Quick Summary

Process: OA → Phone screen → Loop (4-6 rounds)

Focus: Leadership Principles, behavioral stories, data

Prep time: 6-10 weeks

#1 tip: Every answer must tie back to an LP

The Process

Stage	Duration	What Happens
Online Assessment	1-2 hours	Coding problems + work style survey
Phone Screen	45-60 min	1 coding + behavioral questions
Loop Interview	4-6 × 45-60 min	Behavioral, technical, system design

The secret: Amazon is the most behavioral-heavy FAANG. Expect 70% of questions to be "Tell me about a time..."

The 16 Leadership Principles

This is the heart of Amazon interviews. Every question maps to one or more LPs.

Tier 1: Asked in Almost Every Loop

Principle	What They're Checking
Customer Obsession	Do you start with the customer and work backwards?
Ownership	Do you think long-term? Do you act on behalf of the whole company?
Deliver Results	Do you get things done despite setbacks?
Dive Deep	Do you stay connected to details? Do you audit?
Earn Trust	Are you self-critical? Do you benchmark yourself?

Tier 2: Frequently Asked

Principle	What They're Checking
Bias for Action	Do you take calculated risks? Speed matters.
Insist on the Highest Standards	Do you raise the bar? Relentlessly?
Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit	Can you challenge decisions respectfully, then commit fully?
Invent and Simplify	Do you find new ideas? Do you accept being misunderstood?
Learn and Be Curious	Are you never done learning?

Tier 3: Role-Dependent

Principle	When It Comes Up
Hire and Develop the Best	Management, senior ICs
Think Big	Senior roles, product
Frugality	Operations, cost-focused teams
Are Right, A Lot	Senior decision-makers

The Bar Raiser

One interviewer in your loop is a Bar Raiser—an Amazon employee from outside your target team.

Their job:

Ensure every hire raises the bar (better than 50% of current employees at that level)
Veto power if standards aren't met
No bias toward filling the role quickly

How to spot them: You can't. Treat every interviewer like a Bar Raiser.

Behavioral Interviews

Amazon's behavioral rounds are intense. Expect 2-3 questions per 45-minute session.

The STAR+ Method (Amazon Style)

Amazon wants more than basic STAR. Add these:

Component	Time	Amazon Twist
Situation	10%	Be specific: team size, timeline, stakes
Task	10%	YOUR responsibility—not the team's
Action	50%	What YOU did. Say "I" not "we"
Result	20%	Quantify everything. Revenue, %, time saved
+Learnings	10%	What would you do differently?

Sample Questions by LP

Customer Obsession:

"Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer."

Ownership:

"Describe a time you took on something outside your responsibilities."

Dive Deep:

"Tell me about a time you had to dig into data to solve a problem."

Have Backbone:

"Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager."

Deliver Results:

"Tell me about a time you had to meet a tight deadline."

Coding Interviews

Format: 1-2 problems in 45 minutes. Amazon uses their own coding environment (not LeetCode).

What to Expect

Problems are medium difficulty (easier than Google)
Focus on correctness and clean code over optimization
You WILL get LP questions during coding rounds too

High-Frequency Topics

Arrays • Strings • Hash Maps • Trees • Graphs • BFS/DFS • Dynamic Programming (basic)

The Amazon Difference

After solving, expect: "Now tell me about a time you had to debug a difficult issue in production."

Yes, they mix behavioral into coding rounds. Be ready.

System Design (Senior Roles)

Format: Design a system like "Amazon's recommendation engine" or "Prime Video streaming."

Framework

Phase	Time	Focus
Requirements	5 min	Clarify scale, constraints, use cases
High-Level	10 min	Components, APIs, data flow
Deep Dive	20 min	Database, caching, scaling strategies
Trade-offs	10 min	Why this approach? What are the downsides?

Amazon-Specific Tips

Think scale: Amazon operates at massive scale. Always discuss sharding, replication, CDNs.
Cost matters: Frugality is an LP. Mention cost-efficient choices.
Customer focus: Start with user experience, work backwards to architecture.

Preparing Your Story Bank

You need 10-12 strong stories that cover multiple LPs each.

Story Categories

Category	LPs It Covers
Took ownership of a failing project	Ownership, Deliver Results, Bias for Action
Disagreed with leadership and was right	Have Backbone, Are Right A Lot
Went deep into data to find root cause	Dive Deep, Insist on Highest Standards
Made a customer-focused decision	Customer Obsession, Earn Trust
Failed and learned from it	Learn and Be Curious, Earn Trust
Simplified a complex process	Invent and Simplify, Frugality
Delivered under tight deadline	Deliver Results, Bias for Action
Mentored or developed someone	Hire and Develop the Best

Pro tip: Each story should map to 2-3 LPs. This gives you flexibility when questions overlap.

8-Week Prep Plan

Weeks	Focus
1-2	Memorize all 16 LPs. Start building story bank.
3-4	Write out 10-12 STAR stories. Practice out loud.
5-6	LeetCode medium problems (Amazon-tagged). Mix in behavioral.
7	System design (senior) or more coding (junior). Mock interviews.
8	Full mock loops. Rest. Review stories one more time.

Daily rhythm: 1-2 coding problems + practice 2 behavioral stories out loud.

Common Mistakes

Saying "we" instead of "I" — Amazon wants YOUR contribution
No metrics — "It improved" vs "It improved conversion by 23%"
Forgetting the LP — Always tie back to the principle
Generic stories — Specific > vague every time
Not preparing enough stories — You need 10-12, not 5-6
Ignoring Frugality — Cost-consciousness matters at Amazon

Quick Resources

Leadership Principles: amazon.jobs/principles

Coding: LeetCode Amazon-tagged problems, NeetCode 150

Behavioral: prepare.fyi for STAR story practice with AI feedback

5 Things That Actually Matter

LPs are everything — Memorize them. Live them. Breathe them.
Data wins — Quantify every result with numbers
Ownership mindset — "That wasn't my job" doesn't exist here
The Bar Raiser is watching — Assume every interviewer is one
Customer backwards — Start with the customer in every answer

Day 1 is waiting. Are you ready?