Tell Me About A Time That You Dealt With A Hostile Customer
When interviewers ask about a time you dealt with a hostile customer, they are looking to see how you handle difficult situations. They want to know if you can remain calm under pressure and whether you can think on your own. The best way to answer this question is to share an example of a time when you could successfully de-escalate the situation. You can talk about the steps you took to diffuse the situation and how you managed to keep the customer happy.
Why Does Amazon Use Case Study Interviews
Amazon uses case study interviews because your performance in a case study interview is a measure of how well you would do on the job. Amazon case interviews assess a variety of different capabilities and qualities needed to successfully complete job duties and responsibilities.
Amazons case study interviews primarily assess five things:
- Logical, structured thinking: Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
- Analytical problem solving: Can you read, interpret, and analyze data well?
- Business acumen: Do you have sound business judgment and intuition?
- Communication skills: Can you communicate clearly, concisely, and articulately?
- Personality and cultural fit: Are you coachable and easy to work with?
Since all of these qualities can be assessed in just a 20- to 30-minute case, Amazon case study interviews are an effective way to assess a candidates capabilities.
In order to do well on the personality and cultural fit portion, you should familiarize yourself with before your interview. At a high level, these principles include:
- Customer obsession: Leaders start with the customer and work backwards
- Ownership: Leaders are owners and act on behalf of the entire company
- Invent and simplify: Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify
- Learn and be curious: Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves
- Frugality: Accomplish more with less
Amazon Behavioral Questions: Think Big
Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.
Amazon is an enormous company, and its employees need to build products and structures that reach significant scale in order to make a difference for the business. As a result, interviewers will want to see that you can develop and articulate a bold vision.
Example behavioral questions asked at Amazon: Think big
- Tell me about your most significant accomplishment. Why was it significant?
- Tell me about a time you proposed a non-intuitive solution to a problem and how you identified that it required a different way of thinking
- What was the largest project you’ve executed?
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Discuss The Most Difficult Problem You Have Ever Dealt With
This question is designed to assess your problem-solving skills and ability to think on your feet. The best way to answer this question is to discuss a problem you were passionate about solving. You should describe the problem in detail and explain how you approached it. Talk about the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Be sure to highlight your accomplishments and what you learned from the experience.
Insist On The Highest Standards
Leaders have relentlessly high standards many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.
Practice questions on the highest standards:
Amazon expects their employees to always be striving to reach higher standards. They want to see employees who have pushed themselves to meet difficult goals and who will continue to do so in the future.
This is one of the things that makes Amazon such a great place to work. It is a company that is always looking to challenge its employees and help them grow. Employees at Amazon always feel like they are learning and growing, which helps to keep them motivated and engaged.
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Merge Two Sorted Linked Lists
Given two sorted linked lists, merge them so that the resulting linked list is also sorted. Consider two sorted linked lists and the merged list below them as an example.
def merge_sorted: #TODO: Write - Your - Code return head1
Click here to view the solution in C++, Java, JavaScript, and Ruby.
Runtime Complexity: Linear, O where m and n are lengths of both linked lists
Memory Complexity: Constant, O O
Maintain a head and a tail pointer on the merged linked list. Then choose the head of the merged linked list by comparing the first node of both linked lists. For all subsequent nodes in both lists, you choose the smaller current node and link it to the tail of the merged list, and moving the current pointer of that list one step forward.
Continue this while there are some remaining elements in both the lists. If there are still some elements in only one of the lists, you link this remaining list to the tail of the merged list. Initially, the merged linked list is NULL.
Compare the value of the first two nodes and make the node with the smaller value the head node of the merged linked list. In this example, it is 4 from head1. Since its the first and only node in the merged list, it will also be the tail.Then move head1 one step forward.
Which Is More Important: Money Or Work
In my point of view work is more important to me. Once you achieve and overperform the target and help increase the company’s growth, then definitely money will follow.
