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Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

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Watch Rahul, Director of Engineering at Square, answer the behavioral (or leadership) question "Tell me about a time you made a mistake."

Questions like this are often asked at Amazon to assess a candidate's fit with Amazon's Leadership Principles.

Interview experiences

29 shared
Meta · 23 days ago
"Overall, it followed Meta's typical PM loop and most questions came from the Meta question bank. What didn't go well is the time recruiter takes to schedule and team match time it takes."
Product Manager · Staff / L6
Wayfair · 23 days ago
"The process was much quicker and smoother than at other companies. Recruiters shared some pointers on what to prepare, and mostly it was around that only. What did not go well was that one interview was online, and others were on-site."
Machine Learning Engineer · Mid Level / L4
TikTok · 2 months ago
"The overall interview process was well organized and gave me a good understanding of the role and team. The recruiter was communicative throughout and provided helpful guidance on what to expect. The interviews were challenging but fair, and I appreciated the opportunity to speak with people across different functions. Some questions required more detailed examples and quicker thinking than I expected, but overall it was a positive experience."
Product Manager
Amazon · 2 months ago
"The overall interview process was more rigorous than anything I had experienced at other large companies. The recruiter was clear, responsive, and helpful in explaining what to expect, which allowed me to prepare effectively. The interviewers were professional, and the questions gave me a good opportunity to demonstrate my experience through real examples. However, some questions felt repetitive across the different rounds, and a few follow-up questions were more detailed than I expected. Overall, it was a challenging but well-structured and positive experience."
Program Manager · Staff / L6
Capital One · 4 months ago
"The interview lasted about four hours and was divided into several sections. One section focused on behavioral questions, where I was asked about my past experiences, how I handle different situations, and examples of teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving. Another section assessed my math skills through quantitative and analytical questions. The final section was technical and conceptual, testing my understanding of fundamental technical concepts, my reasoning process, and how I approached solving technical problems rather than simply recalling facts."
Business Analyst · Entry Level / L3
Amazon · 4 months ago
"The overall interview process was incredibly smooth, straightforward, and well-organized from start to finish. The recruiter was exceptionally friendly, responsive, and did a fantastic job of setting clear expectations for each stage. There weren't any significant downsides, as the scheduling was efficient and the communication remained consistent throughout."
Data Engineer
Booking.com · 4 months ago
"The process was well-organized and moved at a reasonable pace. Communication from the recruiter was clear, and each round had a defined focus, so I always knew what to expect. The interviewers were professional and gave me space to walk through my thinking. What went well was the technical discussion , it felt like a genuine conversation rather than a checklist, and the questions were relevant to the role. What could have been smoother was the scheduling between rounds, which took a bit longer than expected, and I would have appreciated slightly more feedback along the way."
Software Engineer · Mid Level / L4
American Express · 4 months ago
"Overall, I had a very positive interview experience. The process felt organized and conversational, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the role, the team, and how the position contributes to the broader organization. The interviewer created a comfortable environment that allowed me to speak openly about my experience and approach to problem-solving. I felt that I communicated my experience and interest in the role well. One area I could have improved was being slightly more concise in a few of my responses. Overall, I left the conversation with a stronger understanding of the opportunity and a positive impression of American Express."
Business Analyst · Entry Level / L3
American Express · 4 months ago
"Overall, I had a very positive interview experience. The process felt organized and conversational, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the role, the team, and how the position contributes to the broader organization. The interviewer created a comfortable environment that allowed me to speak openly about my experience and approach to problem-solving. I felt that I communicated my experience and interest in the role well. One area I could have improved was being slightly more concise in a few of my responses. Overall, I left the conversation with a stronger understanding of the opportunity and a positive impression of American Express."
Business Analyst · Entry Level / L3
TikTok · 4 months ago
"Overall, I had a positive interview experience. The conversation felt engaging and gave me a better understanding of the role, the team, and the types of challenges they are working to solve. I especially appreciated the opportunity to discuss my experience and think through questions that reflected the work of the position. One area I could have improved personally was being more concise in a few of my responses. There were moments where I could have communicated my thought process more directly. Overall, though, I enjoyed the conversation and appreciated the interviewer's time, transparency, and insights into the team and TikTok."
Program Manager · Mid Level / L4
Capital One · 5 months ago
"The interview lasted about four hours and was divided into several sections. One section focused on behavioral questions, where I was asked about my past experiences, how I handle different situations, and examples of teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving. Another section assessed my math skills through quantitative and analytical questions. The final section was technical and conceptual, testing my understanding of fundamental technical concepts, my reasoning process, and how I approached solving technical problems rather than simply recalling facts."
