Amazon Software Development Engineer Interview Questions (2026)

1. 1Online Assessment (SDE OA)60 minMedium

   Two timed coding problems plus a workplace-simulation and logic section; the main gate for freshers and India volume hiring.

2. 2Phone screen45 minMedium

   One coding problem plus 1-2 Leadership Principle STAR questions with an SDE.

3. 3Coding loop round60 minMedium

   DSA problem to working code, followed by assigned-LP behavioral questions in STAR format.

4. 4System design loop round60 minHard

   Design an Amazon-scale service with capacity math, plus LPs; low-level/OOD design substitutes for junior candidates.

5. 5Hiring Manager round45 minMedium

   Team fit, project deep dives, and Deliver Results/Bias for Action stories with the manager you would report to.

6. 6Bar Raiser60 minHard

   An interviewer from outside the team stress-tests LP stories and overall bar with the hardest cross-examination of the loop; holds veto.

1. Q1

   Ask clarifying questions first; then answer this: Design an API gateway for AWS Lambda backend services

   HardHigh Level DesignAPI gateway

   How to answer:

   Handle auth, routing, rate limits, request validation, retries/timeouts, observability, and versioning. Keep business logic out of the gateway. Include customer impact, operational metrics, and failure handling.

2. Q2

   Write production-quality, testable code to solve this: Code a mapper from a raw Delivery API response to a stable internal model

   MediumCodingAPI response mapper

   How to answer:

   Validate required fields, provide defaults for optional fields, isolate external schema changes, and test unknown fields and backward compatibility. Add boundary tests and robust error handling.

3. Q3

   Write production-quality, testable code to solve this: Infer character order from sorted Fulfillment labels in an unknown alphabet

   MediumDSAAlien dictionary

   How to answer:

   Build precedence edges from first differing characters, then topologically sort. O(total characters); detect invalid prefixes and cycles. Add boundary tests and robust error handling.

4. Q4

   Using STAR and Amazon Leadership Principles, answer this: Tell me about a time you had to deliver a Prime Video project with ambiguous requirements

   SeniorBehavioralAmbiguity

   How to answer:

   Use STAR: clarify the ambiguity, list options, align stakeholders, deliver an MVP, quantify outcome, and mention what you changed after learning. Name the LP implicitly through actions; include metrics and ownership.

5. Q5

   Write production-quality, testable code to solve this: Validate nested delimiters in a Prime Video expression language

   MediumDSABalanced parentheses

   How to answer:

   Use a stack of opening delimiters and match each closing delimiter. O(n), O(n); reject mismatches and leftover openings. Add boundary tests and robust error handling.

6. Q6

   Using STAR and Amazon Leadership Principles, answer this: Give an example of balancing ship speed and engineering quality for Recommendations

   MediumBehavioralBalancing speed and quality

   How to answer:

   State deadline and risks, define acceptable quality bar, ship safe slice, add follow-up debt plan, and measure post-launch outcomes. Name the LP implicitly through actions; include metrics and ownership.

7. Q7

   Using STAR and Amazon Leadership Principles, answer this: Tell me about a time you moved quickly on Fulfillment despite incomplete information

   SeniorBehavioralBias for action

   How to answer:

   Show reversible vs irreversible decision framing, minimum safe data gathered, fast execution, and how you monitored/adjusted after launch. Name the LP implicitly through actions; include metrics and ownership.

8. Q8

   Write production-quality, testable code to solve this: Find the missing ID in a Alexa sequence containing 0..n except one value

   MediumDSABit manipulation missing number

   How to answer:

   XOR all indexes and values or use arithmetic sum with overflow caution. O(n), O(1); XOR is safer for large integers. Add boundary tests and robust error handling.

9. Q9

   Ask clarifying questions first; then answer this: Design CDN and origin protection for Delivery static assets

   HardHigh Level DesignCDN origin shielding

   How to answer:

   Use multi-tier caching, signed URLs, cache keys, origin shield, purge pipeline, health checks, and logs for cache hit-rate analysis. Include customer impact, operational metrics, and failure handling.

10. Q10

    For Amazon's payments reconciliation flow, write production-quality backend code to build an LRU cache with TTL and hit/miss metrics while meeting zero-downtime deployment. Describe the main function or class interface, the core data structures, and the edge cases you would test

    MediumCodingCaching

    How to answer:

    A strong answer proposes a small, testable interface and uses hash map plus doubly linked list or ordered dictionary with lazy expiry. It handles retries, invalid input, timeouts, and cleanup explicitly, and states O(1) expected get/put.

11. Q11

    In a Amazon backend interview, solve this DSA problem from Prime delivery promises: implement an LFU cache with LRU tie-breaking. Provide the algorithm, prove correctness, and analyze complexity under peak holiday traffic

    MediumData Structures & AlgorithmsCaching

    How to answer:

    Model the problem with hash maps for keys and frequency buckets with ordered sets. The target solution should achieve O(1) expected get/put, handle empty inputs and ties, and explain why simpler brute-force approaches do not scale.

12. Q12

    Design cache-aware read APIs with explicit cache-control semantics and invalidation hooks for Amazon's payments reconciliation state transition workflow. Specify endpoints or RPCs, request and response schemas, error handling, authentication, idempotency, and pagination where relevant

    MediumAPI DesignCaching

    How to answer:

    A strong answer defines resource-oriented REST endpoints or clear RPC methods for safe transitions, idempotency keys, validation, and conflict responses. It includes stable identifiers, authorization boundaries, validation rules, explicit error codes, rate limits, and backward-compatible versioning.

13. Q13

    Design cache-aware read APIs with explicit cache-control semantics and invalidation hooks for Amazon's fulfillment routing bulk ingestion workflow. Specify endpoints or RPCs, request and response schemas, error handling, authentication, idempotency, and pagination where relevant

    HardAPI DesignCaching

    How to answer:

    A strong answer defines resource-oriented REST endpoints or clear RPC methods for batch submission, partial failure reporting, asynchronous status, and replay. It includes stable identifiers, authorization boundaries, validation rules, explicit error codes, rate limits, and backward-compatible versioning.

14. Q14

    Design a transactional schema for Amazon's Prime delivery promises with emphasis on cache metadata, invalidation logs, materialized views, and read-through/write-through tradeoffs. Include tables or collections, keys, indexes, consistency guarantees, and a migration strategy

    MediumDatabase DesignCaching

    How to answer:

    A strong answer starts from access patterns, then proposes entities, primary keys, foreign keys, uniqueness constraints, and transaction boundaries. It explains transaction scope, isolation level, retention needs, and how the model handles growth to 50 million daily active users.

15. Q15

    Design a query-optimized schema for Amazon's Kindle reading progress with emphasis on cache metadata, invalidation logs, materialized views, and read-through/write-through tradeoffs. Include tables or collections, keys, indexes, consistency guarantees, and a migration strategy

    HardDatabase DesignCaching

    How to answer:

    A strong answer starts from access patterns, then proposes compound indexes, denormalized read models, pagination, and query-plan validation. It explains transaction scope, isolation level, retention needs, and how the model handles growth to 1 billion stored records.

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Prepare 8-12 STAR stories mapped to Leadership Principles; expect a Bar Raiser; quantify impact

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