Nailing Amazon's Behavioral Interview Questions

When presenting yourself for a position at Amazon, you can come across some behavioral questions during your interview. These questions are crafted to understand your behavior in specific situations and acknowledge whether responses are up to the expectations or not.

Your interviewers at Amazon are eager to monitor your reaction. In certain situations, the behavior is demonstrated by your reaction and the knowledge you gain from that experience.

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In this article, you will acknowledge some of the most common questions that might be asked to you during your behavioral interviews at Amazon and how you must prepare to answer these questions.

In this article, we’ll learn:

• What is a Behavioral Interview?
• Amazon’s Leadership Principles
• Examples of Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions
• Key Tips to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions
• Nail your Next Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers with IK!
• FAQs About Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions

What is a Behavioral Interview?

Amazon is not an exception when discussing the maximum FAANG companies that give a major focus on behavioral interviews. These interviews are designed to focus on past experiences, resumes, and the candidate's behavior in certain situations. These interviews focus on monitoring the clarity of the working style of the candidate and acknowledge whether they are the perfect fit for the job position or not. 

However, the leadership principles at Amazon make their behavioral interview different from others. When the interviewers interview a certain candidate, they acknowledge whether their qualities align with Amazon’s leadership principles or not.

Even though you may feel that these interviews need no prior preparation, if your performance in these interviews is lacking in certain subjects, there are fewer chances for you to clear the interview. Hiring managers, bar raisers, and recruiters at Amazon see qualities mentioned in their leadership principles at every step of the hiring procedure.

Amazon’s Leadership Principles

The key to unlocking your dream job at Amazon requires demonstrating and learning their leadership principles. Hence, it’s crucial that you prepare from a certain example from your past situations demonstrating every principle or simply learn to simulate the ideal answers. Refer to the leadership Principles mentioned below that you must align with for your behavioral interview:

• Customer obsession
• Bias for action
• Ownership
• Invent and simplify
• Have a backbone, disagree, and commit
• Dive deep
• Or right, a lot
• Deliver results
• Think big
• Higher and develop the best
• Frugality 
• Learn and be curious
• Insist on the highest standards
• Earn trust
• Strive to be Earth’s best employer
• Success and scale bring broad responsibility

Examples of Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions

Firstly, let us discuss the most common questions asked by Amazon recruiters during your behavioral interview. It is most certain that you might be asked at least one of the questions mentioned below. In addition, irrespective of the role you are being interviewed for, Amazon wants to know all the reasons behind presenting yourself at their organization.

Top 5 Behavioral Questions Asked at Amazon

1. Why do you want to work at Amazon?
2. Tell me about a situation wherein you did not meet the expectations at your work, and what knowledge did you gain from this experience?
3. Challenges faced by you at your workplace. Discuss your role and the outcome.
4. Tell me about a situation where you did not agree with your manager or co-worker’s decision.
5. Tell me about your experience at work where you were required to make a quick decision under a strict deadline.

Apart from these 5 questions, let us discuss the Examples of other Amazon interview behavioral questions on the basis of some of the leadership principles.

Customer Obsession

Empathy is the key element in every customer obsession question. Interviewers want to know whether you understand the consequence of each decision on customer experience. You must apprehend the customer as well as their needs.

Examples:

1. Tell me about a situation when you dealt with a difficult customer.
2. Which company offers the best customer service and the reason behind it?
3. Discuss about a certain project where you have prioritized the customer first.

Bias for Action

Amazon likes to work with getting results by the actions and decisions implemented in business. This part assists them to act rapidly and ship the customers' products as fast as possible. Hence, your interview will analyze how you take calculated risks and move things ahead.

Examples:

1. Tell me about a situation where you made a quick decision in the absence of data.
2. Tell me about a situation where you launched a feature without knowing the risks behind it.
3. Tell me if you ever grabbed an opportunity that went unnoticed by others.

Ownership

When working at Amazon, you have to act as an owner and take responsibility for everything that comes across. While you answer the questions related to ownership, you must prove that you take initiative, prefer making tough decisions, and take responsibility for any mistakes made by you at work.

Examples:

1. Tell me when you performed tasks at work that were not your responsibility.
2. Discuss about a time when you worked above your responsibilities at the Job to help out your company.
3. What will be your contributions to making amazon.com better?

Think Big

Amazon is a well-recognized organization, and its employees must create structures and products that reach certain expectations to make a difference in the business. Interviews at Amazon want to check if you are capable of developing a bold vision or not.

Examples:

1. What was the biggest project that you executed to date?
2. Discuss your accomplishments at work and why they were significant.

Hire and Develop the Best

Amazon expects each new employee to raise the bar. Interviewers want you to hire people who outshine your smartness. In addition, you must enjoy and be passionate about training younger colleagues and be a master in getting the most from the top performers.

Examples:

1. When did you provide feedback that proved to be helpful to a peer?
2. Tell me when you worked or hired people who were smarter than you.
3. What is there a time when you help a teammate who was struggling?
4. Who is the best employee you work with? And what features make them the best?

Key Tips to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

Some major tips that you must follow for perfectly answering the behavioral interview questions Amazon are:

• Prepare thoroughly for follow-up questions to demonstrate your depth of knowledge and avoid creating doubts in the interviewer's mind about the accuracy of your responses.
• Enhance your verbal delivery by practicing your answers out loud, ensuring you effectively convey all pertinent details within the allotted time.
• Seek practice sessions with ex-Amazonians or industry mentors familiar with Amazon's culture, gaining valuable feedback from those who understand the company's nuances.
• Go beyond just reading Amazon's leadership principles; delve into the company's culture, operations, and principles' origins to showcase a genuine understanding during interviews.
• Document your prepared stories on paper, creating bullet points for quick reference to ensure you don't overlook key details in the heat of the interview.

Nail your Next Amazon Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers with IK!

Since its introduction in 2002, Amazon has expanded its original ten leadership principles to sixteen by 2021, influencing various aspects of the company. The emphasis on hiring meticulously rather than swiftly displays Amazon's commitment to these principles, making it imperative for candidates to share stories from their experiences that vividly demonstrate their grasp of Amazon's leadership philosophy during interviews.

If you’re the next candidate appearing for Amazon's behavioral interview, prepare yourself on the basis of the 16 leadership principles at Amazon with Interview Kickstart. Practice behavioral interview questions and answers with Interview Kickstart by enrolling today and landing your dream position at Amazon.

FAQs about Amazon's Behavioral Interview Questions

Q1. How should you answer behavioral questions at Amazon?

Firstly, keep in mind these questions are in regard to your behavior at work. Even though your skills are equally important, Amazon places more focus on your behavior at work, including your ethics, ability to work with others and attitude. Hence, openly and smartly discuss the situations when you handle difficult situations.

Q2. Are behavioral interviews easy?

The questions are asked in behavioral interviews or non-technical but on the basis of your behavior in certain situations at work. However, if not answered appropriately, getting a job might become challenging.

Q3. What is the purpose behind conducting a behavioral interview?

The major reason for conducting this interview is to analyze your reaction to stress, analyze your skill level, and monitor the way you conduct yourself in the work environment.

Q4. Do behavioral interviews last long?

This interview basically lasts for around 15 to 30 minutes. However, the time varies depending on the candidate and the number of questions asked.

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