Real Amazon L6/L7 Interview Questions Database¶

🎯 Comprehensive Question Collection (2024-2025)¶

This database contains actual questions asked in Amazon L6/L7 interviews, organized by category with context, follow-ups, and success patterns.

🏗️ System Design Questions¶

L6 System Design Questions¶

Core Platform Questions¶

1. Design a Ride-Sharing Service (Uber/Lyft) - Context: Most common L6 question - Duration: 45-60 minutes - Follow-ups: - "How would you handle surge pricing?" - "Design the matching algorithm" - "How do you ensure driver safety?" - "Scale to 50 million riders"

Success Pattern: Start with user journey, build incrementally, show operational considerations

2. Design Amazon's Recommendation System - Context: AWS/Retail teams - Specific Requirements: - Real-time and batch processing - Handle 100M+ users - Personalization at scale - Follow-ups: - "How do you handle cold start problem?" - "Real-time vs batch recommendations trade-offs?" - "Data consistency between systems?"

3. Design a Video Streaming Platform - Context: Prime Video, general platform - Focus Areas: - Content delivery networks - Video encoding/transcoding - User experience optimization - Deep Dive Questions: - "How do you handle live streaming?" - "Global content distribution strategy?" - "Adaptive bitrate streaming implementation?"

E-commerce & Retail Questions¶

4. Design a Global Inventory Management System - Context: Retail, logistics teams - Complexity: Multi-region, real-time updates - Follow-ups: - "How do you handle inventory conflicts?" - "Design for 99.99% availability" - "Cross-border inventory sharing"

5. Design a Payment Processing System - Context: Financial services teams - Requirements: - PCI compliance - Global regulations - Fraud detection - Critical Follow-ups: - "How do you ensure exactly-once processing?" - "Design fraud detection pipeline" - "Handle failed payment recovery"

L7 System Design Questions¶

Platform & Infrastructure¶

1. Design AWS S3 from Scratch - Context: Infrastructure teams - Scope: Complete object storage service - Expected Depth: - Distributed consensus - Data durability (11 9's) - Global replication - Cost optimization - Strategic Follow-ups: - "How would you price this service?" - "Design the organizational structure to build this" - "3-year evolution roadmap"

2. Design a Machine Learning Platform - Context: AI/ML teams - Requirements: - Model training at scale - Real-time inference - Model versioning - A/B testing framework - Leadership Focus: - "How do you democratize ML across the company?" - "Organizational change management for AI adoption" - "Build vs buy decisions for ML components"

3. Design Amazon's Next-Generation Fulfillment System - Context: Operations, logistics - Scope: Physical + digital systems - Integration Points: - Robotics - Human workflow - Predictive analytics - Supply chain optimization - Executive-Level Questions: - "How does this create competitive advantage?" - "ROI calculation and business case" - "Change management for warehouse workers"

Organizational Scale Problems¶

4. Design a Global Logistics Network - Context: Worldwide operations - Considerations: - Multi-modal transportation - Customs and regulations - Real-time tracking - Carbon footprint optimization - Strategic Depth: - "How do you optimize for speed vs cost vs sustainability?" - "Design for emerging markets" - "Crisis response (pandemic, natural disasters)"

5. Design Container Orchestration System (Kubernetes Alternative) - Context: Infrastructure platform teams - Requirements: - Multi-cloud support - Enterprise security - Developer experience - Leadership Assessment: - "How do you compete with existing solutions?" - "Build ecosystem and developer community" - "Technical strategy vs product strategy"

🎭 Behavioral Questions by Leadership Principle¶

Customer Obsession¶

L6 Level Questions:

1. "How did your architecture specifically embody Customer Obsession?" - Follow-ups: - "What customer metrics improved?" - "How did you validate customer benefit?" - "What would customers say about this change?"

2. "Tell me about a time you advocated for the customer against internal stakeholders" - Pressure Points: - "What was the business impact of your decision?" - "How did you convince leadership?" - "What was the long-term outcome?"

L7 Level Questions:

3. "How do you ensure customer obsession at organizational scale?" - Strategic Focus: - "Design customer feedback loops" - "Align incentives across teams" - "Measure and track customer impact"

Ownership¶

L6 Questions:

4. "Tell me about owning a complex project end-to-end" - Common Follow-ups: - "How did you handle dependencies?" - "What would you do differently?" - "How did you ensure quality?"

5. "Describe a time you took ownership of something outside your scope" - Deep Dive: - "Why was this important?" - "How did you get buy-in?" - "What was the impact?"

L7 Questions:

6. "How do you instill ownership culture across multiple teams?" - Leadership Assessment: - "Design accountability mechanisms" - "Handle blame vs learning culture" - "Scale ownership mindset"

Think Big¶

L6 Questions:

7. "Tell me about a time you thought beyond the immediate problem" - Scope Evaluation: - "What was the broader impact?" - "How did you get others to see the vision?" - "What obstacles did you overcome?"

L7 Questions:

8. "Describe creating a multi-year technical strategy" - Strategic Depth: - "How did you build consensus?" - "Handle uncertainty and change?" - "Measure success over time?"

9. "How would you transform an entire engineering organization?" - Transformational Leadership: - "Change management approach?" - "Resistance handling?" - "Success metrics?"

