Questions To Ask Amazon Interview

What Do You Do To Ensure That The Customer Experience Is Always A Priority

There are a few key things that I always do to make sure that the customer experience is a priority. One must always be willing to go the extra mile for a customer. If they need something, I do my best to get it for them. Another key thing is to be proactive in addressing any complaints or concerns that a customer may have. I want to know about them as soon as possible to address the issue and prevent it from happening again. Finally, I always try to be friendly and personable with customers.

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Where Are These Questions Coming From

Strictly and exclusively from public sources. The first one is Glassdoor. Glassdoor is the default destination for most candidates looking for Amazon interview questions. It is also the one that, we believe, is most polluted with junk. This is understandable. Glassdoor does not have any curation or vetting for interview questions. Therefore, we had to manually scrub through ten pages of supposedly Amazon interview questions to pick out the ones that sounded close to what could be reasonably asked during the interview.Another source of Amazon interview questions for this article is the Day One Careers Community . Some candidates kindly contributed questions after the interviews. While these questions may deviate from what actually went on during the interview, they capture the key themes of the leadership principles.

Technical And Skills Questions

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What Qualities Do You Have That Will Help You Succeed At Amazon

You need specific skills and attributes if you intend to have a smooth time at Amazon. In addition to going through the job description and identifying what your potential employer wants, make sure that you look at Amazon as a whole. Your answer should convince the interviewer that you have what it takes to be a fantastic Amazon employee.

Sample Answer

I am creative and innovative, which are essential qualities when working for a company that majors in eCommerce. I am also technology savvy, a good communicator, and an excellent team worker, which are all required.

Have Backbone Disagree And Commit Interview Questions

• Tell me about when you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers and your leader, and you were the outlier.
• Tell me about a time when you decide to go along with the group decision, even if you disagree.
• Tell me about a time when you strongly disagreed with your manager on something you deemed very important to the business. What was it about, and how did you handle it?

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Amazon Leadership Principles Phone Interview Questions

To understand Amazonâs company culture, a candidate must understand the 14 leadership principles that form the companyâs core. Letâs dive into some phone based on these principles: Which Leadership Principle do you resonate most with?

• If you were to add another principle in Amazonâs culture, what would you propose?
• Tell me of an occasion when you displayed customer obsession and went above and beyond what was expected.
• Tell me about a time when you worked to solve the problems for a customer who was very difficult to deal with.
• What does the principle âAre Right, A Lotâ mean to you?

Describe A Situation When You Were Under Pressure In Work

Interviewers want to hear how you reacted to the pressure, if you managed to prioritize your tasks, and how did the pressure you felt affected you in your daily work, or health-wise.

You will most likely face stressful situations and deadlines in your job with Amazon .

Ensure them that you can remain calm under pressure, and wont end up in an emergency room. You have passion for what you do, and you understand that the best face pressurebecause others always try to outclass them, to win their position on the market

If it is your first job application, you can talk about a situation from school, or you can tell them what you would do in a stressful situation. Lets check one sample answer:

To be honest, I believe to perform better under pressure. I faced many deadlines in my last job in market research. They helped me to stay focused, to organize my day properly, and to learn to prioritize my work, ensuring that Id meet the deadlines. The key is to not let the pressure get the better of you, and I believe to have this ability.

And also, you have to accept that sometimes you wont meet the deadline, because you do not have everything under control. For example when you need a report from another employee and they do not send it to you in time, you cannot do much about it. You can send them a reminder or call them, but eventually you have to wait.

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A Brief Overview Of The Amazon Hiring Process

The first thing to note is that . Thats not to scare you off, only to prepare you.

There are many different departments that all have slightly different hiring processes, but the fundamentals are similar across the board, so lets have a look at them

Online applications

All applications to Amazon start in the same place, on the hub. Here you will create an account and upload your CV or LinkedIn profile.

Top Tip: Make sure you use that are relevant to the job you are applying for. Have a thorough read of the job description and make sure you are using similar descriptions and phrasing for the work you have done.

Amazon Online Assessment

In addition to your application, you will be required to do an online assessment. Amazon is looking for candidates that not only have the skills for the job but also a commitment to the companys values. This is their first step to assessing if you meet their base requirements.

