Amazon software engineer interviews

Then, you'll be expected to generate a high-level design, showing the different system components that will be required, how they're connected, and any trade-offs in the approach you've taken. This is very different than other types of interviews e. As a result, you won't be able to "coast" through system design interviews using the skills you've developed in other areas. You'll need to do specific preparation for system design questions. You might also be wondering how common system design interviews are.

The answer depends on the company and role that you're applying for. And if you're applying for a more senior software engineer role, or for a software development manager position, then you should expect system design interviews to be much more heavily emphasized.

In addition to software engineers, system design interviews are also used in TPM interviews , and potentially in interviews for other technical roles. Below, we've compiled a list of our interview guides for every company and role that we've covered, where system design interviews are used.

This is not a comprehensive list of all companies in the industry that use system design interviews, but it does cover some of the biggest companies in the industry. If you'd like to learn more about a specific company's system design interviews, or their overall interview process, then we'd encourage you to check out our guide for that company below :.

Now that you have a high-level understanding of system design interviews, let's talk about how to approach them systematically. There are a variety of ways to solve system design interviews, but at the end of the day, you need a method that will consistently:. With that in mind, our favorite approach and the one that we recommend you use is summarized in the following video from Amazon:. Let's dig into each of these in more detail. And by the end of this section, you should have a good idea of what to do at each step of a system design interview.

For a more detailed breakdown of this method, and a full example answer, take a look at our article on how to answer system design interview questions. The first step to answering a system design question is to ask clarifying questions. You need to make sure you clearly understand the goals and requirements of the system. This will have a huge impact on the quality of your design, because the value of a system is deeply connected to how well it meets the intended objectives.

Let's examine this further using the same example covered in the Amazon video above: Design an online bookstore. If you're asked to design an online bookstore, you'll need to begin by collecting more specific details about the bookstore's purpose. For instance:. This is not a comprehensive list, but your goal should be to clearly establish the purpose and goal of the system you need to design. Once you know the goal of the system, that's progress, but you still won't have a clear vision for the system until you clarify a few more things, including the required scale.

You'd design a very different system for a university bookstore that delivers special order textbooks to the local campus than you would for an online bookstore that sells millions of books worldwide. Once the goal and scale of the system are clear, then it can also be helpful to discuss with your interviewer where to focus your attention during the interview. Keep in mind that different interviewers may have different views on where you should focus, so it's really helpful to get their buy-in to make sure you're on the same page before proceeding with your high-level designs.

This can also save you from designing the wrong type of system, because it gives the interviewer an opportunity to help steer you in the direction they most want to go.

Here's a final note to keep in mind while you clarify the requirements of the system. Whenever you make an assumption that will influence your design approach, make sure you mention it to your interviewer. A big part of system design interviews is showing your interviewers how you think, and not just the final solution you reach.

As a result, you want to voice your thoughts out loud, so that the interviewer will be able to follow your logic without getting lost or confused along the way. According to Google see video in section 2.

Most system design interviews last for about minutes, so this raises the question: how do you allocate your time? Well, the flow that you should expect in a system design interview is to quickly clarify the requirements and draft a high-level design for the system within the first 20 minutes.

Then, you'll spend most of the remaining time drilling-down into more detailed aspects of the system. When you put together your high-level design, you only need to include the most foundational components. For example, the front-end, web servers, and database. From there, you should drill-down into more details, starting with the specific component that you are most familiar with. For example, if your background is in front-end development, then you should start with the front-end, and work your way backwards through the system.

This is the exact process demonstrated in the Amazon video above. Using this approach will ensure that you have time to go in-depth where you have the most knowledge. Similarly, it may allow you to give more general designs for areas where you're weaker, due to the time limitations of the interview.

Both of these situations can help you make a stronger impression. They want to see that you can take calculated risks and move things forward. Have backbone; disagree and commit — "Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting.

Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly. Any group of smart leaders will disagree at some point.

Amazon wants to see that you know when to challenge ideas and escalate problems to senior leadership. At the same time, they want to know you can sense the right time to move forward regardless of your disagreement.

Invent and simplify — "Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. Amazon relies on a culture of innovation. Answering invent and simplify questions is an opportunity to show your ability to create solutions when there is no obvious answer.

Dive deep — "Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them. Interviewers want to see that you are excited to dive deep when problems arise. Are right, a lot — "Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgement and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. Amazon expects its Software Development Engineers to produce solutions as quickly as possible and to make a lot of decisions with little information.

