I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Jan 2017
Interview
Very thorough and relatively quick but extremely nontransparent.
The interviews are done over a phone and they ask you to make sure there is a good reception for a cell phone which is not always possible. Not having a face to face interview at least over Skype or similar makes it almost impossible to do your best as you cannot see your interviewers.
Time scheduling is complicated and erroneous as it involves email communications with multiple seemingly disconnected Amazon employees from multiple departments.
Feedback is not informative and may be delayed or completely missing.
During the interviews they allow some time for questions but very limited.
They expect you to be aware of Amazon internal processes and protocols while providing very little information about that.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain at least one unsuccessful project in your recent career experience. You must have an example even if you don't think you had any unsuccessful projects.
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.