The process was a total chaos.
A recruiter reached out to me telling me that I was eligible for the Boomerang Program (for ex-Amazonians to return without interview). After I expressed interested, they tole me that it needs approval. Later they told me it wasn't approved since I left the company too long ago. I thought it was unprofessional for them to not know the basic rules for hiring. Then they told me to do an Online Assessment. I said I needed time to prepare. They were pushy trying to get me to complete it, calling me every other day to check in, which felt like way too invasive. A couple of weeks later, they told me I DIDN'T need to do the OA, because it was for junior engineers and I was a senior. Again, why didn't they know the basic process?
They referred me to another recruiter. Meanwhile, I was getting reach outs from a lot of other Amazon recruiters. It feels like the process is not centralized and everyone was just fight against everyone else to get leads.
The other recruiter wasn't able to match me to a role with my tech stack. I was surprised because I didn't believe a company as big as Amazon didn't have any opening for my specialty, which is a common one. I thought the recruiters must have their own hiring area and weren't willing to refer me out of their hiring scope. I decided to proceed anyway as a practice for other interviews.
I had a chat with the hiring manager. It was the most under-prepared chat I've had. They spent the most time doing small talked and oversharing their opinions. They didn't organize their thoughts well or did a good job selling the team.
My next step was a technical interview, and, of course, without any notice, the interviewer didn't show up. That was when I decided that enough was enough and not to proceed further.
The entire interview process was a total disaster. Every single step was painful. I couldn't imagine it can get much worse tbh.
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Other Senior Software Engineer interview reviews for Amazon
Initial screening call with recruiter followed by a 1 hr hacker rank question on DSA. The final round was a panel consisting of 4 interviews ranging from technical design, more DSA and behaviour questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when you disagreed with your team and how you resolved it
Online Application & Assessment: Candidates apply via amazon.jobs and may be asked to complete online assessments (work simulations or technical tests).
Recruiter Phone Screen: A 30-60 minute interview to discuss your background, interest in the role, and initial behavioral questions.
Technical Phone Screen (For Tech Roles): A 60-minute interview focused on data structures, algorithms, and coding in a shared editor.
Interview Loop (Virtual/Onsite): The final stage, usually 3-5, 45-60 minute interviews held on the same day or over a few days.
Behavioral Questions: These focus on past behavior (STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result) mapped to Leadership Principles.
Technical/Functional Questions: Problem-solving, system design, or domain-specific questions.
Bar Raiser Interview: One interviewer is a "Bar Raiser," a neutral employee from another team tasked with ensuring hiring standards remain high.
Hiring Committee/Debrief: Interviewers meet to discuss candidate feedback and make a hiring decision.
Recruiter screen. Then 2 coding interviews then onsite rounds (another coding question, then a system design question, then HM behavioral interview). System design was simpler than other companies. Coding was leetcode ish