Amazon has a market cap of ~1.4 trillion U.S. dollars (let that sink in for a minute!), making it the 5th most valuable company in the world by that metric. The meteoric rise of Amazon is due, at least in part, to the Amazon Leadership Principles that have become central to the company’s culture.
Thought of as a potential dot com bust back in 2000, Amazon has battled through and triumphed over two market collapses. The company’s quirky and famous founder, Jeff Bezos, believes a strong core company culture is essential to success. So, Bezos and an early leadership team created the Amazon 14 Leadership Principles. In 2021, 27 years after the company’s founding, Amazon added 2 additional Leadership Principles, now making it 16 Amazon Leadership Principles. These Amazon leadership principles influence everything from team dynamics to interview questions.
Landing an interview with Amazon might feel like one of the most exciting — and intimidating — things to happen to you. Amazon, like most organizations, puts a lot of effort into hiring the right fit for their open positions. As CEO Jeff Bezos once shared, “I’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.”
It says a lot if your resume got past the gatekeepers and into the hands of an Amazon hiring manager. Now, take a deep breath and get prepped for your interview.
LinkedinLive – How to answer Deliver Results Interview Questions | Amazon Leadership Principles
What Are the Amazon Leadership Principles?
The Amazon Leadership Principles are 16 fundamental values that govern the company and its employees, with the goal that they be implemented consistently by every employee on the job. In addition, these principles are used as the standard in Amazon interviews – if you can’t demonstrate your ability to align with the Amazon Leadership Principles, good luck getting an offer.
Not to worry, each of the 16 Amazon Leadership Principles is not tested for in every interview. (Click here to see interview questions.) However, you can expect to be asked for examples pertaining to at least 2-3 of them. The tricky part? Not knowing which ones you’ll be asked about!
-
Customer Obsession
Leaders are customer centric, so much so that customer preferences and needs become an obsession. This means they always endeavor to work backwards from what the customer might think or want in deciding what to do with the product or service. At the margin, deep insight into what drives customer loyalty and trust should be even more important than a deep understanding of competitive strengths and weaknesses, market trends, or technology.
Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions Examples:
- Tell me about a time you knew you couldn’t do everything the client wanted. How did you prioritize, and what was the outcome?
- Give me an example of a time things went very poorly in a customer interaction or when delivering a service or product. How did you try to make things right?
- In your experience, what makes some customers especially difficult to manage while others are easier?
- Tell me about a time you chose to apologize for doing something wrong, even though you weren’t 100% sure it was your fault.
- Have you ever obsessed over giving high quality service to a customer?
-
Ownership
Leaders adopt an ownership mindset. They don’t view themselves as simply employees, they think of themselves as owners. This causes them to think long term, imagining how each action will play out in terms of results today, tomorrow, and far into the future. They do what’s best for the company, keeping in mind value creation for customers, shareholders, employees, and stakeholders.
Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions Examples:
- Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult short term decision to make long term gains.
- Tell me about a time when you took on a task that went beyond your normal responsibilities.
- Tell me about a time when you took it upon yourself to work on a challenging initiative.
-
Invent and Simplify
Leaders look for new ways of doing things that are remarkable in their simplicity. Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said “everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” This quote certainly reflects Amazon’s perspective on leadership. Leaders should urge their teams to invent and design new approaches, but demand that they be simple to understand. Leaders are also comfortable with the idea that some percentage of new ideas, inventions, and approaches will not “stick” right away, if ever. It is imperative that you are okay with failing fast and learning from that failure to try something new.
Amazon Leadership Principles Interview Questions Examples:
- Tell me about a time when you failed to simplify a process and what you would have done differently.
- Tell me about a time when you innovated on something and it went wrong.
- Tell me about a time when you changed a process at work through either an innovative new way or simplification.
- Have you ever invented a service, product, or process that could truly be described as unique?
- Given me an example of a time that you were faced with a complex problem, but the solution you designed could be described as simple.
4. Are Right, A Lot
Amazon Interview Questions on Are Right, A Lot
- Tell me about a time when you were wrong
- Tell me about a time when you had to work with incomplete data or information.
5. Learn and Be Curious
Amazon Interview Questions on Learn and Be Curious
- Tell me about a time when you influenced a change by only asking questions.