The tests vary but will more than likely include at least one of Work Style Assessment and Work Sample Situations.

Work Style Assessment This will be a list of statements, and you will be asked to select which statement best describes you. This gives Amazon a quick insight into your professional working style. It will usually take around 20 minutes.

Word Sample Situation This will be specific to the role that you are applying for and will be a virtual task that you need to complete. This section can take up to an hour to complete.

Tell The Story Of The Last Time You Had To Apologize To Someone

The problem with the cookie-cutter question about strengths and weaknesses is that some people dont know how to properly answer this question and says things like Im too nice and Im a hard worker as their weakness. So, this question sets the stage where you and your shortcomings and weaknesses, whatever they may be, have negatively affected someone. This question explores how you handled the effects of that weakness.

Start by telling them a story that establishes the scenario. A person wouldnt get mad at you for being too nice or being too hardworking, so youre going to have to tell them a mistake you did. You have to show not only you apologizing but how you fixed the mistake and made it better for the person that was affected.

Job interviews keep you thinking and on your feet, andAmazon knows this very well. When entering your job interview, be ready tohandle any question that may come your way. But since their questions weredesigned to catch you off-guard, the best thing you can do is to try to staycalm, try to quickly understand the purpose of each question, and answer asbest as you can.

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Do You Prefer Working Alone Or In Team Settings

Working independently and in team settings have their shortcomings and advantages. This is a chance to tell the interviewer what you prefer. However, keep in mind that companies are looking for people who can work well in teams. Therefore, assure the interviewer that you have no problem being in team settings.

Sample Answer

I have had a taste of both. However, I find working in teams more fulfilling. Being together with people who have different abilities and skill sets helps one learn and advance. Teamwork improves efficiency and ensures speedy delivery. I can also work alone and deliver if called upon. I do not mind a blend of both.

Tell Me About A Time You Were 75 Percent Through A Project And Had To Pivot Quickly How Did You Handle It

Life happens when we are in the middle of projects, and Amazon leadership will want to know how you handle these types of situations when they occur. You could encounter this question for many different types of roles, including technical and management positions. Your answer should speak to your agility, leadership, and problem-solving skills:

At my last job, I was leading a project that was near completion. Everything was moving smoothly and on-target for timely completion. Then, one of our partners providing one of the software upgrades that were to occur at the 90 percent mark encountered a breach of their systems and was estimated to delay the project by two to four weeks.

I had to review our plans and come up with options to keep the project on target as much as possible. Going with another software provider wasn’t a viable option, as the groundwork had been laid to go live with the current provider, and starting over would have delayed the project even more. Instead, we were able to allocate two resources to support the provider in recovering from the breach in less than half of the time that was projected.

As a result, we were able to complete the project only two days after the originally scheduled completion date. Fortunately, since we had built in a cushion for contingencies, we were able to go live on schedule.

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Success And Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

What does this mean at Amazon? “We started in a garage, but we’re not there anymore. We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions. Our local communities, planet, and future generations need us to be better every day. We must begin each day with a determination to make better, do better, and be better for our customers, our employees, our partners, and the world at large. And we must end every day knowing we can do even more tomorrow. Leaders create more than they consume and always leave things better than how they found them.”

Practice questions:

Want more? Give these bonus practice questions a try:

For even more on the subject, John Rossman wrote a remarkably helpful book that explains in detail what each leadership principle is and why they’re important to Amazon’s business philosophy. Give it a read, and you should have no problem impressing your interviewer with your clear understanding of the leadership principles during your Amazon interview.

Hire And Develop The Best

What does this mean at Amazon? “Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.”

Practice questions:

• “Tell me about a time when you fired someone.”

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How To Clone A Directed Graph

Cloning a directed graph is a process that creates a replica of the original graph. The new graph will have the same nodes and edges as the original, and the order of the edges will be preserved. The most common way to clone a directed graph is to use a graph algorithm like breadth-first search or depth-first search. These algorithms recursively explore all paths in the graph, creating a new copy of the graph for each path they encounter.

How Do You Normally Persuade People

Knowing how to persuade people, especially in team settings, is important. You may not all have the same ideas all the time and may have to sell yours to others. How do you ensure that they buy in your approach and front it? The interviewer must therefore know how good you are at persuasion and negotiation.

