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Amazon SDE Interview: Process, Leadership Principles and How to Prepare

How Amazon's software development engineer interviews work, from the online assessment to the Bar Raiser, plus the 16 Leadership Principles, STAR answers and original practice questions. Free, no sign-up.

Facts checked September 30, 20268 min readSoftware engineering

Amazon at a glance

Phone screen
30 to 45 min
Interview loop
4 to 6 interviews, 45 to 60 min each
Decision
~5 business days after the loop
Leadership Principles
16, in every interview

The stages

  1. 1ApplyShow impact with numbers
  2. 2Online assessmentCoding test (many SDE roles)
  3. 3Phone screen30 to 45 min
  4. 4Interview loopIncl. a Bar Raiser
  5. 5DecisionWithin ~5 business days

Interview loop for technical roles

  • Technical (coding, design)~50%
  • Behavioural (Leadership Principles)~50%

Amazon says about half of a technical loop is technical; the rest focuses on the Leadership Principles.

Amazon's interviews are unusual in one way: every interview checks for its Leadership Principles, including the technical ones. Strong coding alone isn't enough. You also need clear, specific stories that show how you work. This guide covers what Amazon publishes about its process and how to prepare for a software development engineer (SDE) role.

How the process runs

Amazon says its process "differs from role to role". For SDE roles it usually looks like this:

Step through: Amazon's hiring process for SDEs

Step 1 of 5

Application

Amazon suggests showing impact with numbers rather than listing duties, and using the job description's wording naturally.

What's a Bar Raiser?

A Bar Raiser is a trained interviewer, usually from a different team, who acts as an objective third party. Their job is to make sure every hire raises the bar and to keep decisions tied to the Leadership Principles. You won't always know which interviewer it is, so treat every interview the same.

The 16 Leadership Principles

Amazon lists 16 Leadership Principles and uses them in every hiring decision. Learn the names and what each means in practice; you'll be asked for stories that show several of them.

Flip cards · 0 of 16 revealed

STAR answers that work at Amazon

Amazon recommends the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result. It suggests answers of about 2 to 3 minutes, focused on measurable results and what you learned. Prepare 8 to 10 stories that together cover the principles; one good story can show several.

What would you do?

Your manager chose a database you think is the wrong fit. You raised it, but the decision stands.

Which story best shows 'Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit'?

Technical topics Amazon lists for SDEs

Amazon's own prep page lists: programming language, data structures, algorithms, coding, object-oriented design, databases, distributed computing, operating systems, internet topics, and general machine learning and AI. It says interviewers aren't testing whether you've memorised details but your ability to apply what you know to solve problems efficiently and effectively, and it recommends practising coding outside an IDE.

Quick check

According to Amazon's guidance, what's the best use of limited prep time?

Practice questions (original)

Practice question

Top trending products

easy

Given a list of product IDs from today's orders (with repeats) and a number k, return the k most-ordered product IDs. Ties can be in any order.

Practice question

Merge delivery windows

medium

A driver's delivery windows are [start, end] hours, possibly overlapping and unsorted, e.g. [[9, 11], [14, 16], [10, 12], [16, 17]]. Merge overlapping or touching windows and return the result sorted.

Practice question

Design: order status notifications

medium

Design a service that notifies customers by email, SMS or app push when their order status changes (placed, shipped, out for delivery, delivered). Assume millions of orders a day. What are the main components, and how do you avoid duplicate or lost notifications?

A 4-week prep plan

Step through: Four weeks to interview-ready

Step 1 of 4

Week 1: Stories and fundamentals

Write 8 to 10 STAR stories mapped to the Leadership Principles. Review data structures and Big-O; take Amazon's practice online assessment.

Keep going

  • Refresh a weak topic with a free Nokku course.
  • Make your resume show measurable impact with the free resume builder.
  • Browse remote jobs and set up weekly alerts for the roles you want.

Sources

Checked on September 30, 2026. Hiring processes change, so confirm details with your recruiter.

Nokku.ai is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon. Company names are used only to describe their publicly documented hiring process. Practice questions are original.