What are the 3 rounds of Amazon interview?

Amazon’s interview process generally consists of three major rounds, especially for software engineering roles. These rounds are designed to evaluate your technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and alignment with Amazon’s leadership principles. Here’s an overview of what to expect in each round:

1. Technical Phone Screen (or Online Assessment)

The first round is usually a technical phone screen or an online coding assessment. The goal is to test your basic programming and problem-solving skills.

What to Expect:

• Coding Questions: You’ll typically be asked to solve data structure and algorithm problems. These can include topics like arrays, strings, linked lists, trees, graphs, sorting, and searching.
• Live Coding: If it’s a phone screen, you’ll solve problems in a collaborative coding environment while explaining your thought process to the interviewer.
• Example Problem: Implement a function to find the longest palindrome in a string or merge two sorted linked lists.

How to Prepare:

• Review basic coding patterns and solve practice problems on platforms like LeetCode.
• The Grokking the Coding Interview course by DesignGurus.io is highly recommended for learning key patterns.

2. Technical Interview

This round is typically conducted by an Amazon engineer and will involve more in-depth technical questions. You can expect 1-2 rounds of this type of interview.

What to Expect:

• Data Structures & Algorithms: More complex problems will be given, and you’ll be expected to explain your solution, optimize it, and discuss time/space complexity.
• System Design (for mid-level or senior roles): If you’re interviewing for a higher-level position, this round might include system design questions. You’ll need to design scalable and efficient systems.
• Example Problem: Design a system that can handle millions of users uploading and sharing images.

How to Prepare:

• For system design, Grokking the System Design Interview by DesignGurus.io is an excellent course to build your design skills.
• Practice coding questions that involve dynamic programming, recursion, and tree/graph traversal.

3. Behavioral Interview (Leadership Principles)

Amazon places a lot of emphasis on cultural fit and alignment with their 14 Leadership Principles. This round often comes towards the end of the process and may consist of 2-3 back-to-back interviews with different team members.

What to Expect:

• Behavioral Questions: You’ll be asked to share experiences where you demonstrated qualities like ownership, bias for action, and customer obsession.
• STAR Method: Be prepared to answer using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method to frame your responses clearly.
• Example Question: “Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision with incomplete information.”

How to Prepare:

• Focus on behavioral questions and rehearse your answers. The Grokking Modern Behavioral Interview course by DesignGurus.io provides a solid framework to help you practice for this round.

By nailing these three rounds, you can significantly increase your chances of landing the job at Amazon. Each round tests a unique aspect of your skills, so be sure to prepare thoroughly across both technical and behavioral areas.