I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2011
Interview
2 rounds of phone interviews, then 6 on-site.
Standard tech interview questions: binary trees, string parsing. Lots of discussion of memory management, performance, managed vs unmanaged code. Whiteboard coding of course.
I ended up in a conference room where the interviewers came to me... this means that there were no breaks in between, so it ended up being rather rapid-fire and I wasn't thinking as clearly by the end of the day. All the interviewers were really nice though and would have been good coworkers.
Amazon seems like a fast-moving company with a lot of cool stuff happening. They're getting big but they haven't realized it yet... they need to grow up a bit and realize that working people to the bone is not sustainable nor does it produce good long-term results. They offer a lot of money but it's not so mind-blowing once you figure in healthcare costs, no annual bonus, etc. Lots of stock in the compensation, so your comp is strongly dependent on how you think the stock will do. At a P/E of > 100 (as of 12/11), there's not a lot of headroom there.
Great interview process with three rounds, including a technical assessment and a technical interview. The interviewers were professional and supportive throughout the process. The questions mainly focused on DSA, problem-solving, and core technical concepts. The discussions were engaging and provided a good opportunity to demonstrate technical skills. Overall, the process was well-structured, smooth, transparent, and a very positive experience.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Sydney)
Interview
I can't comment much. I submitted an application for the software engineer position, and not even a minute later, I received an auto rejection email from Amazon (never received an online assessment).
2 behavioral 2 coding not very difficult. Behavioral is tell me about a time you took responsibility beyond your role and biggest accomplishment. The process is exactly the guideline they posted for interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
tell me about a time you took responsibility beyond your role