Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Amazon Software Development Manager Interview

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Question: What Are The Steps You Take To Keep Your Teams Coding Accurate

The SDM Interview at Amazon

Answer: I swear by . I think it helps the most because . I know that from experience too. When I first started as a developer, I ran into a coding issue that wasnt caught until much further down the line. This made for a stressful experience where I had to redo a lot of hard work, so I took it as a learning opportunity. Now I bring to my team too.

How To Prepare For The Amazon Sde Interview

You can crack the Amazon Software Development Engineer Interview if you stick to the following tips.

  • Learn about Amazons leadership principles and the company culture.
  • Aim for 10 to 15 mock interviews to analyze your interview style, identify any weaknesses and perfect your answers. Mock interview preparation is without a doubt the best way to ace your interview because itâs the closest thing to a real interview, without the high stakes of landing your dream job. The process allows you to practice the stories and answers youâve prepared and a great coach will give you direct feedback that you can use immediately. People see a dramatic improvement in confidence, communication style and the quality of their examples even after one hour of mock interview prep.
  • Get a firm grasp on the concept of data structures and algorithms and learn to code in any programming language.
  • Solve different problems and ask your peers to help you with interview preparation. You can use sites like HackerRank and LeetCode that have countless sample coding questions you can practice on.
  • Prepare your answers to the typical behavioral questions, and practice your storytelling techniques.

Amazon Online Assessment 3

  • Time: 120 minutes

This assessment is meant to give new grads an idea of what a day in the life of an Amazon SDE looks like. For this assessment, candidates are given questions with options on how they would respond or rate the already stated responses to the questions. In solving these questions, their virtual team members will prompt them via emails or messages to select the best way to deal with a situation besides several internal wikis, road maps, and code snippets. These questions also judge the candidate’s fit based on the Amazon Leadership Principles, so make sure you’ve understood them to ace this round.

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Amazon Product Manager Interview Questions

Massive tech companies like Amazon have tons of products that require several product managers working together. Everything from Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services , and Kindle require multiple product managers. You can check out Amazon product manager interview questions submitted by employees on Glassdoor to get an idea. The following list is a summation of all the Amazon product manager interview questions, including various phone and site interview questions. It can be hard to nail your dream job at Amazon down, but you can prepare for it effectively. If youre interested in learning the skill to excel in an Amazon product manager position, check out our certification courses below. Its best to decode and conquer each type of question before going for your interview.

In What Ways Do You Support Your Team As They Work On Projects

Amazon software engineer interview

This question is used to explore the engineering manager candidates experience with mentoring, coaching, and otherwise generally supporting their team. For instance, the candidate may only have experience with getting projects done, and may not be familiar with accommodating the career aspirations of individuals on their team.

Or perhaps they are well-versed in coaching/mentoring and have set up consistent one-on-one meetings with all team members. This question will let you know if they are a good cultural fit, or if the candidate will have to adapt to the organizations way of doing things.

You can also use this question to inquire about how previous teams responded to the support. These notes will be useful when it comes time to check the candidates references.

Additionally, this question can help you find out under what circumstances the candidate will jump in and develop code, whether it is to help mentor a junior developer or to ensure best practices are being followed when urgent situations arise.

Depending on your organization and the projects that you are working on, there will likely be an expectation that the candidate has coding experience and can actively code if need be.

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Question: What Qualities And Skills Do You Keep In Mind When Hiring A New Developer

Answer: First, I look at the level of experience we need to hire. If Im seeking someone more experienced, Ill see how all my prospects fit those needs. Then, Ill ask about their systems design process. Ill see what their favorite software development tools are and their preferred programming language to make sure we align from a tech perspective. Then Ill gauge their willingness to learn that can be just as important as their current skill set.

Mention A Few Project Management Tools You Would Recommend In Software Projects

Here, the interviewer tests your familiarity with the project management tools that can be employed in software development.

Tip #1: State several project management tools

Tip #2: Demonstrate that you are familiar with the tools used to manage projects

Sample Answer

Project management tools facilitate the planning and implementation of projects. Some common tools are PERT Charts, MS Project, Gantt Charts, Milestone Checklists, and Status reports. These tools help to deliver software projects on time.

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What Is Software Configuration Management And Why Is It Important

Here, the interviewer seeks to assess your familiarity with software configuration management.

