Amazon Software Development Engineer interview questions
based on 3.4K ratings - Updated Jul 1, 2026
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Amazon interviews FAQs
Candidates applying for Software Development Engineer roles take an average of 16 days to get hired, when considering 1 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Amazon overall takes an average of 27 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Amazon as a Software Development Engineer according to 1 Glassdoor interviews include:
Skills test: 50%
Phone interview: 50%
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I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Amazon in Nov 2014
Interview
A friend referred me to the role. All communication was done by email. I picked up a time that I could take the technical test, and when the time has come, the recruiter sent the test by email. This was for the Brazilian office, so the process was shorter than for the US office (the recruiter told me).
The test was 2 questions and I had 60 minutes (extensible to 90 if needed) to develop the 2 questions, either in Java or C++. After the time, I sent the email back with my answers, and after 4 days they told me that I didn't make it.
All the process was really cool, the recruiter answered all the emails as fast as possible and was very nice to me.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
The first question was to find the first word on a stream that do not repeat in the rest of the stream. I got some Interfaces that I needed to implement, there was a example input and output.
The second question was to design a backup system that count how many tapes would be required to store files in the most efficient way, knowing that:
1. Never place more than two files on the same tape.
2. Files cannot be split across multiple tapes. It's guaranteed that all tapes have the same size and that they will always be able to store the largest file.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Nov 2014
Interview
I passed online assessment first, then was invited to onsite interview. We had pizza with the interviewers and asked some questions about Amazon. Four rounds onsite interview, the last round was bar raiser, one Chinese interviewer didn't give any hint, others were kind. Some design questions were asked. The questions were interesting and you can discuss it with the interviewers.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Aug 2014
Interview
Referred by a friend and got one round of phone and then onsite.
Phone interview questions are pretty easy: 1. best time to buy and sell stock;
2, design a locker room for a mall.
Five rounds of onsite:
(1),
1. when you disagree with your manager?
2. Big decision you made in last three months?
3, What did you do when you did something wrong?
4, biggest challenge in your past?
5, how do you solve conflicts?
(2), generate a random number which has length of n and are unique for each digit.
input: n=4, output: 1342
follow up: optimize and if we have a shuffle function
(3),
1. valid a parentheses ‘()’
2. valid a palindrome
3. design a validator which validate many aspects
(4),
Design a game
User, character, Weapon, bag, Direction, (move up, down, left, right)
(5),
1. valid a node which has the same value as its decedents if any
2. flat a linked list