35 Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions

Learning and understanding the Amazon leadership principles interview questions is an important aspect of preparing for the interview. Nowadays it has become a key part of the hiring process at Amazon, regardless of the position for apply for.

The behavioral round is a crucial part of hiring an individual for the leadership role at Amazon. The behavioral questions help hiring managers understand your attitude and thought process in crises and determine if you will be the right fit for the role.

Amazon’s behavioral interview is unique and starkly different from other FAANG companies. That’s because the interview is based on Amazon’s 16 leadership principles — a set of ideals that reflect Amazon’s core values as a company. Learning how to answer questions around leadership principles is important to make the cut, be it for junior, senior, or managerial positions.

In this article, we present the 16 leadership principles of Amazon and discuss why they are important. We also give you the top 35 toughest Amazon leadership principles interview questions and answers and tips to help you boost your interview prep.

What Are Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles?

Amazon’s leadership principles were pioneered and instituted by Chairman Jeff Bezos to evolve a culture that respects ethical and moral values. Below are the 16 leadership principles that are centric on behavioral interviews at Amazon:

Why Are Amazon’s Leadership Principles Important?

Amazon’s leadership principles define the company’s core values and serve as a bedrock for ethics and conduct. By adhering to leadership principles, employees can achieve memorable success in their personal growth efforts and contribute to the company’s overall success.

Questions around the leadership principles can feature in the on-site behavioral round or the bar-raiser round. A bar-raiser is part of a team of specially trained Amazon professionals whose main job is to maintain excellence while hiring candidates for roles across the board.

How to Answer Amazon Leadership Principle Questions

Amazon’s bar-raiser round evaluates your responses to behavioral questions and gauges if you’re the right fit for the role. The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) method is a widely popularized method to answer behavioral interview questions at FAANG companies. The method fundamentally aims to frame responses based on real situations and incidents.

Let’s look at it in slight detail:

While answering the Amazon leadership principles interview questions and answers, make sure you address each of these areas to craft the perfect response.

• Situation: The Situation should answer the “When,” “Why,” and “Where” of the response. When you’re asked a behavioral question, start off with the Situation before moving on to the other elements.
• Task: The Task should throw light on what your particular role in the situation was. Highlight what your key responsibilities were and what was expected of you.
• Action: The Action part should address what steps you took towards meeting the requirements of the task.
• Result: The Result part should essentially answer the outcome of the task. This part should also talk about challenges encountered along the way and the actions taken to tackle them.

Behavioral Interview Questions Based on Amazon’s Leadership Principles

Amazon’s behavioral interview will have questions that pertain to one or more leadership principles. While answering these questions, make references to specific principles and associate them with your answers. That way, recruiters will know that you’ve read and understood these crucial principles and are willing to apply them at your workplace.

Here’s a list of 35 behavioral interview questions that you can use to practice for the interview:

• Tell us about a time when you overcame a rather difficult challenge pertaining to a past project.
• Tell us about a time when you had to halt a project halfway through as it wasn’t headed in the right direction.
• Tell us about a time when you had to make sacrifices in your personal life to complete an arduous project.
• Tell us about an instance when you had to make a tough decision pertaining to a project when you were under pressure.
• Tell us about a time when you had to take a risk in a project.
• Tell us about a time when you were asked to compromise moral values for the sake of a project.
• Tell us about a difficult relationship you had with a superior. How did you overcome it and build trust?
• Tell us about a time when you had a conflict at your workplace with a coworker.
• Tell us about a time when you had to deviate from the norm to complete a project.
• Tell us about a time when you imparted learnings from a challenging project to your team members.
• How would you employ a certain leadership principle at work?
• Tell us about a time when you had to persuade your manager to change the course of action based on credible insights.
• Tell us about a time when a problem had multiple solutions. How did you go about picking the right solution?
• What are your thoughts on maintaining the ideal work-life balance?
• Tell us about a time when you had to acquire a new skill, dislodging you from your zone of comfort.
• Tell us about a time when you had to take the lead in a project.
• Have you been criticized by a superior in the past? How did you handle it?
• Tell us about a time when your creativity helped a project take an improved turn.
• Tell us about your ideas to motivate your team.
• Which leadership principle do you resonate with the most?
• Tell us about a time when a coworker was hesitant to take help. How did you deal with it?
• Tell us about a time when you had to make a big decision with little data or information.
• Tell us about a time when you faced criticism for your role in an important project. How did you handle it?
• Tell us about a time when your role in a project resulted in the client being completely satisfied.
• Have you ever missed a deadline for a project? How did it impact the relationship with the client, and how did you handle it?
• Tell us about when you had to take the lead on a project and impart key learnings to your team members.
• Tell us about a time when you faced a fairly difficult problem but came up with a simple solution.
• Have you had to ask for help with a difficult project? Tell us how you went about the situation.
• Tell us about a time when your actions impacted customer satisfaction.
• What behavioral characteristics, according to you, will help you succeed at Amazon?
• Tell us about a time when you made short-term compromises or sacrifices for the benefit of concrete long-term results.
• How do you motivate members of your team as a manager?
• Tell us about a time when a project had multiple solutions and how you adopted the most optimal one.
• Tell us about a time when you had to make a tough decision without consulting anybody. How did you go about it?
• Has your manager/superior asked you to do something that you disagree with in the past? How did you handle that?

Ace the Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions with Interview Kickstart

Landing a software engineer job at Amazon is hard, given its rigorous interview process. Nailing it requires the right strategy and direction. Our “FAANG Interview Tips” is a good place to start your Amazon interview prep. Our technical interview prep tips will also help you ace the interview and leave a lasting impression on the interviewers.

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FAQs on Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions

1. How Many Interview Rounds are at Amazon?
There are four interview rounds at Amazon. Each round is of a 1-hour duration. These rounds include an online application, assessment, phone interview, and virtual or on-site interview.

2. Is it Easy to Get Hired by Amazon? 
Amazon is a large and growing company, so getting hired at Amazon in a technical role can be a little challenging because of the competitive job market. The application and interview process is intense compared to other companies, so you will need to stand out for the hiring panel, showcasing your best.

3. Can I Prepare for Amazon’s Behavioral Interview Without Prior Experience with the Company?
Yes, you can prepare by thoroughly understanding Amazon’s leadership principles and practicing responses to common behavioral questions using the STAR method. Reviewing your past experiences and aligning them with these principles can also be very helpful.

4. What to Expect in a Leadership Interview? 
The majority of leadership interview questions focus on your experience in teamwork, solving disputes, interpersonal communication, and inspiring others to perform to the best of their abilities.

5. How can I Demonstrate my Knowledge of Amazon’s Leadership Principles During the Interview?
During the interview, explicitly mention which leadership principle your example aligns with and explain how it guided your actions and decisions. This shows that you understand and can apply these principles in real-world situations.

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