Tip #1: Define software configuration management

Tip #2: Ensure to give the right answer

Sample Answer

Software configuration management refers to the process of tracking and controlling changes that happen during software development. The process ensures that any alteration makes when developing software is tracked using a controlled and well-defined process. Thus, the importance of software configuration management is basically to control changes made during software development and that is done through w well-defined process.

Whats Your Workday Like And How Do You Manage Your Time Emails Etc

SDM/TPM Interview Systems Design

Vidal: I think thats a very wise and enlightened approach. So thats really good. All right, moving on to day-to-day manager life. Whats your workday like? How do you manage your time, calendars, email, all the things you have to do?

Lavanya: Yeah, so this was actually if I think of Monday to Friday. You start on a Monday? Its pretty much because I have a family with, I have two kids, I have to drop them to school, and my husband helps me here. The day starts at actually 07:00, 06:45, or 06:30. You get up you pack the lunch for kids. My husband drops the kids to school, he goes to his work, and I end up at work at about 08:30 ish or 09:00 and the first thing to do is to check the emails, check the latest instant messages that you have.

Lavanya: So I usually do not work after eight-ish or nine because its important that everybody sleeps well. You get a good nights sleep, and you are rejuvenated the next day. Company emails. I have good ways to divide the emails into different folders like anyone would do because its important that you have a good way to separate your emails. The emails which are important emails which are to me, emails that Im CCd, emails to larger groups. You have these folder settings in the emails. So that the right emails go into the right folder, and youre able to look at that mail as and when you get them.

Lavanya: Yeah.

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What Are The Expectations From An Amazon Software Development Manager

At Amazon, a Software Development Manager or SDM has to balance several responsibilities like retaining the top talent, managing technical debt, and having forward-looking features in their products. They have to ensure that the best engineers work on the roadmap items, are motivated, and believe theyâre working towards something thatâll have a positive impact. In order to crack the Engineering Manager interview at Amazon, you should be good at coding, design, and well as demonstrate astute leadership capabilities.

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Questions On Background And Experience

Come prepared to speak about all the previous experience listed on your resume or, better yet, expand on it. The hiring manager already has your resume, so give it context. For example, you could mention a conference you went to for leadership development when you worked at an organization on your resume.

How Do You Measure The Performance Of Your Software Development Team

Cracking Interviews: About Yourself

Here, the interviewer seeks to test whether you can assess and track the performance of your team.

Tip #1: Describe how you would measure your teams performance

Tip #2: Demonstrate your ability to assess and track performance

Sample Answer

I will begin by setting goals for the development team right from the beginning of every project. Then, I will communicate these goals to ensure all members understand them and what is expected of them. This will enable them to work effectively towards achieving them. I will also set long-term goals and develop ways to assess them. Thus, setting clear goals will help to assess and track employee performance.

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Other Great Engineering Manager Interview Questions And Answers

Those questions above are some of the most common, but here are a few other important interview questions for engineering managers and senior developers:

  • How do you incorporate team building into an engineering department?
  • What do you do to grow as a leader, manager, and overall professional?
  • How do you break down complex, technical topics to stakeholders who are not so technologically inclined?
  • How do you view the engineering management role?
  • What are some of your engineering management strengths?
  • What are some of your engineering management weaknesses?
  • How would you organize an engineering team that is distributed around the world and working remotely?
  • How would you deal with a software developer under your management who continues to show bad performance?
  • What is your process for ensuring coding accuracy?
  • What are your top 5 software engineering tools?
  • What, in your opinion, is the best programming language to work with?
  • How hands-on do you prefer to be as an engineering manager?
  • What do you do to encourage professional growth and continuous development on the teams you lead?
  • What do you look for when hiring a new developer, QA analyst, or data engineer for your team?
  • Question: How Do You Check In With Your Team Members Regularly

    Answer: I check in with all of my team members during weekly one-on-ones. I also hold biweekly team meetings to bring everyone together for a larger regroup. But I also know the dangers of having too many meetings, so I try to be mindful of everyones time. Part of that is keeping open office hours once a week at a set time where anyone can pop in and ask questions.

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    Whats Your Approach To Hiring

    Vidal: Could you share what is your approach to hiring?

    Lavanya: Certainly, yes. Hiring is an important day to day activity that an engineering manager follows in any team. And like everyone, I use LinkedIn. One of the important pieces in LinkedIn is to say vocally and advertise that you are hiring. And the way you can say that is when somebody sees a LinkedIn profile on the job description, you can say, Im hiring for so and so engineers, with these many years of experience. And this can attract a lot of candidates to send you LinkedIn requests. And you can look at their profiles and their resumes and bring them all for interviews. The other aspect of LinkedIn, which not many engineering managers may follow, is something called LinkedIn Recruiter account. This is an account that most recruiters on LinkedIn have, because a LinkedIn Recruiter account enables you to understand who in the market is actually looking out to jump from their present position.

