I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA)
Interview
The Process:
Informational with HR
Phone screen with HR
Technical screen with EM
Take-home systems design task
Coaching call before the on-site round with HR
Written essay
On-site loop, 7 rounds (including lunch), 9am - 4pm.
My experience:
This interview has been an unexpectedly significant time commitment for me. I put in about 4 hours into the systems design task and about 6 hours into the essay, both of which came in as a surprise for me in the process and with a short deadline (the systems design task was due same day, the essay - in less than three days).
The on-site round went reasonably well, the people I met were friendly and helpful. However, my experience with one of the interviewers was so frustrating that it made me wonder whether Amazon still engaged in the questionable practice of stress interviews. At this point, if this person was to be my future colleague, I knew I wouldn't take an offer should there be one.
Other than the unfortunate misunderstanding above, my only other observation that might be valuable for the reader here is that my interview for the Engineering Manager position has been less technical than I expected. About 75% of the time I was discussing people and project management matters ("Tell me about the time..." type of questions). Systems design was discussed on a high level, and low-level software engineering skills (algorithms, low-level design, development best practices) seemed to not have been tested at all. That being said, the preparation matrix from "Cracking the PM interview" might be more helpful than you think.
Good luck!
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Systems design task: a very general "Build me an <X>", where X is a known high load, highly available system. A very typical question pretty much everywhere today.
Phone screen, 5 1 hour interviews for loop
Each hour was dedicated to 2 LPs. System design was more collaborative than i anticipated which was a pleasant surprise. The phone screen mostly focused on my previous experiences
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard LP based scenarios, system design was actual system the team owns
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Tokyo) in Feb 2026
Interview
The interview process is straightforward but intense.
First interview was with another Software Dev Manager in the same team. After that the famous loop interview where I had to take 5 interviews in a row over two days ( using paid holidays at work ). Recruiter gave a lot of information about possible questions and helped with materials. However, I had to use same stories few times as the different interviewers asked same questions few times.
Everything is okay, I had a good time during the interviews and it was a good exercise. However, I simply do not understand why they have to call to reject? I am not a customer to be obsessed with. A straight cut rejection via email works better than taking time out of my busy schedule.
If they used this time to share some feedback, that would be useful. If they do not share any reason why I have to continue formal small talk just to get the rejection on my face?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A time you were driving toward a goal and realized more than halfway in that it may not be the best goal.
Had 1 round of System design interview. I thought the interview went ok, if not bad, it went decently well. Received a rejection response, while asking to apply 6 months later.
