Amazon Software Developer Interview Questions 2025

Amazon Software Developer Interview Questions: Full Guide for 2025

Preparing for ​Amazon software developer interview questions? This comprehensive guide breaks down the interview process, common coding challenges, system design scenarios, and behavioral strategies to help you succeed. Whether you’re applying for SDE I, SDE II, or senior roles, this resource covers everything you need to know.

​Amazon Software Developer Interview Process​

Amazon’s software developer interview process typically follows these stages:

​**1. Online Assessment (OA)**​

• ​Coding Challenges: Solve 2–3 algorithm questions in 90 minutes. Example:
  “Find the longest palindromic substring in a given string.”
• ​Work Style Assessment: Answer situational questions aligned with Amazon’s ​Leadership Principles.

​**2. Phone Screen (45–60 minutes)**​

• ​Technical Questions: Medium-to-hard coding problems (e.g., tree traversal, dynamic programming).
  Example:
  “Design an algorithm to serialize and deserialize a binary tree.”
• ​Behavioral Questions: Brief STAR-method responses.
  “Describe a time you overcame a technical roadblock.”

​**3. Onsite/Virtual Onsite (4–6 Rounds)**​

• ​Coding Rounds: Solve problems on a whiteboard or coding platform.
  Example:
  “Implement a thread-safe singleton class in Java.”
• ​System Design: Architect scalable systems (e.g., design Twitter or Uber-like apps).
• ​Behavioral Rounds: Deep dives into Leadership Principles like Ownership and Bias for Action.
• ​Bar Raiser Round: Rigorous evaluation by a senior engineer to ensure you “raise the bar.”

​Top 25 Amazon Software Developer Interview Questions​

​Coding & Algorithms​

1. ​Arrays & Strings​

   • “Rotate an array to the right by k steps.”
   • “Determine if two strings are anagrams.”

2. ​Linked Lists​

   • “Reverse a linked list in groups of k nodes.”
   • “Detect a cycle in a linked list.”

3. ​Trees & Graphs​

   • “Check if a binary tree is a valid BST.”
   • “Clone a graph with unique node values.”

4. ​Dynamic Programming​

   • “Calculate the minimum path sum in a grid from top-left to bottom-right.”
   • “Solve the knapsack problem with item weights and values.”

5. ​Concurrency​

   • “Implement a blocking queue with thread-safe operations.”

**Sample Solution for “Longest Palindromic Substring” (Python):**​

def longest_palindrome(s: str) -> str:  
    def expand(l, r):  
        while l >= 0 and r < len(s) and s[l] == s[r]:  
            l -= 1  
            r += 1  
        return s[l+1:r]  

    res = ""  
    for i in range(len(s)):  
        odd = expand(i, i)  
        even = expand(i, i+1)  
        res = max(res, odd, even, key=len)  
    return res  ```

### ​**System Design**​

6. ​**High-Traffic Systems**​
    
    * _“Design a distributed key-value store like Amazon DynamoDB.”_
    * _“Architect a real-time chat service for Amazon customer support.”_
7. ​**AWS Integration**​
    
    * _“How would you use AWS services to build a scalable image-processing pipeline?”_

### ​**Behavioral & Leadership Principles**​

8. ​**Conflict Resolution**​
    
    * _“Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate’s technical approach.”_ (_Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit_)
9. ​**Innovation**​
    
    * _“Describe a project where you simplified complex code.”_ (_Invent and Simplify_)


## ​**Real-World Amazon Interview Case Studies**​

### ​**Case Study 1: Designing an E-Commerce Inventory System**​

**Problem**: _“Design a system to track real-time inventory for Amazon’s global warehouses.”_  
**Solution Framework**:

1. Use ​**sharding**​ to distribute data across regions (e.g., AWS RDS with read replicas).
2. Implement ​**caching**​ with Redis to handle 1M+ requests per second.
3. Ensure ​**idempotency**​ for order updates to prevent double deductions.

### ​**Case Study 2: Optimizing API Latency**​

**Problem**: _“An Amazon API endpoint’s latency spiked to 2s. Diagnose and fix it.”_  
**Debugging Steps**:

1. Analyze metrics (CPU, memory, error rates) in AWS CloudWatch.
2. Identify slow database queries and add missing indexes.
3. Introduce ​**rate limiting**​ and ​**auto-scaling**​ for EC2 instances.


## ​**How to Prepare for Amazon SDE Interviews**​

### ​**1. Master Data Structures & Algorithms**​

* Practice 100+ problems on ​**LeetCode**​ (focus on Amazon’s top 50 questions).
* Time yourself to simulate real interview pressure.

### ​**2. Study System Design Fundamentals**​

* Learn scalability patterns (sharding, caching, load balancing).
* Explore AWS services (S3, DynamoDB, Lambda) and their use cases.

### ​**3. Align with Leadership Principles**​

* Prepare 2–3 STAR stories for each principle. For _Customer Obsession_, discuss a time you prioritized user experience over technical convenience.

### ​**4. Mock Interviews**​

* Use platforms like ​**Pramp**​ or ​**Interviewing.io**​ for live practice.
* Record sessions to review communication clarity and problem-solving flow.


## ​**Amazon Software Developer Interview Questions: Key Takeaways**​

From coding challenges to system design, ​**Amazon software developer interview questions**​ test both technical expertise and cultural fit. By mastering algorithms, practicing AWS-driven architectures, and refining behavioral stories, you’ll be ready to excel in one of tech’s most rigorous hiring processes.

Start coding, designing, and practicing today—your future at Amazon begins now!