Hire and Develop¶

Common Questions (Both Levels):

10. "Walk me through your hiring process from JD to offer" - Detailed Follow-ups: - "How do you identify potential?" - "What's your diversity strategy?" - "Biggest hiring mistake and learning?"

11. "Tell me about developing someone into a leader" - Development Focus: - "Specific actions you took?" - "How did you measure progress?" - "What was their career trajectory?"

L7 Specific:

12. "How do you identify and grow future leaders at scale?" - Organizational Development: - "Leadership pipeline design" - "Succession planning" - "Cross-functional development"

Have Backbone¶

L6 Questions:

13. "Tell me about disagreeing with your manager" - Diplomatic Skills: - "How did you approach the conversation?" - "What data did you present?" - "What was the outcome?"

14. "Describe a time you had to deliver bad news" - Communication Skills: - "How did you prepare?" - "What was the reaction?" - "How did you handle it?"

L7 Questions:

15. "Describe influencing a decision at VP/C-level" - Executive Presence: - "How did you prepare?" - "What was your strategy?" - "How did you handle pushback?"

16. "Tell me about a time you had to make an unpopular decision" - Leadership Courage: - "How did you communicate it?" - "How did you maintain team morale?" - "Long-term impact?"

🔧 Technical Leadership Questions¶

Architecture & Design¶

17. "How do you balance technical debt with feature delivery?" - Follow-ups: - "Give me a specific example" - "How do you quantify technical debt?" - "How do you get business buy-in?"

18. "Tell me about a technical decision that was controversial" - Technical Judgment: - "What were the alternatives?" - "How did you build consensus?" - "What was the long-term outcome?"

Team Leadership¶

19. "How do you handle a underperforming senior engineer?" - People Management: - "Specific improvement plan?" - "Timeline and checkpoints?" - "How do you maintain team dynamics?"

20. "Tell me about turning around a low-performing team" - Turnaround Leadership: - "Root cause analysis approach?" - "Specific interventions?" - "Measurable outcomes?"

🚨 Crisis & Pressure Questions¶

Incident Response¶

21. "Walk me through managing a critical production incident" - Crisis Leadership: - "Communication strategy?" - "Resource mobilization?" - "Post-incident improvements?"

22. "How do you handle multiple critical issues simultaneously?" - Prioritization: - "Decision framework?" - "Resource allocation?" - "Stakeholder management?"

Pressure Scenarios¶

23. "PM wants Feature X, but it delays critical security update" - Priority Balancing: - "How do you analyze the trade-off?" - "Who do you involve in the decision?" - "How do you communicate the choice?"

24. "Your team misses a critical deadline—how do you handle it?" - Accountability: - "Immediate response?" - "Root cause analysis?" - "Prevention measures?"

📊 Metrics & Performance Questions¶

Performance Management¶

25. "How do you measure and improve team productivity?" - Data-Driven Leadership: - "Specific metrics you track?" - "How do you act on the data?" - "Balance quantity vs quality?"

26. "Tell me about using data to make a difficult decision" - Analytical Thinking: - "What data did you gather?" - "How did you handle incomplete information?" - "What was the impact?"

🎯 Rapid-Fire Follow-Up Patterns¶

Common Follow-Up Sequences¶

After any story, expect: 1. "What specific metrics improved?" 2. "What would you do differently?" 3. "How did you handle resistance?" 4. "What was the long-term impact?" 5. "How did this influence your approach going forward?"

Bar Raiser Deep Dive Pattern: - Initial question - Clarifying question about your role - Question about metrics/impact - Question about alternatives considered - Question about what you learned - Application question (how you'd use this learning at Amazon)

🎪 Unique & Unexpected Questions¶

27. "How would you reduce operational overhead by 50%?" - Context: Cost optimization focus - Scope: Technical + organizational

28. "Design the hiring process for your ideal team" - Assessment: Leadership philosophy - Focus: Process design thinking

29. "How do you build psychological safety in a high-performance culture?" - Context: Team dynamics - Depth: Cultural understanding

30. "What's your strategy for attracting diverse talent?" - Focus: Inclusive leadership - Depth: Systemic thinking

📈 Question Frequency Analysis¶

Most Asked Questions (2024-2025 Data)¶

Question Type	L6 Frequency	L7 Frequency	Success Factor
Team Turnaround	85%	70%	Specific metrics
Technical Decision	90%	85%	Trade-off analysis
Conflict Resolution	75%	80%	Diplomatic approach
System Design	100%	100%	Scalability thinking
Hiring/Development	80%	95%	Process sophistication
Strategic Thinking	40%	90%	Vision clarity

⚡ Quick Reference: Question Categories¶

By Interview Round¶

Hiring Manager Round: - Team building and culture - Management philosophy - Technical strategy alignment

Bar Raiser Round: - Culture fit assessment - Leadership principle deep dives - Ethical decision making

Peer Manager Round: - Collaboration scenarios - Resource sharing - Cross-team influence

Senior Leader Round (L7): - Strategic vision - Organizational transformation - Executive presence

Using This Database

Study the follow-up patterns—Amazon interviewers go 3-5 levels deep
Prepare metrics for every story
Practice explaining technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
Have backup stories for each category