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Amazon L6 (SDEIII) Software Engineer Interview Guide
A comprehensive guide to the Amazon L6 (SDEIII) Software Engineer interview process.
Amazon's L6 (SDEIII) interview starts with a recruiter call, then a technical phone screen, followed by five onsite rounds: two coding interviews, system design, either object-oriented design or a project deep-dive (hiring team decides), and a Bar Raiser behavioral interview. Pass the loop and you'll go through team matching before getting an offer. The whole thing takes 4-8 weeks from first contact to offer, though team matching can drag it out if you're not interviewing for a specific team's opening.
At L6, Amazon wants to see senior-level technical depth and leadership potential in every round. The system design interview matters a lot since you need to architect scalable, distributed systems and explain complex trade-offs. Your Bar Raiser behavioral interview can kill your chances regardless of how well you code - it's a dedicated round with a senior Amazonian from outside your target team. They want proof you'll improve team performance and consistently show Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles through real examples from your 7+ years of experience. L6 differs from mid-level roles because they expect you've led initiatives, made big technical decisions, and can mentor others while getting stuff done at scale.
The interview consists of 6-7 total rounds:
- Recruiter Intro Call
- Technical Phone Screen (Coding)
- Onsite Loop (Usually virtual)
- Coding Interview #1
- Coding Interview #2
- System Design Interview
- Object-Oriented Design OR Technical Project Deep-Dive
- Bar Raiser Behavioral Interview
Interview Rounds
Recruiter Intro Call
The recruiter intro call is your entry point into Amazon's L6 process, and it's pretty straightforward compared to what's coming. You'll spend about 30 minutes on a phone or video call with a technical recruiter who just wants to verify you're a real candidate worth moving forward. No coding questions or deep technical discussions here.
They'll ask you to walk through your background and recent experience. Since you're applying for a senior role, they want to hear about your leadership impact and technical scope, focusing on strategic contributions beyond routine development tasks. Mention specific technologies you've worked with, team sizes you've led or influenced, and the business impact of projects you've driven. They don't want a 20-minute speech, but they do want to understand why you're qualified for L6.
They'll ask what you're looking for in your next role and why Amazon interests you. Skip the generic "I want new challenges" answers. Do your homework on Amazon's business, mention specific products or services that align with your experience, and show you understand what working there actually involves. The recruiter will give you a high-level overview of Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles, so familiarize yourself with the names and concepts before the call.
They'll outline the interview timeline (usually 4-8 weeks total), explain that you'll likely skip the online assessment and go straight to a technical phone screen, and confirm your availability for the onsite loop. Be upfront about any scheduling constraints since coordinating five L6 interviewers can get complicated. Don't hesitate to ask about the specific interview format or whether you'll be interviewing for a particular team versus the general candidate pool.
Technical Phone Screen (Coding)
Your real technical entry point into Amazon's L6 process is pretty straightforward after all the recruiter coordination. You're looking at 45 minutes with a single Amazon engineer, usually over video call with a shared coding environment called Amazon Livecode. It's like a more personal version of the onsite coding rounds, just with slightly lower stakes.
The format is clean and predictable. You'll get one algorithmic problem that's usually LeetCode medium difficulty, focusing on fundamental data structures and algorithms. The shared editor gives you syntax highlighting and basic formatting, but that's it. You can't run your code, you can't Google anything, and you can't test your solution beyond walking through examples manually. You need to write syntactically correct, logically sound code from memory while explaining your thought process out loud.
This round matters for L6 candidates because it often decides whether you get to the onsite loop. Since most senior engineers skip the online assessment, this phone screen is Amazon's first real look at how you code under pressure and communicate technical concepts. The interviewer wants to see whether you approach problems methodically, ask clarifying questions when needed, and walk through your logic clearly enough that they'd want to work with you, going beyond basic problem-solving ability.
The last 5-10 minutes might shift to a couple of behavioral questions about Amazon's Leadership Principles. This isn't the deep dive you'll get in your Bar Raiser interview, but the interviewer might ask about a time you showed ownership or bias for action. Keep these answers concise since the main focus is still your coding ability.
"Almost all the behavioral questions were followed-up with a "what would you do differently" or "If you could go back and do it again, what type of technology would you choose?""
— Recent Amazon L6 candidate
Treat it like a collaborative problem-solving session rather than a test. Ask questions, think out loud, and don't panic if you need to backtrack or reconsider your approach. The interviewer wants to see how you think through problems, evaluating your collaborative problem-solving approach rather than isolated code production.
