I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Amazon in May 2018
Interview
Recruiter reached out and asked if I'd be interested in interviewing, said the hiring manager saw my resume and was "very excited" to chat. Forgot I had submitted an application over a year prior. Following steps were a Phone Interview and then an In-Person Interview at their office in Boston. The flow of the interview was rigid, technical and slightly repetitive. Interviewer did not cater the questions to my resume and asked increasingly specific questions about certain areas that I had blatantly indicated as having little to no experience in. Interviewer was also very clearly unaware as to how long ago I had submitted my application and the fact that I currently have a job (despite it being on my resume). Overall, the interview seemed fairly pompous and rather than looking to see if the applicant was a good culture fit, wanted someone who was ready to gush and stroke Amazon's ego.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time where you solved a problem, starting at where you recognized the problem all the way to its resolution.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Amazon
Interview
This was probably the worst experience of my professional life. The recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn to share the job description and requested a few details. After that, he would call me randomly throughout the day without scheduling the calls.
Moving forward, they scheduled a "Meet the Team" call to help me understand the company's culture, but nobody showed up for the call. I was informed that the person they selected had meetings to attend, which felt odd.
Later, I had my first interview scheduled with an engineer from the team at 10 PM (my local time) to align with their working hours. Unfortunately, the interviewer failed to show up, and after waiting for about 45 minutes, I decided to leave. I attempted to email the recruiter afterward but never heard back.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Boston, MA) in Mar 2026
Interview
One thing I found challenging during the interview was the format of the behavioral question about exceeding expectations. I began answering using the STAR method to provide a structured and complete response, but I was frequently interrupted with follow-up questions before I could finish my thought.
As a non-native English speaker, this was particularly difficult for me. When I was interrupted, I lost track of where I was in my story and struggled to refocus and pick up from where I had left off. It disrupted my train of thought and made it hard to deliver the full context and outcome of the situation I was describing.
I would have felt more comfortable and confident if I had been given the space to complete my answer before follow-up questions were asked.
I had a 1 hour phone screening. First half was behavioral interview on the LPs and the second part was technical interview where I had to live code and also answer questions on NLP topics.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you solved a complex problem.