I applied through university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Oxford, England) in Feb 2014
Interview
Online numerical test followed by first round of interviews with three separate interviews lasting 30-45 minutes each, and a second round of the same. The questions are behavioural, i.e. tell me a time you did x. Themes in the interview included using data to make decisions, managing ambiguity, leadership, and customer focus. The interviewers were also generous in providing information about the role and working at Amazon, including an honest depiction of challenges and day-to-day.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They also seemed genuinely interest in my background and experiences. Be well prepared for answers as they do go into detail about achievements, what you did, barriers overcome, etc. Also, be sure to have lots of examples for each scenario as similar questions came up with different interviewers.
Interview process is challenging but expected as everything you need to know is available online. They will schedule you with 4 employees from the team or organization you will work with and 1 completely separated from your organization as a "bar raiser". No need to work to impress one specific person, know 12-14 differentiated STAR formatted stories by memory.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you had to sacrifice short-term gain for long-term success. What did you do? What was the outcome?
3 loops of 45 min interviews with people from different teams I would work together with if I get hired, Standard behavioral questions, 3 to 4 per interview and a few follow-up questions to each answers, follow-up styles differ by the interviewer
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you created a metric to identify a need for change.
Not great. Very first interview had no proper introduction to the role and was not with HR, interviewee went straight into a case study within 5 minutes. Didn't seem interested in my actual work background.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is one difficult thing you've experienced and overcome?