Amazon Solutions Architect Interview Questions

Review this list of 34 Amazon solutions architect interview questions and answers verified by hiring managers and candidates.
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    Video answer for 'Tell me about a time when you made short-term sacrifices for long-term gains.'
    +81

    "Recently, I had to make a decision that I could automate a part of a process now and help the operations team reducing 9 hours of manual work to 60 minutes for one client. The second option was to fully automate the end to end process that would take 4 weeks of development, but fully automate the process and that could be rolled out across the board. The process was to change the member's paperless preference to paper when a sent email gets bounced 3 times in a row and inform her with a paper"

    Anonymous Aardvark - "Recently, I had to make a decision that I could automate a part of a process now and help the operations team reducing 9 hours of manual work to 60 minutes for one client. The second option was to fully automate the end to end process that would take 4 weeks of development, but fully automate the process and that could be rolled out across the board. The process was to change the member's paperless preference to paper when a sent email gets bounced 3 times in a row and inform her with a paper"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +5 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +81

    "My approach to dealing with difficult stakeholders has always been: Engage - Directly engage with the stakeholder, meet or chat Listen - Listen to what they have to say, patiently. Understand - Understand their POV, even if it is impossible at some times Ask - Ask clarifying questions. Why? When? What? Engage again - Keep them in the loop until there is closure For example, we were in the final stages of a very important, strategic project for our organization. I was leading th"

    Jane D. - "My approach to dealing with difficult stakeholders has always been: Engage - Directly engage with the stakeholder, meet or chat Listen - Listen to what they have to say, patiently. Understand - Understand their POV, even if it is impossible at some times Ask - Ask clarifying questions. Why? When? What? Engage again - Keep them in the loop until there is closure For example, we were in the final stages of a very important, strategic project for our organization. I was leading th"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +8 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +60

    "I most want to communicate a few principals of conflict resolution that I believe were integral in this situation, which are mutual respect, a results orientation, an unwavering focus on the user. To that end, here’s how I’d like to structure this answer: First, I’ll tell you about the project we were working on, to provide some background for you. Second, I’ll describe the disagreement. Third, I’ll describe how we arrived at a solution, and finally, I’ll discuss how those 3 conflict resolut"

    Ross B. - "I most want to communicate a few principals of conflict resolution that I believe were integral in this situation, which are mutual respect, a results orientation, an unwavering focus on the user. To that end, here’s how I’d like to structure this answer: First, I’ll tell you about the project we were working on, to provide some background for you. Second, I’ll describe the disagreement. Third, I’ll describe how we arrived at a solution, and finally, I’ll discuss how those 3 conflict resolut"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +5 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    Video answer for 'What is the project you are most proud of?'
    +49

    "I was working for my friend building streams at venues across the Chicago land area for FGC (fighting game tournaments), I adjusted and engineered his equipment to be set up permanently that's until covid came around at least. I used OBS to give visual appearances to stream watchers. So we're talking about subscribe, follow, and donation notifications and things of that nature for viewers to know they contributed in one of those ways. I set up proper sign-up scheduling for participants to lock t"

    Ayinde B. - "I was working for my friend building streams at venues across the Chicago land area for FGC (fighting game tournaments), I adjusted and engineered his equipment to be set up permanently that's until covid came around at least. I used OBS to give visual appearances to stream watchers. So we're talking about subscribe, follow, and donation notifications and things of that nature for viewers to know they contributed in one of those ways. I set up proper sign-up scheduling for participants to lock t"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +9 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +6

    "When customer is not worried about quality but only worried about delivery"

    Shiva P. - "When customer is not worried about quality but only worried about delivery"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +1 more
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  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +3

    "Situation: While working at CVS Health, our inventory management system for OTCHS products was facing challenges. We had increasing stock outs, and our existing data was insufficient to fully understand and address the issue since it has been only a year this product line was initiated. Action: Although we do have a forecasting model to predict demand and other algorithms to trigger out of stock flags to warehouses to fill them, lack of data points on seasonality, supplier delays, compliance"