Sample Answer

I usually persuade people by tabling my proposal and telling them what they stand to benefit from adopting it. I may also compare it to the other submissions and clearly highlight the advantages it has over them. While doing this, I usually ensure use every means possible, including diagrams.

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How Are You Improving Diversity

Someone once asked what steps we are taking to elevate the number of women in leadership at Spotify, Scheiman recalls. It was a great question because it showed that the candidate had an interest in a topic that is top of mind for us at Spotify. Also, it opened up a dialogue around some of the great programs we run and how this candidate would be able to get involved.

Sheiman says that led to a discussion of the Spotifys womens mentorship program, employee resource groups, training opportunities, internal diversity summit, and, of course, our six months paid parental leave, which the company added in late 2015.

Determine If A Binary Tree Is A Binary Search Tree

A binary search tree is a data structure that allows fast searching of data. It can be used to store a sorted list of items. The tree is binary because it has two children for each node at most. A binary search tree is a binary search tree if and only if the following two conditions are met:

• The left child of a node is less than the node itself.
• The right child of a node is greater than the node itself.

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Tell Me About A Time When You Were Dissatisfied With The Quality Of Something At Work And Went Out Of Your Way To Improve It

The best way to answer this question is to give an example of when you were dissatisfied with the quality of something at work and then took it upon yourself to improve it. For instance, maybe you noticed that many customer complaints were related to product quality. In that case, you might have decided to take on a quality assurance role to ensure that the products met customer expectations. Alternatively, if you felt that the company’s branding was lackluster, you might have started a branding initiative to improve the company’s image.

Understanding The Why Amazon Question

Many software engineers want to work at Amazon for its competitive salaries and benefits. But when Amazon recruiters or hiring managers ask Why Amazon?, they are looking to see what else compels you to join their teams.

At this point in the hiring process, interviewers already know about your work experience. Instead, this is a chance for them to assess if you are a fit for their culture and if you will stick around for the long-haul.

In other words, the Why Amazon interview question is assessing your motivations.

Thats why it is better to answer this question emotionally. With an emotional answer, you have the chance to discuss your goals and values and goals as they pertain to Amazons principles. According to the recruitment slogans and goals set forth by Jeff Bezos , Amazon is looking for people who have an investment in the company beyond just a paycheck.

So, what makes a good response to this question? While there is no one right answer, a good response should be as specific as possible to Amazon and your experiences. You could touch on these topics:

Note: Your response should not be interchangeable with other companies. For example, if you are also interviewing at Microsoft, your Why Microsoft answer should be about Microsofts values, missions, and products. This job interview question is not a one-size-fits-all situation, unlike many other behavioral questions.

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What Metrics Do You Use To Drive Positive Change

When asked this question in an interview, it’s important to understand the interviewer’s definition of “positive change.” Some interviewers might be asking about tangible results, such as increasing sales or profits. Others might be more interested in softer metrics, such as employee satisfaction or customer satisfaction. No matter what the interviewer is looking for, you should always have at least one metric to track progress and success.

Amazon Interview Process: The Loop

This stage of the Amazon interview process is called Loop. The origins of this term are puzzling, especially since it refers to five back-to-back interviews. The Loop can be 1-2 weeks away from your Phone Screen, which is normal given the state of everyone’s diaries.

For non-technical roles, Loop interview content is 99% behavioural and is based on Amazon’s Leadership Principles. The best way to learn how to answer Amazon interview questions based on the Leadership Principles is to take training. This course will give you everything you need to pick the right situations in your interview responses.

As Hiring Managers, we would join this part of the Amazon interview process on par with the rest of the interviewers and do our rounds. Before the loop begins, we may run a briefing call with the rest of the interview panellists to remind them of the role and the candidate’s profile. We’d also assign Leadership Principles that each panellist will test. This is a typical part of the Amazon interview and hiring process.

During the interview, we’ll be taking lots of notes. This is why our eye contact may be patchy. Apologies for this – our note-taking is for your benefit. We are very keen to make an objective decision, and so is every person who will interview you.

Discussing candidate performance before the Loop Debrief is taboo. Yet, it’s hard to vouch for hundreds of loops and guarantee that nobody will break their silence.

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