problem solving interview amazon

Interview Advice

Using Problem-Solving Situations During Amazon Interviews

Former Amazon senior manager shares proven tips for mastering Amazon's problem-solving interview questions aligned with Leadership Principles.

If you join Amazon, you will quickly realize that everyone around you is a serial problem solver. This is by design. Besides being an organization of over-achievers, Amazon has a profoundly ingrained engineering ethos that lives in tech and non-tech organizations.

Therefore, you won’t be surprised that problem-solving is a recurring theme throughout the interview process. Amazon behavioral interview questions that ask you to share a situation where you were solving problems map to 5 out of 16 Leadership Principles. Problem-solving questions can test Dive Deep, Invent & Simplify, Are Right A Lot, Frugality, and Learn & Be Curious.

However, unless you know the nuances of the Leadership Principles, we can’t blame you for being somewhat confused about what LP is being tested in one problem-solving question or another. Another complication for candidates is that when we find ourselves in real-life problem-solving situations, we may demonstrate a range of leadership principles mixed.

We wrote this article to offer you a quick orientation around problem-solving themes in Amazon Leadership Principles and the interview questions that test them. We hope it will make it easier for you to pick the right situation during the interview and focus on the correct details to answer Amazon interview questions.

Problem-solving and Dive Deep

While Amazon's Dive Deep Leadership Principle is not only about problem-solving, some Dive Deep questions will look for evidence of your ability to solve complex problems. Of course, complexity means different things to different people. Yet, in an Amazon interview context, it typically boils down to three things.

A problem that requires multiple levels of data analysis (peeling the data onion) to solve.
A problem had you using numerous data sources (from either systems or people) to find a solution.
A problem was so novel that it took a while to figure out how to approach it.

In contrast to other Leadership Principle questions that ask for problem-solving evidence, the main focus of Dive Deep is on the process of getting to the solution itself. Here, we’d recommend that you focus on establishing the source of complexity and then outline the steps you took to get to the very bottom of the problem.

Problem-solving and Invent & Simplify

At the heart of the Invent and Simplify Leadership principle at Amazon are two distinct themes: invention and simplification, as the name of the LP suggests. Problem-solving typically comes under the Simplification theme.

Under Invent and Simplify, Amazon will expect you to demonstrate how you effectively boiled complexity into simplicity while solving a problem. From our experience at Amazon, we can attest that many problems started as giant hairy monsters with unknown root causes and hidden under a sea of data (most of which was useless to the analysis).

While you should still follow a STAR format of answering Amazon Leadership Principle questions, Invent and Simplify problem-solving responses should focus on the “A-Ha!” moment that led you to invent a simple solution. The invention of a fix at the end of the problem-solving journey is the main currency of an acceptable answer. Therefore, the bulk of your story-telling should detail the innovation process rather than digging for the root cause.

Problem-solving and Are Right A Lot

Are Right; A Lot of Leadership Principle at Amazon is mainly about continuously learning from your successes and failures to always make the right decisions. So, where does problem-solving feature in this LP? Very prominently. Just think about when you need to solve a problem while operating under uncertainty or, perhaps, without having all the knowledge and expertise right away. So, being able to inform your gut on the spot by learning from people and systems around you is how you would need to approach problem-solving under Are Right A Lot.

Therefore, the currency of a good problem-solving answer to the Are Right A Lot Leadership Principle question in an Amazon interview is a series of steps of how you went about building or disconfirming (challenging) your beliefs while operating under uncertainty and needing to solve a problem.

Problem-solving and Frugality

If you’ve taken our training ( Amazon Interview Whizz ), you will remember the main themes of the Frugality Leadership Principle at Amazon. Having read the previous few sections, you won’t be surprised that Frugality situations may also have a problem-solving element.

But this time, you are operating under resource constraints and have to do with what you have. This is Frugality, defined by the official version (achieve more with less), but just in a problem-solving contest.

Hence, the currency of a decent problem-solving answer to Amazon interview questions on the Frugality Leadership Principle would be a story about how you effectively ran with what you had to solve a challenge.

Problem-solving and Learn & Be Curious

Problem-solving themes under Learn & Be Curious are similar to those under Are Right. The slight difference is in the nuances. While Are Right A Lot is about drawing on the expertise of others to inform or challenge your intuition, Learn & Be Curious is about acquiring knowledge. Both Leadership Principles make one a confident problem-solver, and you have probably demonstrated both LPs in real-life situations, possibly both simultaneously. However, in an Amazon interview situation, it would be helpful to focus your response on the details that matter for Learn & Be Curious.

Therefore, the currency of a workable answer under this Leadership Principle in an Amazon interview is a story of the steps you took to acquire expertise that you did not have to solve a problem.

We hope this article helped you understand the nuances of sharing problem-solving situations when answering Leadership Principles questions in behavioral interviews at Amazon. If you fancy taking your interview preparation to the next level, check out Amazon Interview Whizz , our signature training course. It is based on our insights from thousands of interviews, coaching sessions, and hiring decisions.

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