Today, one of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee. With that, you may assume that getting hired is a breeze. However, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos once said: “I’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.” If you’re about to face off against Amazon interview questions, that might legitimately be the most intimidating statement ever.
Now, that doesn’t mean Amazon wants you to fail. Instead, it simply means they only want to hire people who bring the right stuff to the table. With a bit of preparation, you can make the cut. So, come with us as we explore the world of Amazon interview questions.
Download our “Job Interview Questions & Answers PDF Cheat Sheet” that gives you word-for-word sample answers to some of the most common interview questions including:
Amazon Behavioural Interview Questions
Tell me about yourself Make sure you focus on your strengths, skills, qualities and experiences you have that will match the role you are applying for. Be positive and confident in your answer and remember that you will always need back up for your claims of how you work later in the interview. Here’s a sample example for your answer: “I am highly-motivated and goal-oriented employee who strongly believes that significant progress in an organization can be achieved only if everyone in the team is working in the same direction.” “In my previous experiences I have learnt and understood the skills that not only match the job description but also cover all the leadership principles that you expect from your employees.”
Why do you want to work at Amazon? The interviewer here is looking for a candidate who is well informed and aware about Amazon. Let the response should be crisp, genuine and unique. Here’s a sample example for your answer: “I would aspire to work at Amazon because, in my opinion, it is a great company where I feel I will be able to work to learn and grow among other self-motivated people. The growth of Amazon over the years has inspired me to contribute in the best possible way, as the quality of their products and services it offers, puts the customers at the forefront for everything.”
What are your strengths? The strengths you mention here should correlate with the kind of work that you would want to venture into and which is the most suitable with your Amazon job description. Make sure you go through the Amazon Leadership principles which would give you a better understanding on what you would want to say. Here’s a sample example for your answer: “I am good team player and work towards my passion for the work I am doing. “With my previous experience I would work harder to achieve difficult tasks and projects, I feel my strength would benefit there to help the team achieve the same.” “I also have an innovative approach towards things which will give way to new approaches and ideas on course of the work to achieve great heights.”
Tell me about a time when you took risk at work Do not start your answer by a negative scenario, Amazon Interview question here, would want you to understand the you are a great risk handler. Consider how your strengths worked for your best at a crucial situation that needed an immediate action. Include a colleague or co-worker that you basically overpowered in achieving the same. Here’s a sample example for your answer: “While I was working on a project that had a tight deadline, and an issue was to be solved by one of my co-worker, I had to do it in his absence having known very less about that part of the project I put in extra time even over weekends to learn the requirement and understand to meet the project deadline. ““I not only could close the project for the desired deadline but also prevented my co-worker from facing trouble and prevented a huge loss to the company.”
The next round, depends on your profile. If you are applying for a technical role the following questions will be asked. Let’s take a deep dive into Amazon Technical Interview Questions.
Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility
Tell me about when you reversed a decision when you realized it had an adverse impact on colleagues outside your immediate working group.
Tell me about a time when you considered the environmental impact of your decisions.
Tips for bar raising questions
The Interviewer here will ask Bar-Raiser questions
Bar-Raiser Questions will be the combination of couple of behavioral questions
These questions are asked to see if you are better than the other candidates
Keep the answers short, yet tell some story(examples will always fetch you brownie points)
Give a crisp on-point answer and make sure you cover all the Leadership Principles of Amazon