Business Analyst · Entry Level / L3
L
LiveKit · 6 months ago
"The process was more rigorous than anything I'd done at other big tech companies, but the recruiter was actually accurate and helpful on what to prepare, which is rare, and I really appreciated that. A few things caught me off guard: one round included a coding test unlike anything I’d seen before. They asked me to create a voice agent with sub-500ms latency."
Software Engineer
Airbnb · 6 months ago
"What went well was that I was professional, and I’m pretty sure I communicated clearly. What didn’t go well was I wasn’t able to explain the impact."
Business Analyst · Mid Level / L4
M
Meshy AI · 6 months ago
"The interview process was very fast. 4 rounds in almost one week. Their take-home assignment expressed that, given how much you were asked to complete in 3 days (PRD, GTM strategy, working prototype), they look for passion in the space and are quite technical and expect you to be."
Product Manager · Mid Level / L4
Meta · 7 months ago
"Overall, the interview process was pretty straightforward and well organized. The interviewers were friendly and gave me a good opportunity to talk through my experience and approach to problems. The process was a little lengthy, but overall it was a positive experience."
Software Engineer · Entry Level / L3
Home Depot · 8 months ago
"Easy normal behavioral questions and case study round was also easy cover every topics possible dont rely on AI tools"
Product Manager · Senior / L5
Intel · 9 months ago
"Well structured and highly professional, consisting of a phone screen followed by deep dives with senior leadership team and cross functional stakeholders"
Program Manager · Senior / L5
Meta · 10 months ago
"I first cleared the loop for a different Meta EM role and, while I was waiting in team matching, they opened an M1 security role and asked me to do the delta interviews for that. For the security path, the structure was recruiter screen, two technical screens, and then a six-round final loop covering security system design, security depth, coding, career motivation, people management, and project retrospective. The technical rounds were not the hardest part for me because the coding was pretty easy and the design rounds were very framework-driven. The rounds that mattered most were people management and project retrospective, and I actually got more push there because the examples had to map cleanly to the signal. I cleared the loop, and am waiting on next steps."
Engineering Manager
Amazon · a year ago
"The process was pretty standard, focused on Amazon leadership principles. Look up Exponent videos on how to answer behavioral questions."
Product Manager · Staff / L6
American Express · a year ago
"The process was relatively straightforward. I don't think there were any questions there were misleading and everyone was nice and was professional."
Product Manager · Entry Level / L3
LinkedIn · a year ago
"It was amazing. Had lovely conversations and it was amazing. I got nervous towards the end and the panel understood hence was not rejected at last round"
BizOps & Strategy · Senior / L5
Microsoft · 2 years ago
"It was very straightforward and wasn’t too bad, although it depends on the interviewer. For the intern roles, they aren’t expecting as much from the candidate and want to hear your thinking out loud."
Product Manager · Intern
Oliver Wyman · 2 years ago
"The process was very precise. They are interviewing multiple students at the same college all at once and on the same day. You get feedback by the next day. Then you had to go in person to the offices for the final round interviews which takes 1 whole day"
Management Consultant · Entry Level / L3
Google · 2 years ago
"I went through 5 rounds for a Senior PM role: a recruiter screen, a hiring manager call, then three virtual on-sites covering Product Sense, Analytical/Metrics, and Googleyness/Leadership, followed by a cross-functional interview with an engineering partner. The whole process took about 5 weeks from initial outreach to offer. What went well: The recruiter was communicative throughout and gave clear prep guidance before each round, which helped me calibrate expectations. The Product Sense interview felt collaborative — the interviewer built on my ideas rather than just grading me, and I appreciated that the analytical round used a real, de-identified product problem rather than an abstract puzzle. What didn't go well: Scheduling took longer than expected between the hiring manager call and the on-site loop (about 10 days), which created some uncertainty. I also found the case interview time pressure tight — 45 minutes wasn't quite enough to fully structure and solve the prompt, so I'd have appreciated a few extra minutes to synthesize a recommendation at the end."
Product Manager · Mid Level / L4
Atlassian · 2 years ago
"The process was clear and transparent. I knew who I needed to speak with next and what the process was going to be like"
Product Manager · Principal / Director / L8+
Infosys · 2 years ago
"The process was smoooth and easy.Phone round followed by a technical interview.I got the offer but i didnt accept it"
Software Engineer · Entry Level / L3
Deloitte · 2 years ago
"The process was structured and fairly rigorous, with a good mix of behavioral questions and case-based problem solving. The recruiter was clear about what to expect and provided helpful guidance on how to prepare. I appreciated that the interviewers were engaged and gave me room to explain my thinking rather than focusing only on the final answer. The main challenge was the pace of some of the case discussions, where there was limited time to structure the problem and work through the analysis. Overall, though, the process felt organized and relevant to the work of a management consultant."
Management Consultant · Entry Level / L3
Scale AI · 3 years ago
"The process was fairly straightforward, although the company at the time was very focused on hiring people with the right values. They had a specific "credos" round, with a long-time employee who's focused on making sure you exhibit their top values/credos. The take-home case study was relatively straightforward for someone with an analytical/finance background."
BizOps & Strategy · Mid Level / L4
W
World Health Organization · 3 years ago
"Straightforward interview, very friendly and basic questions. Would recommend brushing up on behavioral questions."
Data Analyst · Mid Level / L4

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