    Vihari K. - "Situation: While working at CVS Health, our inventory management system for OTCHS products was facing challenges. We had increasing stock outs, and our existing data was insufficient to fully understand and address the issue since it has been only a year this product line was initiated. Action: Although we do have a forecasting model to predict demand and other algorithms to trigger out of stock flags to warehouses to fill them, lack of data points on seasonality, supplier delays, compliance"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +2 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +5

    "As a PM i received a feedback from my program manager on my style of verbal communication. It is about me speaking faster when i wanted to get away with a topic that i wasn't confident (may be not backed up with data, or still in process of getting detailed insight of a problem etc.). Whereas when I'm confident I tend to speak slowly or more assertively that made people to follow easily. I welcomed that feedback so from then on when I'm not confident in a topic I became more assertive to let pe"

    Rajesh V. - "As a PM i received a feedback from my program manager on my style of verbal communication. It is about me speaking faster when i wanted to get away with a topic that i wasn't confident (may be not backed up with data, or still in process of getting detailed insight of a problem etc.). Whereas when I'm confident I tend to speak slowly or more assertively that made people to follow easily. I welcomed that feedback so from then on when I'm not confident in a topic I became more assertive to let pe"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +6 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +1

    "· Listen both sides and without any bias. Support or focus on the problem rather than person. Take necessary steps in case there is middle ground its well and good if both parties agree. If not be honest and support the person who is correct. Ultimate goal is to be useful for overall project and company rather individual satisfaction. The approach should be fit into overall team goal."

    BePostive - "· Listen both sides and without any bias. Support or focus on the problem rather than person. Take necessary steps in case there is middle ground its well and good if both parties agree. If not be honest and support the person who is correct. Ultimate goal is to be useful for overall project and company rather individual satisfaction. The approach should be fit into overall team goal."See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +1 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    +3

    " The Situation A few months ago, our trading platform started experiencing significant latency issues during peak trading hours. This latency was affecting our ability to process real-time market data and execute trades efficiently, potentially leading to substantial financial losses and missed opportunities. Identifying the Problem The first step was to identify the root cause of the latency. I organized a team meeting with our data engineers, DevOps, and network specialists to gather"

    Scott S. - " The Situation A few months ago, our trading platform started experiencing significant latency issues during peak trading hours. This latency was affecting our ability to process real-time market data and execute trades efficiently, potentially leading to substantial financial losses and missed opportunities. Identifying the Problem The first step was to identify the root cause of the latency. I organized a team meeting with our data engineers, DevOps, and network specialists to gather"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +3 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "Achieving your metric of success (Daily Active Users, Engagement etc.) Improving user sentiment in their experience of using the product Attention given to accessibility, visual design and content hierarchy The product design aligns with goals and branding of company Product clearly communicates value to our users and helps them achieve their goals"

    Ben G. - "Achieving your metric of success (Daily Active Users, Engagement etc.) Improving user sentiment in their experience of using the product Attention given to accessibility, visual design and content hierarchy The product design aligns with goals and branding of company Product clearly communicates value to our users and helps them achieve their goals"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +2 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "Pizza Ordering System orderdetail - orderdetailid (PK), orderid (FK), itemid (FK), itemqty, itemized_price order - orderid (PK), customerid (FK), orderdate, locationid (FK), ordertype (DINEIN, PICKUP, DELIVERY), refid (dineinid, pickupid, deliveryid), subtotal, tax, tip, totalamount, payment_method (CASH, CARD) location - locationid (PK), locationdesc, city, state, startdate, enddate customer - customer_id (PK), name, address (nullable), phone (nullable), dob (d"

    Rishabh L. - "Pizza Ordering System orderdetail - orderdetailid (PK), orderid (FK), itemid (FK), itemqty, itemized_price order - orderid (PK), customerid (FK), orderdate, locationid (FK), ordertype (DINEIN, PICKUP, DELIVERY), refid (dineinid, pickupid, deliveryid), subtotal, tax, tip, totalamount, payment_method (CASH, CARD) location - locationid (PK), locationdesc, city, state, startdate, enddate customer - customer_id (PK), name, address (nullable), phone (nullable), dob (d"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Technical
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "I think rapport with the team is key to deciding what one of these members can do that would bring more development capability to him, the team and the project. Analyzing the skill and attitude of my team members in advance and putting them in the role where they are strongest and happiest has been an important factor in my success stories. Taking care to identify a potential leader in the team will make it evolve faster as well. So this is how I make decisions when forming a squad for a spec"