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Most commonly asked Coding questions
Amazon
Senior
Onsite
Coding Interviews
Amazon tests your coding skills with two separate 55-minute coding interviews, both conducted virtually through Amazon's Livecode shared editor. These are the core of your technical evaluation - you'll spend about 35-40 minutes solving algorithmic problems and another 15-20 minutes answering behavioral questions tied to Amazon's Leadership Principles.
Each round usually gives you one substantial coding problem, though some candidates get a quick warm-up question followed by a more complex challenge if they solve the first one quickly. The difficulty ranges from medium to hard LeetCode-style problems, often with practical twists that mirror real scenarios Amazon engineers face. You're expected to write syntactically correct code without being able to run or test it, so your mental debugging skills need to be sharp.
The shared editor environment is pretty basic. You get syntax highlighting and that's about it. No autocomplete, no ability to execute your code, and definitely no Stack Overflow. You'll rely entirely on your programming fundamentals and problem-solving process. What matters most isn't getting the perfect solution immediately, but demonstrating how you think through complex problems methodically.
The behavioral component isn't an afterthought. After you finish coding, expect pointed questions about specific Leadership Principles. These aren't the deep dives you'll get in your Bar Raiser round, but the interviewer wants concrete examples that show you can operate at the L6 level. They might ask about a time you showed ownership during a critical bug fix or how you've mentored junior developers.
They evaluate you on three main aspects during these rounds. Coding and problem-solving ability carries the most weight since you need to show you can tackle complex algorithmic challenges efficiently and correctly. Technical communication matters a lot too, as L6 engineers are expected to explain technical concepts clearly to both peers and stakeholders. Finally, Leadership Principles alignment shows through both how you approach coding problems and your behavioral responses, proving you can operate with Amazon's values at a senior level.
Treat each interview as a window into how you'd actually work at Amazon. Your interviewer is evaluating whether you'd be someone they'd want to collaborate with on building systems that serve millions of customers, looking beyond basic coding puzzle-solving skills.
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Most commonly asked Coding questions
Amazon
Senior
System Design Interview
Your system design round carries serious weight in the final decision, and it's often the make-or-break moment for senior engineers. You're looking at 55 minutes of architectural discussion that goes way beyond typical "design Twitter" problems you might prep with online.
The format feels more like a collaborative design session than an interrogation. You'll join a video call with a shared virtual whiteboard or document, and the interviewer will present a broad, realistic problem that Amazon actually faces. Something like "design a scalable product recommendation system" or "architect a real-time inventory management platform for millions of products." These aren't textbook problems - they're the messy, complex scenarios that senior engineers at Amazon deal with daily.
What makes this round challenging for L6 is the depth of exploration. Your interviewer won't just nod along as you sketch out microservices and load balancers. They'll drill into specific components with questions like "How would you handle a sudden Black Friday traffic spike that's 50x normal load?" or "What happens when your recommendation service goes down during peak hours?" You need to think through failure modes, data consistency challenges, and operational complexity in real time.
"I was surprised at the depth to which they expect you to go to for every tech/lib you use."
— Recent Amazon L6 candidate
The behavioral component isn't separate here - it's woven throughout your technical discussion. When you explain why you chose eventual consistency over strong consistency, the interviewer might ask about a time you made similar tradeoff decisions in past projects. When you discuss monitoring and alerting, they could probe about how you've handled production incidents. They're checking whether you think like a senior engineer who considers customer impact, operational burden, and team dynamics in architectural decisions.
Your success here depends on showing that you can balance competing priorities like speed, reliability, and cost while keeping Amazon's customer obsession in mind. The interviewer wants to see that you'd be someone they'd trust to architect systems serving millions of customers, demonstrating practical engineering judgment beyond theoretical knowledge of database sharding strategies.
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Most commonly asked System Design questions
Amazon
Senior
Object-Oriented Design Round
This is the alternative to the project deep-dive interview, and you won't know which one you're getting until your loop is scheduled. The hiring team makes this call based on what they want to evaluate further - whether they need to see more of your general design skills or dig deeper into your past project experience. If you get the OOD round, you're looking at 55 minutes focused on low-level class design rather than the high-level system architecture you tackled earlier.
The format feels more intimate than system design since you're working with concrete objects and relationships rather than abstract distributed systems. You'll join a video call with a shared editor or virtual whiteboard where you can sketch UML diagrams or write out class definitions. The interviewer will present a scenario like "design the classes for a parking garage management system" or "create an object model for a library checkout system." These aren't the massive scaling problems from system design - they're focused, contained scenarios that test your ability to translate real-world concepts into clean, extensible code structures.