Deliver results — "Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion.

Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle. Amazon values action over perfection. 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 huge and its SDEs need to build products that reach significant scale to make a difference for the business. As a result, interviewers will want to see that you can develop and articulate a bold vision. Hire and develop the best — "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. You should also show you enjoy coaching younger colleagues and know how to get the most out of top performers. This leadership principle is typically discussed in interviews for very senior engineering positions that involve people management or building a team e.

Software Development Manager, Director, etc. Frugality — "Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense. At every touchpoint, Amazon tries to provide customers with as much value for as little cost as possible. Interviewers will be looking for how you can support this idea while maintaining a constant drive for innovation.

Learn and be curious — "Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them. Amazon demands constant improvement in every part of their business. Some examples listed here are general interview questions, but they provide a perfect opportunity for you to address this principle. 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. Earn trust — "Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.

Strive to be Earth's best employer — " Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. They lead with empathy, have fun at work, and make it easy for others to have fun. Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what's next?

Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees' personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere. Success and scale bring broad responsibility — "W e 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.

Amazon wants its employees to understand the responsibility of working for a vast, impactful company. Show how you measure the impact of your decisions, both in your workspace and in the world around you e. You must always be willing to improve.

Example "success and scale bring broad responsibility" questions asked by Amazon. Now that you know what questions to expect, let's focus on how to prepare. Here are the four preparation steps we recommend to help you get an offer as an Amazon or Amazon Web Services software development engineer. Most candidates fail to do this. But before investing tens of hours preparing for an interview at Amazon, you should take some time to make sure it's actually the right company for you.

Amazon is prestigious and it's tempting to assume that you should apply, without considering things more carefully. But, it's important to remember that the prestige of a job by itself won't make you happy in your day-to-day work. It's the type of work and the people you work with that will.

If you know engineers who work at Amazon or used to work there, talk to them to understand what the culture is like. The leadership principles we discussed above can give you a sense of what to expect, but there's no replacement for a conversation with an insider. Finally, we would also recommend reading the following resources:. As mentioned above, you'll have to answer three types of questions at Amazon: coding, system design, and behavioral. The first step of your preparation should be to brush up on these different types of questions and to practice answering them by yourself.

For coding interviews, we recommend getting used to the step-by-step approach hinted at by Amazon in the video below. To practice coding questions, we recommend using our articles, 73 data structure questions and 71 algorithms questions , which have links to high quality answers to each problem. They are organized by type of data structure or algorithm as well as by difficulty level. Don't forget to practice on a whiteboard or Google Doc instead of in an editor.

For system design interviews, we recommend getting used to the step-by-step approach hinted at by Amazon in the video below. We'd also recommend studying our system design interview guide and learning how to answer system design interview questions. These guides cover a step-by-step method for answering system design questions, and they provide several example questions with solutions.

For behavioral interviews, we recommend learning our step-by-step method. For Amazon, it's particularly important that you are able to demonstrate some of Amazon's Leadership Principles as you answer behavioral questions. Finally, a great way to practice coding, system design, and behavioral questions, is to interview yourself out loud.

This may sound strange, but it will significantly improve the way you communicate your answers during an interview. Play the role of both the candidate and the interviewer, asking questions and answering them, just like two people would in an interview. Practicing by yourself will only take you so far. One of the main challenges of coding interviews is that you have to communicate what you are doing as you are doing it.

To get used to this kind of "thinking out loud" we strongly recommend practicing live coding interviews with a peer interviewing you. If possible, a great place to start is to practice with friends. This can be especially helpful if your friend has experience with software engineer interviews, or is at least familiar with the process.

If you don't have anyone in your network who can interview you, y ou can find peers to practice with on our mock interview platform.

Practicing with peers can be a great help, and it's usually free. But at some point, you'll start noticing that the feedback you are getting from peers isn't helping you that much anymore. Once you reach that stage, we recommend practicing with ex-interviewers from top tech companies. If you know a software engineer who has experience running interviews at Amazon or another big tech company, then that's fantastic. But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen.

And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well. Here's the good news.

Save Article. Like Article. Next Resume Writing For Internship. Recommended Articles. Article Contributed By :. Easy Normal Medium Hard Expert. Writing code in comment? Please use ide. Load Comments. What's New. Most popular in GBlog. More related articles in GBlog.