These are a few Intermediate Level Amazon Interview Questions. Now, understand the Advanced Level Amazon Interview Questions.
Free Course: Programming Fundamentals
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Copy Linked List With Arbitrary Pointer
You are given a linked list where the node has two pointers. The first is the regular next pointer. The second pointer is called arbitrary and it can point to any node in the linked list. Your job is to write code to make a deep copy of the given linked list. Here, deep copy means that any operations on the original list should not affect the copied list.
def deep_copy_arbitrary_pointer: #TODO: Write - Your - Code return None
Click here to view the solution in C++, Java, JavaScript, and Ruby.
Runtime Complexity: Linear,
This approach uses a map to track arbitrary nodes pointed by the original list. You will create a deep copy of the original linked list in two passes.
- In the first pass, create a copy of the original linked list. While creating this copy, use the same values for data and arbitrary_pointer in the new list. Also, keep updating the map with entries where the key is the address to the old node and the value is the address of the new node.
- Once the copy has been created, do another pass on the copied linked list and update arbitrary pointers to the new address using the map created in the first pass.
+ Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions
To help you prepare strategically for your job interview, we have used Glassdoor data to identify the real questions asked in different Amazon interviews. The questions weve chosen come from our research on five Amazon tech roles: PM, TPM, program manager, software development engineer, and data scientist.
Each category below tests a different leadership principle, and the frequency of questions testing certain principles will vary depending on the role. For instance, interviews for managerial roles will include a higher number of questions targeting the principles hire and develop the best or strive to be Earths best employer.
Note that we’ve edited the language in some of the questions for clarity or grammar. Now lets get into it.
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What Is Unique About Amazons Interview Process
For the most part, the is similar to other FAANG companies. However, they have a couple of key rounds and certain Amazon coding challenge questions that make the interview process unique.
The Loop is centered around Amazonâs 14 leadership principles:
Unlike most other companies, in the , the Loop is heavily centered around the companyâs 14 leadership principles. Recruiters evaluate you against these leadership principles directly or indirectly at any on-site interview stage.
The presence of a Bar Raiser:
Amazon also has a special âBar Raiserâ round, where specially trained employees gauge if youâre the right fit. The primary function of the Bar Raisers is to maintain the hiring bar high by seeking out only the best talent. They have a decisive say in the interviewâs outcome, so if you ace the core technical rounds and Amazon coding challenge questions, you must pass the bar raiser round to lock an offer.
To become a bar raiser, an interviewer should have done 100+ interviews. The bar raiser has to undergo special training and shadow other bar raisers. The bar raiser may not be from the team youâd be joining, but they may be under the same VP org. The bar raisers evaluate if the candidate is better than 50% of the existing employees.
With the two major unique factors discussed, let us now look at the Amazon interview process in more detail.
What Is A Behavioral Interview At Amazon
Amazon uses behavioral interviews to assess job candidates based on their past experiences. These questions typically start with Tell me about a time you and focus on soft skills such as: leadership, communication, teamwork, problem solving, etc. In Amazon’s case, there will be an emphasis on the 16 leadership principles, which we’ll dive into a bit later.
To round out your preparation, we’ve also included some resume, HR, and hypothetical questions such as “what are your strengths and weaknesses?” or “how would you…?” in this article. As these are real questions that have been reported by past candidates, we want to make sure you’re ready for anything.
These questions will appear at every step of the interview process at Amazon and at AWS, from the initial recruiter screen all the way through to the onsite interviews. They may even appear as icebreaker or transition questions during technical screens. The frequency and type of behavioral questions will vary per role, but be prepared to answer many.
For more information on the process for a specific role, consult one of our comprehensive interview guides below:
Now, what will your interviewers be looking out for? Lets take a look at those leadership principles.
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Mathematical Problems For The Amazon Interview
Amazon sometimes asks problems around mathematics, where you have to code the solution to a mathematical problem. Below are some such sample Amazon coding interview questions:
Practice these Amazon coding interview questions and youâre well on your way to crack your Amazon interview!
