Amazon software engineer interview questions
Use representative practice prompts for the coding, system design, and Leadership Principles areas Amazon describes for software engineering interviews.
Practice guide: Interview content varies by role, level, team, and location. These representative prompts are based on public company guidance and general interview patterns; Amazon does not endorse this guide.
11 questions, one at a time
Coding questions
Each problem has a full statement, examples, constraints, and a tested solution in Python, Java and C++.
Two Sum
Return the indices of the two numbers that add up to a target.
Valid Parentheses
Check whether a string of brackets opens and closes correctly.
Merge Intervals
Merge every group of overlapping intervals.
LRU Cache
Build a fixed-size cache that evicts the least recently used key in O(1).
Number of Islands
Count the groups of connected land cells in a grid.
System design questions
Turn requirements into APIs, data models, architecture choices, bottlenecks, and explicit trade-offs.
Behavioral questions
Prepare truthful evidence of decisions, ownership, collaboration, learning, and measurable results.
Tell me about a time you failed.
Ownership, honest reflection, and whether you changed the system—not just apologized.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager.
Whether you can challenge a decision with evidence, listen, and commit after the decision is made.
Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer.
How you uncover the real customer need and balance it with durable business judgment.
Tell me about a decision you made with incomplete information.
Speed, risk judgment, and your ability to distinguish reversible from irreversible decisions.
Tell me about a process you improved.
Whether you find root causes, simplify work, and prove that the improvement lasts.