Amazon Solutions Architect Interview Stages
Amazon's Solutions Architect interview process consists of three main interview stages:
Online Technical Assessment
The. technical assessment is an online test that tests your ability to answer technical questions that might be relevant for Solutions Architects at Amazon. This involves technical concepts found in our course below but are listed at Amazon's website here..
Depending on your background and technical experience, you may or may not get this online assessment.
Phone Screen
The phone screen is a conversation with a solutions architect at Amazon, and is meant to determine whether or not you should be advanced to the on-site interview. The phone screen will consist of technical questions, motivation for the role, and asking questions about your experience.
While you may think that the phone screen will be a lighter version of the on-site, Amazon is known to put challenging technical questions in the phone screen to weed out candidates who aren't qualified for the role. Prepare for this phone screen in a similar way to how you prepare for the on-site interviews.
On-Site
In the on-site interview, you'll have 4-6 interviews lined up, including one interview with your hiring manager and a bar-raiser interview.
In these interviews, you'll get questions on:
- Amazon's Leadership Principles
- Technical Concept Questions
- System Design Interviews (often done in the format of a whiteboarding session)
- Mock Customer Follow-up Questions
Spend most of your time preparing for the leadership principles by coming up with a story bank (more lessons in the course to follow) and on the system design interview prep and technical concept prep. Some interview loops will also include a presentation that you'll give on a technical concept in a role-play conversation where your interviewers will role play as customers. Your recruiter will provide guidance on this in the interview.
You will not be asked to do coding questions in your interview for AWS SA roles.
Bar Raiser Program
Amazon sets a goal that every hire has to be better than 50% of people already in the role, as a part of Amazon's "Bar Raiser" program. The goal of the Bar Raiser Program is to ensure that Amazon hires the best candidates possible to continue to raise the bar for the quality of their team.
To accomplish this goal, there's always one interview as a part of the on-site interview loop that includes an interviewer from a completely different job function. The interviewer's goal is to assess the quality of the candidate more objectively outside of the core function that the candidate may be working in. Impressing in your bar raiser interview can have a big impact on your hiring outcome, and also plays a role in the level and rank you get assigned after the on-site.
Last checks
Interview processes can evolve, so we recommend doing a quick check on our interview guide for the latest updates in case rounds are reordered or adjusted. Regardless of changes, you’ll find the relevant preparation resources here.
Finally, don’t miss our question database. It’s continuously updated with real Amazon interview questions contributed by candidates. This way, you'll walk into your interview already knowing the exact questions, or at least close variations.