Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions

ByAnkush Jain| Last Updated On Friday, Sep 24, 2021

Interview Questions

Disclaimer: I am a consultant at Amazon Web Services, and this is my personal blog. The opinions expressed here are solely mine and do not reflect the views of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Any statements made should not be considered official endorsements or statements by AWS.

If you are preparing for Amazon interviews, then you must prepare yourself for the behavioral or leadership round of interviews at Amazon.

In the leadership round of interviews, you will be asked scenario-based questions that you can not answer instantly without any early preparation. So, in my opinion, it is better to go through each of these questions and think about an incident that has happened to you in the past, and how can use that incident to answer a question.

👉 Be honest. If you are speaking the truth in your answers, you will be more confident during the interview.

1. Customer Obsession

1. When you are working with a large number of customers, it is tricky to deliver excellent service to all of them. How do you go about prioritizing your customer's needs?
2. Tell me about a time when you got to work with a difficult customer. What did you do, and what was the outcome?
3. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond with your work?
4. Tell me about a time when you had to apologize to someone.
5. Tell me about a time when you did not meet the client's expectations. What happened, and how did you attempt to rectify this situation?
6. Tell me about a time when you got critical feedback from your customer. What did you do, and what was the outcome?
7. What will you do if you get challenging work with a strict timeline? How would you deal with that customer?
8. What do you do to WOW your customers?
9. What things do you do to manage strong client relationships?

2. Ownership

1. Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult short-term decision to make long-term gains.
2. Tell me about a time when you had to work on a project with unclear requirements.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to leave a task unfinished.
4. Tell me about a time when you took on a task that went beyond your normal responsibilities.
5. Tell me about a time when you took it upon yourself to work on a challenging initiative.

3. Invent and Simplify

1. Tell me about a time when you failed to simplify a process and what you would have done differently.
2. Tell me about a time when you innovated on something and it went wrong.
3. Tell me about a time when you changed a process at work through either an innovative new way or simplification.
4. Tell me about a time when you invented something. Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem.

4. Are right, A lot

1. Tell me about a time when you had to work with incomplete data or information.
2. Tell me about a time when you were wrong.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to use your judgment to solve a problem.
4. Tell me about a time when you incorporated a diverse set of perspectives into solving a problem.
5. Tell me about a time when you had your beliefs challenged and how you responded.

5. Learn and Be Curious

1. Tell me about a time when you solved a problem through just superior knowledge or observation.
2. Tell me about a time when you influenced a change by only asking questions.
3. Tell me about an experience you went through that changed your way of thinking.
4. Tell me about a time when your curiosity helped you make a smarter decision.
5. Tell me about the most important lesson you learned in the past year.

6. Hire and Develop the Best

1. Tell me about a time when you made a wrong hire. What did you do?
2. Tell me about a time when you mentored someone.
3. Tell me about the best hire you ever made.

7. Insist on High Standards

1. Tell me about a time when a team member didn't meet your expectations on a project.
2. Tell me about a time when you couldn't meet your own expectations on a project.
3. Tell me about a time when you raised the bar.
4. Tell me about a time when you motivated a team to go above and beyond.
5. Tell me about a time when you were dissatisfied with the quality of something at work and went out of your way to improve it.

8. Think Big

1. Tell me about a time when you went way beyond the scope of the project and delivered.
2. Tell me about your proudest professional achievement and delivered.
3. Tell me about a time when you were disappointed because you didn't think big enough.
4. Tell me about a time when your vision resulted in a big impact.
5. Tell me about a time when you had to make a bold and difficult decision.

9. Bias for Action (Major Project)

1. Tell me about a time when you took a calculated risk.
2. Tell me about a time you needed to get information from someone who wasn't very responsive. What did you do?
3. Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
4. Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision with little data or information.
5. Tell me about a time when you made a decision too quickly and what you would have done differently.

10. Frugality

1. Tell me about a time when you had to work with limited time or resources.
2. Tell me about a time you had to rely on yourself to finish a task.
3. Tell me about a time when you turned down more resources to complete an assignment.
4. Tell me about a time when you beat out the competition with fewer resources.
5. Tell me about a time when you had to be frugal.

11. Earn Trust

1. Tell me about a time when you had to tell someone a harsh truth.
2. What would you do if you found out that your closest friend at work was stealing?
3. What is the quality you value least about yourself?
4. What do you do to gain the trust of your teammates?
5. Tell me about a time you had to speak up in a difficult environment.

12. Dive Deep

1. Tell me about something that you learned recently in your role.
2. Give me two examples of when you did more than what was required in any job experience.
3. Tell me about the most complex problem you've ever worked on.
4. Tell me about a time when understanding the details of a situation helped you arrive at a solution.

13. Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

1. Tell me about a time when you had to step up and disagree with a team member's approach.
2. If your direct manager was instructing you to do something you disagreed with, how would you handle it?
3. Tell me about a time when you did not accept the status quo.
4. Tell me about an unpopular decision of yours.
5. What do you believe that no one else does?

14. Deliver Results

1. Give me an example of a time when you were 75% of the way through a project, and you had to pivot strategy-how were you able to make that into a success story?
2. By providing an example, tell me when you have had to handle a variety of assignments. Describe the results.
3. What is the most difficult situation you have ever faced in your life? How did you handle it?
4. Tell me about a time you had too much on your plate to deal with and how you handled getting everything done.
5. Tell me about a time when everyone else on your team gave up on something but you pushed the team towards delivering a result.

Thank You !! 🙂