I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Mar 2015
Interview
Yes, you read that right.. 180 days. First phone interview, interviewer never bothered to submit feedback to the system. Recruiter would contact and go dark for a month, contact and dark.. Finally another phone interview.
Was told I had to fly to Seattle for the on-site even though I live less than ten miles from the job location. I have to fly in the day before, so it takes me two days to do this interview. Also, I could not get a job description although I was told multiple teams were interested.
After the flight had been booked I finally get a job description and the required skill-set is nowhere near what my resume lists.. I go anyway because I had never been to Seattle, though I started to have my doubts about all of it.
Do the interview and everything goes ok. For dealing with technology so far out of my comfort zone I'd say I did pretty well overall. Lots of algorithm and cloud based questions. Aced a couple, did ok on some and got stuck on one.
Get a call the next day that the team decided to pass because of my lack of knowledge of their technology. Told the recruiter that I thought it was odd that I was brought in for this job in the first place and expected the team to understand that I had to learn on the job.. Get quite rudely told that "we hire on experience, not potential." and she tells me she'll call back in a year or so.
If you only hire on experience, why contact someone who has none of the skills listed that you are looking for? This turned into a giant waste of time for everyone involved because of some recruiter not doing their job.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Lots of algorithm questions straight out of careercup. Overall the interview was quite thorough and all bases were covered. I could not figure out who the 'bar raiser' was because none of the interviews stood out as particularly difficult.
What was interesting was that when I asked questions about cooperation and interaction with different groups, all interviewers replied in a way that i could see there was a lot of friction between departments. Having read the amazon reviews and the dreaded 'stack ranking' system they still employ, it was no real surprise to me.
Initial screening call with recruiter followed by a 1 hr hacker rank question on DSA. The final round was a panel consisting of 4 interviews ranging from technical design, more DSA and behaviour questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when you disagreed with your team and how you resolved it
Online Application & Assessment: Candidates apply via amazon.jobs and may be asked to complete online assessments (work simulations or technical tests).
Recruiter Phone Screen: A 30-60 minute interview to discuss your background, interest in the role, and initial behavioral questions.
Technical Phone Screen (For Tech Roles): A 60-minute interview focused on data structures, algorithms, and coding in a shared editor.
Interview Loop (Virtual/Onsite): The final stage, usually 3-5, 45-60 minute interviews held on the same day or over a few days.
Behavioral Questions: These focus on past behavior (STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result) mapped to Leadership Principles.
Technical/Functional Questions: Problem-solving, system design, or domain-specific questions.
Bar Raiser Interview: One interviewer is a "Bar Raiser," a neutral employee from another team tasked with ensuring hiring standards remain high.
Hiring Committee/Debrief: Interviewers meet to discuss candidate feedback and make a hiring decision.
Recruiter screen. Then 2 coding interviews then onsite rounds (another coding question, then a system design question, then HM behavioral interview). System design was simpler than other companies. Coding was leetcode ish