Tell Me When You Had To Analyze Facts Quickly Define Key Issues And Respond Immediately To A Situation What Was The Outcome
In my previous job as a research analyst, I often had to analyze data quickly and draw conclusions. This was especially important when working on presentations for my team or clients. To be successful, I had to learn how to quickly define the key issues at hand and respond immediately to any situation or outcome. This involved being able to think on my feet and making decisions quickly. I improved my analytical abilities and became more efficient when working under pressure by practicing these skills. This was beneficial in my current role as a business analyst, where I often need to provide solutions to problems in a short amount of time.
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Do You Know Our Ceo How Do You Pronounce His Name
This question is asked to check whether you have researched this company well or not. Generally, people know about tech giants like Amazon and their CEOs, but this question is asked to check how the candidate pronounces the name. The CEO of Amazon is Jeff Bezos since 1996. It is pronounced as “Bay-zohs,” not “Bee-zos”.
Describe A Time When You Had To Manage A Budget Were You Able To Get More Out Of Less
The best way to answer this question is to give an example of when you had to be very strategic with your resources and make the most out of every penny. Perhaps you spearheaded a project where you had to work with a limited budget, or maybe you had to cut back on your spending to save money. When answering this question, focus on the steps you took to succeed rather than the outcome. For instance, if you could reduce costs without sacrificing quality, highlight that achievement.
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Amazon Behavioral Questions: Bias For Action
Bias for Action Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.
Amazon likes to learn by doing, with an eye on results over user projections and research. This is part of what helps them act quickly and ship their products to customers as fast as they do. So your interviewer will want to see that you can take calculated risks and move things forward.
Example behavioral questions asked at Amazon: Bias for action
- Tell me about a time you had to change your approach because you were going to miss a deadline
- Tell me about a time you had to make an urgent decision without data. What was the impact and would you do anything differently?
- Tell me about a time when you launched a feature with known risks
- Did you come across a scenario where the deadline given to you for a project was earlier than expected? How did you deal with it and what was the result?
How Should I Prepare To Answer Amazon Interview Questions
There is a reliable way to prepare how to answer behavioural interview questions at Amazon. First, you should understand in detail and prepare situations from your professional experience that map to these Leadership Principles. Second, you should structure these stories using the STAR Method. Third, you should practice answering these questions live – with partners or expert coaches.
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Good Questions To Ask Atthe End Of An Amazon Interview
As your Amazon interview starts to wrap up, youll get a chance to ask the hiring manager some questions. Being ready for this moment is critical, as it allows you to assert your interest and learn valuable tidbits that can help you decide if the job is right for you. If you dont know what to ask, here are a few questions that can work in nearly any situation:
If you want some more examples, check out our article: questions you can ask during your interview.
+ Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions To Practice
Below, you’ll find the short explanation of each leadership principle given by Amazon on their careers page. These principles will be present throughout the entire hiring process.
.Read each explanation thoroughly, as you’ll pick up clues as to how your answers to behavioral questions will be scored. When you’re ready, watch the expert mock interviews linked and then try your hand at a few sample behavioral interview questions compiled from past interviews
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What Is Meant By Selection Sort
Selection sort is an in-place sorting technique. It splits the data set into sub-lists known as sorted and unsorted. Then it selects the minimum element from the unsorted sub-list and places it into the sorted list. This iterates unless all the elements from the unsorted sub-list are consumed into a sorted sub-list.
Can You Tell Me When You Had To Make A Fast Customer Service Decision Without Any Guidance How Did You Decide What To Do
This is a difficult question because it is hard to think of an example where you had to make a customer service decision without any guidance. One option is to describe when you had to handle a challenging customer service situation. You could explain how you remained calm and handled the situation in a way that was satisfactory for both the customer and the company.
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