    Sueudo G. - "I think rapport with the team is key to deciding what one of these members can do that would bring more development capability to him, the team and the project. Analyzing the skill and attitude of my team members in advance and putting them in the role where they are strongest and happiest has been an important factor in my success stories. Taking care to identify a potential leader in the team will make it evolve faster as well. So this is how I make decisions when forming a squad for a spec"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "Explained in STAR format one of the project situation where I had to collect data points by deploying a minimum viable product due to unclear business requirements/dynamic nature of business. Emphasized on exact data points and how they strategically used to iteratively deploy improved version of product."

    Vijay P. - "Explained in STAR format one of the project situation where I had to collect data points by deploying a minimum viable product due to unclear business requirements/dynamic nature of business. Emphasized on exact data points and how they strategically used to iteratively deploy improved version of product."See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Product Strategy
    +2 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "I faced a problem about components re-rendering's and unnecessary requests API's which was causing performance complications in my applicactions. I had a structure that create, edit and delete task, so GET, POST, PUT and DELETE API's methods request was necessary and bring that to compliance without compromissing the performance is hard. I started involving componentes and async functions into the useMemo's and useEffect's to have more control, another improvement was take be careful with global"

    Rolemberg J. - "I faced a problem about components re-rendering's and unnecessary requests API's which was causing performance complications in my applicactions. I had a structure that create, edit and delete task, so GET, POST, PUT and DELETE API's methods request was necessary and bring that to compliance without compromissing the performance is hard. I started involving componentes and async functions into the useMemo's and useEffect's to have more control, another improvement was take be careful with global"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Technical
    +2 more
  • "I was in my early days of leadership and strategy. In Marriott when a decision was made by C suite to buy products as wrapper over cloud providers I was surprised and based on my limited information and knowledge posted a question to Chief technology officer as why it won't be a good strategy to directly use Native offering from AWS. The reason enlightened me and gave new a new thought process that being such a large enterprise that has presence in 200+ countries across globe we may have challen"

    Parag L. - "I was in my early days of leadership and strategy. In Marriott when a decision was made by C suite to buy products as wrapper over cloud providers I was surprised and based on my limited information and knowledge posted a question to Chief technology officer as why it won't be a good strategy to directly use Native offering from AWS. The reason enlightened me and gave new a new thought process that being such a large enterprise that has presence in 200+ countries across globe we may have challen"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "My parents because they take really good care of me whenever I feel sick"

    Amparo L. - "My parents because they take really good care of me whenever I feel sick"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "SQL databases are relational, NoSQL databases are non-relational. SQL databases use structured query language and have a predefined schema. NoSQL databases have dynamic schemas for unstructured data. SQL databases are vertically scalable, while NoSQL databases are horizontally scalable."

    Ali H. - "SQL databases are relational, NoSQL databases are non-relational. SQL databases use structured query language and have a predefined schema. NoSQL databases have dynamic schemas for unstructured data. SQL databases are vertically scalable, while NoSQL databases are horizontally scalable."See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Technical
    +4 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 

    "Situation - A time I saw a peer struggling was while I was at Google working in Mountain View. A fellow colleague of mine was consistently not meeting standards in his performance reviews and wasn’t sure why. He was upset because Google was his dream company and he wasn’t sure how to improve based on his feedback. Task - I was tasked to design a based VUI framework for our discovery space on smart displays. This colleague was acting as the VUI lead for the project while I acted as t"

    Ben G. - "Situation - A time I saw a peer struggling was while I was at Google working in Mountain View. A fellow colleague of mine was consistently not meeting standards in his performance reviews and wasn’t sure why. He was upset because Google was his dream company and he wasn’t sure how to improve based on his feedback. Task - I was tasked to design a based VUI framework for our discovery space on smart displays. This colleague was acting as the VUI lead for the project while I acted as t"See full answer

    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +3 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    Solutions Architect
    Behavioral
    +1 more
  • Amazon logoAsked at Amazon 
    Solutions Architect
    System Design
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