What makes this challenging at the L6 level is the depth of exploration your interviewer expects. They won't just accept a basic class hierarchy and move on. They'll probe your design choices with questions like "How would you extend this to handle different vehicle types?" or "What happens if we need to add premium membership features?" You need to show that you can design for extensibility and change while keeping your object model clean and maintainable.
The behavioral component weaves naturally through your design discussion. When you explain why you chose composition over inheritance, the interviewer might ask about a time you refactored a complex codebase. When you discuss handling edge cases, they could probe about how you've dealt with ambiguous requirements in past projects. They're checking whether you think like a senior engineer who considers maintainability, team collaboration, and future requirements when making design decisions.
Success here comes down to showing that you can balance theoretical OOP principles with practical engineering concerns. The interviewer wants to see that you'd design systems that other L6 engineers could easily understand, extend, and debug.
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Most commonly asked Object Oriented Design questions
Amazon
Senior
Technical Project Deep-Dive Interview
This is your alternative to the object-oriented design round, and honestly, many L6 candidates prefer getting this one. Instead of solving a theoretical design problem, you're spending 55 minutes talking about work you've actually done, which plays to the strength of senior engineers who have real battle scars and meaningful project experience. The hiring team decides which format you'll get based on what they want to evaluate further after reviewing your resume and earlier interview performance.
The format is pretty straightforward - it's just a conversation. No shared editors, no whiteboards, no coding environments. You'll join a video call with a senior engineer or hiring manager who wants to understand the technical depth behind a significant project from your background. They're not looking for a surface-level overview of what your team built. They want to understand the specific technical challenges you personally solved, the architectural decisions you made, and how you navigated the inevitable complexity that comes with building real systems at scale.
They'll pick one project from your resume and drill deep. They'll ask why you chose that particular technology stack, how you designed the system's key components, what the hardest technical problems were, and specifically what you did to solve them. The conversation often feels more like a technical retrospective than an interview, which can be disarming if you're not prepared to go into genuine technical depth.
The behavioral component isn't tacked on at the end like in coding rounds. Leadership Principle questions emerge naturally from your technical discussion. When you explain how you solved a performance bottleneck, they might ask about a time you took ownership of a critical issue. When you describe choosing between architectural approaches, they could probe how you influenced stakeholders or handled disagreement. They're checking whether you think like a senior engineer who considers business impact, team dynamics, and long-term maintainability in technical decisions.
Success here comes down to showing that you've actually built complex systems and learned from the experience. The interviewer wants to see that you can architect solutions, debug production issues, and make technical decisions that balance competing priorities while keeping customer impact in mind.
Bar Raiser Behavioral Interview
This round can make or break your L6 candidacy, regardless of how brilliantly you performed in the technical interviews. The Bar Raiser is a senior Amazonian from completely outside your target team whose sole job is to ensure Amazon only hires people who will genuinely raise the bar on talent and culture. They're Amazon's quality control mechanism against hiring mediocrity, and they take this responsibility seriously.
What makes this round intense is that it's 55 minutes of pure behavioral drilling with no technical questions to fall back on. The Bar Raiser will systematically work through Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles, asking for specific examples from your 7+ years of experience that demonstrate each principle in action. But they won't just accept your first answer and move on. They'll probe deeper with follow-ups like "What exactly did you say in that meeting?" or "How did you measure the impact?" or "What would you do differently now?" They're testing whether your stories hold up under scrutiny and whether you actually learned from the experiences you're describing.
"
— Recent Amazon L6 candidate
The evaluation here goes beyond just checking boxes for Leadership Principles. The Bar Raiser is making a judgment call about whether hiring you would improve Amazon's overall talent pool. They're looking for evidence that you consistently show high standards, learn from mistakes, and have the potential to mentor and influence others at the senior level. This isn't about being perfect - it's about showing growth, self-awareness, and the kind of judgment Amazon trusts with important decisions.
Success here requires showing that you naturally think and act in ways that align with Amazon's culture, demonstrating authentic leadership behaviors rather than memorized principles and crafted stories. The Bar Raiser can usually tell the difference.
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Most commonly asked Leadership Principles questions
Amazon
Senior
1. Give me an example of a tough or critical piece of feedback you received.
2. What was a situation where you didn't agree with your manager or superior's decision?
3. Describe a situation where you had to make a tough decision and what factors you considered
4. Give an example of a situation where you had to overcome a significant setback or obstacle to achieve a goal
5. Can you describe a time when you had to make a decision with incomplete information? What was the situation, and how did you handle it?
