon Interview Questions
Once you can answer these questions, you are ready to move on to the next stage of your interview preparation.
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- What are all of Amazon’s brick and mortar customer offerings?
- What are all of Amazon’s media offerings?
- What are all of Amazon’s devices?
- What are all of Amazon’s private label brands?
- What are one-way and two-way door decisions?
- What is working backwards?
- What is a PR-FAQ?
- Should Amazon sell pets?
- How would you sell more blenders at Amazon?
Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions
Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions
The Amazon interview is weighted heavily toward the behavioral side. When interviewing, candidates CAN AND SHOULD bring notes with them to the interview. Have your cheat sheet in front of you!
You'll be faced with Amazon behavioral questions encompassing the following 13 categories:
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Are Right, A Lot
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Amazon believes that leaders and managers are right, a lot. Expect questions about when you made a decision with incomplete data. Or, about a time you made a poor decision and what you learned about it. Here are some of the questions you may encounter.
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- Tell me about a time you made a difficult decision and how you knew it was the right one.
- Give an example of when you had to make an important decision in the absence of good data because there just wasn’t any.
- Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision – did your learnings from the experience enable you to make a better decision later.
- Tell me about a time when you were wrong.
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Bias In Action
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Speed of decision-making and execution matters to Amazon. Most business decisions are reversible - it's better to make a decision and go back if necessary, instead of being paralyzed with indecision. Why? Most decisions are two-way doors, meaning they can be reversed quickly if proven to be sub-optimal. You'll face questions on how you have removed barriers for your team to execute quickly, and how you have quickly identified the work your teams should focus on.
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- Describe a situation where you made an important business decision without consulting your manager.
- Tell me about a time when you have worked against a tight deadline and didn’t have time to consider all options before making a decision.
- Give an example of when you had to make an important decision and had to decide between moving forward or gathering more information.
- Describe a time when you saw a problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else.
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- Customer Obsession
Amazon pays more attention to its customers than it does its competitors. Be prepared to answer questions about how you have placed the customer above all else, and how you have exhibited excellent service.
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- Tell me about a time when you’ve been able to see around the corner to meet a customer need or delight a customer with a solution or product they didn’t yet know they needed.
- Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty for a customer.
- Tell me about a time you used customer feedback to drive improvement or innovation.
- Who was your most difficult customer?
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Deliver Results
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Can you set and communicate the right goals for your team? Act and deliver in a timely fashion? You'll answer questions on how you have identified and executed on the right inputs for your current business.
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- Tell me about a time where you not only met a goal but considerably exceeded expectations. How were you able to do it? What challenges did you have to overcome?
- Give me an example of a time when you were able to deliver an important project under a tight deadline. What trade-offs did you have to make to meet the deadline?
- Tell me when you have had to handle a variety of assignment.
- What is the most difficult situation you have ever faced in your life? How did you handle it?
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Dive Deep
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Amazon wants to ensure that you believe no task is beneath you. While the first four categories focus on your big-picture ability, this category probes into your ability to stay connected to all levels of an organization and project. Can you remain detail oriented as a strategist? Audit your team's performance consistently? Amazon wants to know you can dive deep.
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- Tell me about a time you were trying to understand a problem and you had to go down several layers to get to the root cause. Who did you talk with and how did you use this information to help solve the problem?
- Give me two examples of when you did more than what was required in any job experience.
- Tell me about something that you learned recently in your role.
- Tell me about a problem you had to solve that required in-depth thought and analysis.
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Frugality
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Amazon hasn't forgotten about its humble beginnings. Be prepared to demonstrate when you have done more with less and exhibited your creativity in the process.
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- Tell me about a time when you had to make tradeoffs between quality and cost.
- Tell me about a time you had to get something done with half or two thirds of the resources you thought you’d need for the project or initiative.
- Tell me about a time when you had to work with limited time or resources.
- Tell me about a time you didn’t have enough resources to do something you felt was important but found a creative way to get it done anyway.
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Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
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You'll be asked about a time challenged a leader's decision when you disagreed; why did you hold to your conviction? Amazon wants to see a value for making the right decision over social cohesion. And then, finally, the company is interested in seeing that you can move past disagreements to commit to a course of actions once it has been decided.
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- Tell me about a time that you disagreed with your manager on something you deemed to be important to the business. How did you handle it?
- Describe a time where you advocated strongly for something but ultimately lost the argument. What was your approach after you lost the argument?
- Tell me about an unpopular decision you recently made.
- Tell me about a time when you had to step up and disagree with a team member’s approach.
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Hire and Develop the Best
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Have you developed leaders, coached others, and sourced exceptional talent? Be prepared to answer how you have developed people you've managed, as well as times you have identified talent where others may have missed it.
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- Tell me about a time you had to give difficult feedback to someone.
- Tell me about a time when you mentored someone.
- Tell me about a time when you made a wrong hire. When did you figure it out and what did you do?
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Insist On The Highest Standards
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Do you have a track record of raising the bar? Finding permanent solutions to problems? Be prepared to talk about it.
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- Give an example where you refused to compromise on quality. Why did you feel so strongly about the situation?
- Describe the most significant, continuous improvement project that you have led.
- Tell me about a time when you couldn’t meet your own expectations on a project.
- Tell me about a time when a team member didn’t meet your expectations on a project.
- Tell me about a time when you have been unsatisfied with the status quo. What did you do to change it?
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Invent and Simplify
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Amazon values those who don't mind being misunderstood. In fact, innovation requires it. You'll be asked to share stories about a time you sourced an idea from an unconventional place, and times you implemented inventive solutions to problems.