- Tell me about a time when you solved a problem through just superior knowledge or observation.
6. Hire and Develop The Best
Amazon Interview Questions on Hire and Develop The Best
- Tell me about a time when you mentored someone
- Tell me about a time when you made a wrong hire. When did you figure it out, and what did you do?
Top 3 Amazon interview questions
Now that you have a foundation on how to answer Amazon interview questions, it’s time to practice. Below are three of the top interview questions you are likely to encounter during your interview.
What would you do if you found out your closest friend at work was stealing?
You are likely to be asked this question regardless of the position you’re interviewing for, especially with cost reduction and shrinkage being top priorities for a company like Amazon. There is really only one way to answer this question that speaks to honesty, integrity, trust, and leadership:
While it would be a difficult situation to find myself in, integrity is essential to me. Plus, stealing is against policy and costs the company’s bottom line, no matter how insignificant the theft might seem. I would go to my department manager and report the theft or use the company’s recommended reporting policy for such behavior.
Describe your most difficult customer and how you handled it.
Amazon is known for their customer service. If the position you’re interviewing for is a customer-facing position, then you can count on a question similar to this. When answering this question, apply the STAR method:
Once, I encountered a repeat customer who was upset that an item he ordered was delayed. It was scheduled to arrive within five days of him ordering it, but due to backlog issues with the supplier, the delivery time was adjusted to be 30 days out. The item was an anniversary gift for his wife, and the anniversary was less than two weeks away.
Obviously, the 30 days would not work for him, and he was close to irate about the situation. I needed to figure out a way to help him receive the anniversary gift on time. I first contacted the supplier to see if there was any way to expedite the order, but the best they could do was get the item to him a couple of days earlier than the revised scheduled arrival date.
So, I then worked with the customer to identify a different supplier that sold an almost identical item. I offered him expedited shipping at no charge, so he would receive the item within three days, and that timing worked for his anniversary date. I also offered him a 20 percent coupon towards his next purchase. He was pleased with the outcome, and he remained a loyal customer.
Tell me about a time you were 75 percent through a project and had to pivot quickly. How did you handle it?
Life happens when we are in the middle of projects, and Amazon leadership will want to know how you handle these types of situations when they occur. You could encounter this question for many different types of roles, including technical and management positions. Your answer should speak to your agility, leadership, and problem-solving skills:
At my last job, I was leading a project that was near completion. Everything was moving smoothly and on-target for timely completion. Then, one of our partners providing one of the software upgrades that were to occur at the 90 percent mark encountered a breach of their systems and was estimated to delay the project by two to four weeks.
I had to review our plans and come up with options to keep the project on target as much as possible. Going with another software provider wasn’t a viable option, as the groundwork had been laid to go live with the current provider, and starting over would have delayed the project even more. Instead, we were able to allocate two resources to support the provider in recovering from the breach in less than half of the time that was projected.
As a result, we were able to complete the project only two days after the originally scheduled completion date. Fortunately, since we had built in a cushion for contingencies, we were able to go live on schedule.
FAQ
How do you deliver results interview question?
- Think about your achievements. …
- Identify your strengths. …
- Show alignment with the job opportunity. …
- Describe the situation. …
- Mention your role. …
- Highlight the actions you took. …
- Define the results you created. …
- Practice your response.
How do you respond to Amazon results interview?
- What qualities do your most successful employees have in common?
- Can you describe a typical day in this role?
- What defines success in this position?
- What is the biggest challenge Amazon is facing today? …
- What do you enjoy most about working for Amazon?
What questions should I ask at the end of Amazon interview?
- Share about a time when you had a conflict with someone at work. …
- Tell me about a time you used innovation to solve a problem.
- Tell me about a time when you took a calculated risk. …
- Tell me about a time you had to handle a crisis.
- Tell me about a time when a team member wasn’t pulling their weight.
What are the questions asked in Amazon online interview?
- Share about a time when you had a conflict with someone at work. …
- Tell me about a time you used innovation to solve a problem.
- Tell me about a time when you took a calculated risk. …
- Tell me about a time you had to handle a crisis.
- Tell me about a time when a team member wasn’t pulling their weight.
