The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in May 2011
Interview
The interview consisted of a 2 step phone screen followed by an in-person grilling session. One of the phone screens was technical while the other was more behavioral.
The all day interview consisted of back-to-back-to-back 45 minutes sessions from 10am through lunch till about 5:30pm (there was some scheduling snafu which gave me a little bit of a breather in the middle). Several portions were technical while others were behavioral. I met with team members, management as well as business customers. I followed the tips someone else posted about identifying the bar-raiser early in the interview (by asking "What do you do at Amazon?" My writing will not do justice. Please read that excellent and important post elsewhere). The bar-raiser was definitely the toughest portion of the interview.
The recruiter did a great job of followup and called back to give me an offer. I was almost stunned given my performance with the bar-raiser. After a little bit of negotiation, I accepted the offer.
Interview questions [5]
Question 1
Given two numbers n and m, divide n by m without using the division operator. Return both the integer answer as well as the remainder.
1. Given a depth d, build a complete tree of depth d.
2. How would you test it?
3. Why did you select your particular solution approach?
4. What level of programmer could be expected to code this?
Let's say you inherit a system that no one is supporting but your team needs to use to deliver.
1. How would you manage the development and delivery of your product?
2. What if you need another team's help? How do you get their attention?
3. What if this other team is stressed with their own delivery?
4. What if you have a tight timeline but the relevant resources are in different parts of the org?
How do you hire people? (This was asked multiple times. I almost felt that I must be messing up my answers). My answer led to many different interview paths.
Phone screen, 5 1 hour interviews for loop
Each hour was dedicated to 2 LPs. System design was more collaborative than i anticipated which was a pleasant surprise. The phone screen mostly focused on my previous experiences
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard LP based scenarios, system design was actual system the team owns
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Tokyo) in Feb 2026
Interview
The interview process is straightforward but intense.
First interview was with another Software Dev Manager in the same team. After that the famous loop interview where I had to take 5 interviews in a row over two days ( using paid holidays at work ). Recruiter gave a lot of information about possible questions and helped with materials. However, I had to use same stories few times as the different interviewers asked same questions few times.
Everything is okay, I had a good time during the interviews and it was a good exercise. However, I simply do not understand why they have to call to reject? I am not a customer to be obsessed with. A straight cut rejection via email works better than taking time out of my busy schedule.
If they used this time to share some feedback, that would be useful. If they do not share any reason why I have to continue formal small talk just to get the rejection on my face?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A time you were driving toward a goal and realized more than halfway in that it may not be the best goal.
Had 1 round of System design interview. I thought the interview went ok, if not bad, it went decently well. Received a rejection response, while asking to apply 6 months later.