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- When you were able to make something significantly simpler for customers?
- Describe a challenging problem or situation in which the usual approach was not going to work. What alternative approach did you take?
- Tell me a time when you created an innovative product.
- Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem.
- Tell me about an innovative, creative idea you had or decision you made that had a big impact on the business.
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Learn and Be Curious
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If you have encouraged risk-taking on your team, talk about how and what your learnings were. Amazon cares about how you arrive at results, not just the results themselves. Yes, the means do matter just as much as the end!
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- Teach me something that I don’t know.
- Tell me about a time when you influenced a change by only asking questions.
- Tell me about a time when you solved a problem through just superior knowledge or observation.
- What’s your favorite class at school? Which one is the most challenging for you? Why?
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Ownership
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Despite its rapid growth, Amazon is playing the long game. Here, Amazon is looking for examples of times that you have valued long-term growth over short-term results. They're also looking for times when you have made decisions in the best interests of the company, not just your own team.
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- Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility.
- Tell me about a time where you drove an initiative without much initial support from others.
- Tell me about a time you made a hard decision to sacrifice short-term gain for a longer-term goal.
- Give me an example of when you took a risk and it failed.
- Tell me about a time when you had to leave a task unfinished.
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Think Big
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Showcase when you have communicated bold vision to your teams and peers. How have you pushed the envelope of what your company/team/division could do?
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- Give me an example of an extreme approach to a problem you proposed. Why did you believe it required a completely different way of thinking about it?
- Tell me about a time you were working on an initiative and identified an opportunity to do something significantly bigger than the initial focus.
- Tell me about your proudest professional achievement.
- Tell me about a time when you went way beyond the scope of the project and delivered.
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Amazon Case Interview Questions
The Amazon case interview simulates an actual business problem you may face in your role at the company. There is no exact right answer in these interviews, but to move forward, you should focus on the customer benefit across all questions.
Importantly, you should also apply long-term thinking with each answer and make sure you are considering each of the thirteen criteria for Amazon’s behavioral interview questions that we outlined above.
The interviewer will start by presenting a problem. As the interviewee, you should make sure you understand the question by writing it down and repeating it back to the interviewer. Next, you’ll need to develop your approach. In this section of the case, you’ll be expected to develop a framework, identify what data you need, and explain how you will get it – will you own it, borrow it, or buy it?
Last, you’ll move into the solution phase where you’ll be expected to state your recommendation and why, describe what success looks like, show the metrics you would need to measure success, and outline the next steps to move forward.
Next, we will discuss the key frameworks Amazon will expect you to use to solve the case study interview.
Amazon Frameworks
Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why
This should be your default framework if none of the others apply. In this framework, you will outline who the key parties are in the situation, what each should do to move the situation forward, when this solution will happen, where this should take place, how you intend to accomplish your objective, and why this is the best decision to solve the problem you are seeking to solve.
The 5 C’s
This is a classic marketing framework where the candidate should outline the company, competitors, customers, collaborators, and climate (environment). This framework can be used when considering entering a new market to outline the product being discussed, who would compete in that market, who the customers are, who would be a collaborator or partner in the venture or initiative, and what the general climate is in the market being discussed.
Circles
This is a unique framework where candidates should comprehend the situation, identify the customer, report the customer’s needs, cut through prioritization, list solutions, evaluate tradeoffs, and summarize your recommendation. This is a customer-centric framework and can primarily be applied in situations where a customer shift is occurring, or a product is being rolled out to customers that the company or business unit is not already intimately familiar with.
Marketing Mix
This framework is sometimes referred to as the 4 P’s and represents the product, price, place, and promotion. This is another framework that Amazon would expect you to use in a new product situation or when entering a new market. The candidate should identify what the product is, at what price it should be sold, where it will be sold (place), and what type of promotion or marketing campaign should be run for the most effective application.
SWOT
This represents the classic SWOT analysis, where candidates should outline a product or business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Typically, your opportunities should be supported by your product or business’s strength and your threats should coincide with weaknesses. Importantly, this is an opportunity to showcase some business acumen by highlighting a plan that can address threats and potentially strengthen weaknesses while hopefully utilizing strengths to capitalize on the product or business’s opportunities.
Porter’s 5 Forces
Using this framework, candidates should identify competitor rivalries, new entrants, substitutes, supplier power, and buy power. This is a classic framework used to show the interviewer how the product of business stacks up in a particular marketplace. This is a great framework to use if you want to highlight where a product or business is today and identify opportunities to shift that to a different segment or capitalize on a particular area of weakness within the analysis.
Sample Case Questions
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- You are the product manager for a product that is not successful. How do you turn the ship around?
- There are two products Amazon is considering selling: one with a sales price of $50 and a variable cost of $45, and one with a sales price of $10 and a variable cost of $5. Which one of these would you sell on Amazon and why?
- How would you price AWS services? Who is the customer? What do they want? What are the competing products?
- What is your favorite tech product? How would you change it?
- How would you continue to monetize AWS?
Takeaways
During your Amazon interview preparation, be sure to prepare your stories in the STAR method, as this is the format Amazon requires you to answer in. We recommend spending at least 8 hours preparing, refining, and practicing your stories for the Amazon interview. Work with our expert coaches to get help refining your stories and pinpoint feedback on your delivery.
With a belief that everyone is a leader and "It's Still Day One," Amazon offers employees opportunities to be on the cutting edge of new and innovative developments.
As always, make sure your resume is top-notch and network, network, network to maximize your chances of success.
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