What to Expect
Based on feedback from candidates who've been through Amazon's L6 interview process, here are key insights about what you'll actually experience beyond the standard preparation advice.
What Surprised Candidates Most
The system design interview often takes unexpected directions that catch even well-prepared candidates off-guard. One candidate noted that "even the system design question, the interviewer was primarily most interested on how to scale, and wanted to 'skip ahead' to it." Your interviewer might bypass the foundational architecture discussion you've practiced and jump straight to advanced scaling scenarios, testing whether you can think on your feet when the conversation doesn't follow your rehearsed flow.
Many candidates were surprised by how difficult it was to generate leadership principle examples in real-time, despite extensive preparation. "The leadership questions were difficult to come up with on the spot, even after listing a bunch down for each principal and practicing them out loud," shared one candidate. This shows a common gap between knowing your stories and being able to access them quickly under pressure when interviewers probe specific principles.
The interview structure itself often goes against expectations. Several candidates mentioned being caught off-guard when rounds started with behavioral questions instead of diving into technical problems first. "It started off with behavioral questions, but I was expecting it to begin with a coding problem. It seemed more focused on the behavioral aspects than the coding/problem solving." This shift in emphasis reflects Amazon's strong cultural evaluation at the L6 level, where showing leadership principles carries as much weight as technical skills.
Most Effective Preparation Strategies
Candidates consistently credited targeted, interactive preparation tools with making the difference in their success. Multiple successful candidates specifically mentioned that "the HelloInterview guided practices were a life saver!" Our AI-assisted practice sessions proved valuable because they adapt to your responses and push you in unexpected directions, much like real Amazon interviews do.
The most helpful technical preparation involved intensive, consistent practice rather than sporadic cramming. One candidate emphasized that "practicing all of the system design exercises consistently the week+ beforehand" transformed their weakest area into their most confident. This daily, sustained engagement with system design problems - particularly using our guided practice sessions - helps build the pattern recognition and confidence needed when interviewers take conversations in unexpected directions.
Our AI-assisted practice specifically worked well with L6 candidates because it mimics Amazon's probing style. As one successful candidate put it: "Doing the AI assisted practice in HelloInterview and learning the concepts from Leetcode and preparing a lot for Leadership Principles" created the comprehensive preparation needed for Amazon's multi-faceted evaluation. The combination of technical practice through our question lists of past Amazon problems and behavioral preparation through AI-guided sessions addresses both sides of Amazon's L6 assessment.
Top Tips from Successful Candidates
The most important tactical advice centers on thorough communication, even for seemingly obvious points. "Talk through everything even if it seems obvious to you," emphasized one candidate. At the L6 level, interviewers want to hear your thought process for every decision, no matter how straightforward it might seem to you. This verbalization shows senior-level thinking and helps interviewers understand your approach to problem-solving.
Flexibility and adaptability emerged as critical success factors. "Be prepared for variations on everything," advised one candidate who experienced multiple unexpected twists in their interviews. Have multiple approaches ready for each type of problem and be comfortable pivoting when interviewers want to explore different aspects than you anticipated.
The importance of Leadership Principles can't be overstated at this level. "Don't skimp on Leadership Principles" was a recurring theme, with successful candidates emphasizing that this preparation often determines the final outcome regardless of technical performance. Have specific, detailed stories ready that show measurable impact and personal ownership, emphasizing your individual contributions alongside team achievements.
Additional Insights
Practical preparation goes beyond technical and behavioral practice. Simple advice like "get a good night's sleep" might seem obvious, but multiple candidates mentioned how the intensity and duration of Amazon's L6 process makes physical readiness more important than in typical interview loops. The five-round onsite, with its mix of technical depth and behavioral drilling, demands sustained mental energy that's easily undermined by poor sleep or high stress.
The behavioral-heavy nature of Amazon's L6 process sets it apart from many other tech companies at this level. While other companies might allocate 10-15 minutes for behavioral questions, Amazon's commitment to cultural fit means these discussions can dominate entire interview rounds and significantly influence technical conversations. Successful candidates adjusted their preparation time allocation accordingly, often spending as much time on Leadership Principles as on coding practice.
Team matching adds another layer of complexity that candidates should expect. Even after passing your interview loop, you'll need to connect with specific teams, which can extend your timeline and require additional conversations. Understanding that your journey doesn't end with loop completion helps set realistic expectations for the overall process duration.
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