Totally deceptive job advert. Did not make it to the interview. The job posting barely mentioned SQL, noting only at the bottom "SQL experience."
A named person from HR contacted me, sending a link to an "online assessment" that covered "Amazon's leadership principles." Nothing else was mentioned.
The actual test turned out to be 110 minutes on advanced SQL coding. Of course, had I known this, I never would have applied. Complete waste of my time and theirs. They can ask for whatever they want, All I ask is that they make the job posting accurate.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Advanced SQL coding test was never mentioned in the job post.
The interview process includes a SQL test, an initial recruiter call, and a final five-round loop featuring technical questions and discussions focused on Amazon leadership principles with different team members.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked a key question focused on both technical depth and culture fit: how you apply your skills to solve real problems, along with examples demonstrating alignment with Amazon’s leadership principles.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA)
Interview
Interviewed for Business Analyst role at Amazon and honestly the process felt exhausting and impersonal.
The interviewers seemed far more focused on checking boxes against the 14 Leadership Principles than actually understanding the candidate or having a genuine conversation. Almost every question was another version of a STAR behavioral scenario, even when it barely related to the actual role.
The process felt extremely rehearsed and rigid. There was little effort to make the candidate feel comfortable or valued, and it often felt like they had already decided the outcome before the interview even started.
Technical and analytical depth barely mattered compared to how perfectly you could package stories into Amazon’s preferred format. If you don’t have polished STAR stories memorized for every possible situation, the process can feel unnecessarily difficult and draining.
Overall, one of the most mentally exhausting interview experiences I’ve had.
The basic STAR format, but the team was not clear about what they were looking for. The recruiter was not very responsive and took a long time to schedule the calls
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