    Vidal: LinkedIn obviously is a fantastic tool. So thats great. And I think that beginning, Im glad you mentioned that. So a lot of engineering managers theyll put in the title, right, like engineering manager, wherever, Im hiring, etc, etc. So thats kind of what youre saying. Put that in your own profile that youre hiring!

    Lavanya: Yes, Im using LinkedIn Recruiter account, both these two things and tools can help us. Yes.

    If You Are Working With Two Software Developers Who Are Disagreeing On The Right Development Approach To Apply How Would You Handle The Situation

    The Only Advice You’ll Need For Amazon Software Development Manager Interview

    Here, the interviewer wants to test your ability to resolve disagreements among employees.

    Tip #1: Describe how you would address the matter

    Tip #2: Show that you can resolve disagreements among your team

    Sample Answer

    I will first make the developers understand what we want to achieve through the product. Then, I will lead them in assessing the most suitable approach that would help to achieve the expected outcomes. That will help us to agree on the right approach. If we settle on the approach of one developer, I will make the other developer understand that his approach could not serve the purpose based on our desired outcomes.

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    How Would You Prioritize The Following Work

    One of the key responsibilities of an engineering manager is to prioritize and schedule the tasks needed to build a product or service. They need to prioritize feature development, bug fixes, and refactoring technical debt or legacy code.

    Good engineering managers know how to prioritize tasks based on how well they meet business objectives and based on the time, effort, and cost involved. Great engineering managers know how to ask the right questions to help with prioritization.

    Ask this prioritization question with a list of 2-3 sample features, bug fixes, and other supporting tasks. It is also a good opening to lead into other questions.

    Here is an example list of tasks:

    • Build a new web app interface
    • Upgrade the database
    • Fix bug with concurrency in server code
    • Fix JavaScript bug in front-end code
    • Fix CSS display issue in front-end code

    With this list, you can then ask the candidate How would you prioritize those tasks? The engineering manager candidate should ask probing questions about the background context of the tasks, the priorities of the team, and the organization.

    They should ask about business goals and about the level of urgency of the tasks. For instance, fixing a bug with concurrency in the server code could be very important as it blocks the sales team from demoing the product to a client, or it could be impacting thousands of customers.

    Differentiate Black Box Testing From White Box Testing

    Here, your knowledge about black box and white box testing is tested. The interviewer wants to know whether you can differentiate the two.

    Tip #1: Define black box and white box testing

    Tip #2: Differentiate the two types of testing

    Sample Answer

    White box testing seeks to test an application with an understanding of its internal structure as well as code implementation. This type of testing is done by the developer who wrote the code and is conducted in the form of unit tests.

    On the other hand, black-box testing regards testing an application without knowing its code implementation or internal structure. Here, testers are only concerned about software functionality rather than the code execution or data blow.

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    Where Can We Go To Learn More About You

    Vidal: Well, this is great. Youve been really generous with your time, and I appreciate you coming on a Managers Club to share this information with everyone. Where can people go to learn more about you if they wanted to reach out to you or ask you questions or anything?

    Lavanya: They can reach out to me at . I am always using because I reached out to people to talk to people, and so on. So you can reach out for me on LinkedIn. Thats the fastest way to reach.

    Vidal: Yeah, LinkedIn is great. I will put a link in the notes to your profile so we can reach you. Well, thank you again so much. Youve been great. Its been great to have you here, so thank you.

    Your Project Is Running Behind How Would You Communicate This To Other Teams How Would You Communicate This To The Executive Team

    Software Development Manager Amazon Interview Questions

    In the software development industry, projects are always running behind in some fashion or another. With these questions, we are asking the engineering manager candidate to share how they would communicate project delays to team members and to their manager/executive team.

    In a startup, the engineering manager could be responsible for two teams and have to communicate directly with both the CTO and the CEO.

    Good engineering managers communicate in a collaborative manner. Great engineering managers use collaboration as an opportunity to introduce post-mortems at the end of a sprint .

    When answering this question, the candidate should mention that they listen to ideas from the team in these meetings, in order to create action plans and minimize the risk of delays for future projects. Great engineering managers create an environment where everyone is confident that everything is being done to complete the project and to get it back up to speed.

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