I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Sept 2011
Interview
Was cold-called by internal recruiter who was following-up for a tech manager who had seen my online resume. Recruiter strangely was more comfortable with phone than email, so our exchanges took a long time to transpire. My background is User Interface Development, which is all over my resume, so I assumed the position was related given the tech manager's interest, though I didn't expressly hear this from the recruiter.
Eventually we setup a phone interview between a developer and myself, and I was caught off-guard by a series of backend software engineering technical questions. The interviewer was very nice, and we worked through many of the questions together, but I constantly made mention that these were not the sorts of things I deal with in the work I do. The interviewer was decent throughout the process, especially given my bickering about the lack of relevance to my background.
I emailed the recruiter after the interview describing the awkward interview situation. I was surprised to hear back that I passed and was being asked to conduct another technical phone interview. I wrote back stating I would be happy to but only if it was more related to my industry background, which I described in more detail to the recruiter. Oddly, after that I received a curt reply back stating that they no longer wanted to proceed with the interview process. The recruiter just ended it there and did not even try to find me a position or group with a better fit within the company.
In short, the recruiter was not very professional but I felt the developer who interviewed me was.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions were in the category of data structures and algorithm --- e.g., searching algorithms, big-O, caching implementations.
OA contained 2 coding questions and then followed by a multiple choice question on behavioral where they emphasized a lot on their leadership rules which you can find on their website
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is customer obsession and how do you apply it
Could not use AI during the first interview. The recruiter was helpful in the screener but the coding exam was tough including the take home test. Did a few Leetcode examples but apparently that wasn't enough.
Applied online via the company careers page. Received a reply from HR within a few weeks inviting me to an initial
screening call over Teams. Process also included an online coding assessment sent as a pre-interview step.
Communication from HR was professional, prompt, and friendly throughout the scheduling stage.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard background and motivation questions — what attracted me to the company, and a walk-through of recent