What questions does Amazon ask in interviews?

As one of the world’s largest employers, Amazon has a suitably supersized recruitment process. In 2022, it hired 4,000 new UK workers, or just under 11 new starters per day. And this year, a new Amazon “fulfilment” centre in Leeds is set to create another 2,000.

These roles range from delivery drivers, to warehouse operatives, to software developers. And Amazon’s recruitment team has created a carefully customised profile for each career path, tailoring its questions to reflect the unique demands of the job and needs of the team.

Below, we break down the top questions Amazon asks its candidates according to Glassdoor data, and what they teach small employers about how to structure job interviews.

Amazon interview questions for Warehouse Associate

• What is your availability for this position?
• Are you comfortable operating machinery?
• What are your goals for the future?

Ex-interviewees for the Warehouse Associate role at Amazon report being given a very simple online assessment to get the position. Forget your ‘biggest strengths’, it seems the real test for candidates at this level is whether they have done the job before.

The thinking behind this is likely that Warehouse Associates are more likely to be doing physical labour. For this group, the probation period is the real test, when managers can observe the employee’s ability to perform tasks in the real work environment.

Similar to how John Lewis shared its interview questions for transparency, this approach keeps Amazon’s recruitment drive ticking. If an employee feels the post is not for them, they can be quickly replaced. CEO Jeff Bezos is rumoured to have encouraged a high turnover at Amazon for this reason, a revelation that can’t have gone down well with striking employees.

Aligning hiring strategy to company goals is smart. That said, the target must also be SMART. Deliberately ballooning turnover rate is not a good long-term strategy for Amazon. Two years ago, an internal memo warned Amazon could run out of hirers in the US by 2024.

Amazon interview questions for Software Engineers

1. Online coding test
2. Screening call
3. On-site coding test

The interview process for a Software Engineer at Amazon looks very different from the Warehouse Associate career path. Candidates on Glassdoor report being asked very few questions. Instead, they were asked to complete two practical coding tests.

Skills tests are a smart assessment method if you’re hiring for technical roles. This way, employers can tailor the application process to their would-be To Do list. Plus, assessors will have a clear metric with how to judge candidates, reducing the risk of bias.

Amazon recruiters also commonly ask interviewees for writing samples. This is because the company “doesn’t do” traditional slide presentations. Instead, admin teams and managers write memos covering project goals or next steps, which are then read out at each meeting.

Finding people who are comfortable conveying complex information in note form is another nice example of how Amazon customises its interviews to match its own business process.

Amazon interview questions for Head Office

• You have accidentally overcharged one customer and undercharged another. What do you do?
• Describe a time you committed to a solution you didn’t propose yourself.
• What excel formulas do you like to use?

Now to the corporate side of Amazon. Those involved in core business activities, such as account managers, report being asked behavioural-based questions. The applicant is asked to provide specific examples of how they behaved in previous roles or scenarios.

Behavioural questions are a step above more generic inquiries such as “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”, which tend to also encourage generic answers. Amazon recruiters aim to gauge a person’s skills, and how they act in a professional environment.

The ecommerce giant has also helped candidates along by encouraging them to use the STAR (Scenario, Task, Action, Result) technique to organise their response. Not only does this encourage stronger answers; it also helps hirers to compare and contrast the talent pool.

And, because the hypothetical scenarios reflect the everyday duties for the advertised position, recruiters can more accurately predict who the most successful hire would be.

The one interview question Amazon asks every candidate

One question Amazon pulls out in every interview is the deceptively simple: ‘Why Amazon?’ It may seem like a chance for the applicant to say how much they loved watching Rings of Power. But this query is really asking about a person’s strengths, interests, and career plans.

“We [ask this question because] we want to know that you’re a person who’s thinking about how to give back to the organisation with what you bring, but we’re also looking at what you want to learn while working here,” writes Rasheeda Liberty, who is Head of DEI at Amazon.

Enquiring about why a job hunter has put themselves forward for a job at your business is an important, forward-thinking question. It tells hiring managers whether the candidate would fit in with the department’s long-term objectives, as well as the firm’s future succession plans.

If the applicant sounds as though they haven’t thought about the employer behind the job description, it could also be a red flag that they aren’t interested in sticking around long-term.

What can SMEs learn from Amazon’s interview questions?

Given it onboards thousands of new people each year, Amazon has plenty to teach SMEs when it comes to hiring. Chiefly, customising interviews to match jobs roles and company culture will ensure you’re not just ticking boxes, but finding people who genuinely fit.

Remember, the goal is not to replicate Amazon’s entire hiring process, but to adopt elements that align with your company’s unique needs and resources (there are enough controversies over Amazon’s people strategy to tell you that it’s not doing everything right).

But there is one thing that Bezos has got right: cohesion. By compiling questions that match the role’s competencies, the department’s goals, and the company’s cultural fit, SMEs can significantly improve their hiring outcomes to deliver your next hire, next-day.