Following is a short and concise (I know even this is long...) list of potential behavioural questions asked in Amazon Interviews based on Amazon's Leadership Principles (LPs). 90%+ questions recently are coming from this list only based on my own and my friends' experience. SDEs can avoid last 3 LPs.
Customer Obsession: Start with the customer and work backwards — leaders obsess over customers
- A time you used customer feedback to drive improvement
- Most difficult customer interaction
- A time where you had to balance the needs of the customer vs. the business
Insists on Highest Standards: Have relentlessly high standards and continuously raise the bar/drive others to do the same
- A time you were unsatisfied with the status quo. How would you change it?
- Describe the most significant improvement project you’ve lead
- How do you seek out feedback on performance?
Delivers Results: Focus on key inputs and deliver with high quality in a timely fashion
- A time you were driving toward a goal and realized more than half way in that it may not be the best goal
- A goal you set that took a long time to achieve/are still working towards
- A time you delivered a project under a tight deadline
Bias for Action: Speed is crucial at Amazon — value calculated risk taking
- A time where you’ve taken a calculated risk where speed was crucial
- A time you made an important decision without consulting your manager
- A time where you were able to remove serious roadblocks preventing progress
Invent and Simplify: Expect and require innovation from yourself and those around you — always find ways to simplify
- The most innovative thing you’ve done and why you think it’s innovative
- A time where you solved a complex problem with a simple solution
- A creative idea you had that ended up being difficult to implement
Ownership: Think long term and don’t sacrifice value for short-term results — there is no such thing as “not my job”
- A time you took on something significant outside your responsibility
- A time you made a decision to sacrifice short term gain for a longer term goal
- A time you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help
Dive Deep: Stay connected to details, audit frequently, and question when metrics differ
- A time you were trying to understand a problem on your team and had to go down several layers to figure it out
- A time you linked two or more problems together an identified an underlying issue
- A specific metric you have used to identify a need for a change in your department
Learn and be Curious: Always seeking improvement — curious about new possibilities
- A time you realized you needed to have a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well and love to explore them
- A time you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding
- A time you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem
Disagree and Commit: Obligation to respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree, then fully committing
- A time you strongly disagreed with your manager
- A time you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers/leaders
- A time you decided to go along with the group decision even if you disagreed
- A time when you disagreed, spoke your thoughts, but then agreed to commit even if it wasn’t the way you wanted to go
Earn Trust: Listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully
- A time you significantly contributed to improving morale and productivity on your team
- 3 things you’re working on to improve overall effectiveness
- A time you received tough or critical feedback
Think Big: Thinking small is a self- fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold directions that inspires results
- A time of a radical approach you proposed to solve a big problem
- A time when you took a big risk and it failed
Hire & Develop The Best: Raise the performance bar with every hire & promotion. Recognize talent, and willingness to move them throughout the organization
- How you help your team members develop their careers
- A time when you provided feedback to develop & leverage the strengths of someone on your team.
Frugality: A time when you thought about saving a cost for your team
- A time when you implemented a mechanism that saved money for your business
- A time when you spotted something in the business was wasting money
Are Right A Lot: Strong judgment and good instincts
- A time you made a difficult decision and how you knew it was the right decision.
- A time you made a decision without data
- A time you made a bad decision and how you learned from it
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