Amazon engineering managers design and drive the technical roadmap, deliver high-quality software, and manage teams. They combine technical strategy and implementation, recruiting and mentoring engineers, and ensuring operational excellence with customer-centric, scalable solutions.

This structured Amazon engineering manager interview guide 2026 will help candidates crack interviews and land the dream job. The Amazon engineering manager interview guide is written with due consideration for the rigorous testing and evaluation system that Amazon uses.

Amazon’s engineering manager interview process has several rounds, starting with a recruiter or resume screen and call, 1-2 rounds of technical phone screens, about 6 hours of virtual onsite loop with 5-6 interview rounds with technical managers, and a bar raiser.

A evaluates several aspects in the interview stages. In the resume screen, Amazon checks if your experience and skills align with the job requirements and your background. In the recruiter phone screen of 30 minutes, your qualifications, interests, and cultural fit are examined.

The technical screen of one hour is on behavioral questions, high-level system design, and technical leadership. The onsite virtual loop is on behavioral, system design, and coding. A deep dive into technical aspects, algorithms, and technical problem-solving is examined.

To prepare effectively for the Amazon engineering manager interview process, review and prepare case studies of your previous projects using the STAR framework. Read about various technology implementations at Amazon, attend mock interviews, and prepare and publish your portfolio.

This blog presents details of the Amazon engineering manager interview methods and process. The guide gives important information on accuracy, specificity, and real interview questions.

Key Takeaways

  • The Amazon engineering manager interview process is spread over several phases and rounds.
  • These phases are the recruiter screen, the technical screen, the onsite/ virtual screen, and the final interview.
  • Amazon recruits engineering managers from L5-L8 levels
  • You are matched for a project and department, and the intensity of interviews depends on the level
  • Technical questions focus on technical expertise, vision, problem-solving, system design, coding, machine learning, and Amazon technologies
  • Leadership interviews are focused on the 16 Amazon leadership principles, and you must be strongly aligned with these principles
  • Prepare use case stories based on the STAR framework and follow the preparatory plan and timeline

Role Overview: What Does an Amazon Engineering Manager Do?

The answer to the question of what an Amazon engineering manager does depends on the level and the department where the EM works. Engineering managers work at Amazon Web Services, Global Engineering Services for fulfillment center design, Reliability Maintenance Engineering for robotics, and Business Intelligence/Data Engineering.

The role and work that an Amazon engineering manager does depend on the projects within these departments. Greenfield, development, maintenance, migration, and support projects have different roles.

They have ownership and are held responsible for the work of junior engineers and managers. They may not do the actual coding work, but are expected to have worked as programmers. Let us look at the general work that Amazon engineer managers do.

Also Read: How Hard Is It to Get a Job at Amazon?

Salary Expectations and Overview

Amazon engineering managers are placed at L5 to L8+ levels. The roles, responsibilities, compensation, and business impact depend on the level. Total compensation has several components, such as the base salary, which is the fixed amount, plus bonus, stock options, cash payout for relocation, vacation, insurance, and other payouts.

Base salary and other payouts depend on the city, and Amazon engineering managers in large cities are paid more for the higher cost of living. Table 1 presents indicative details gathered from multiple sources.

Table 1. Amazon Engineering Manager levels, responsibilities, experience, and compensation

Level  Role Title  Responsibilities  Typical Experience  Total Annual Comp USD, US
L5 Software Dev Manager I They handle smaller, focused teams of 4–8 engineers, manage tactical execution, mentoring, and project delivery 5-10 years ~$200K – $570K+
L6 Software Dev Manager (SDM) II Manage single or multiple sub-teams of 8–15+ engineers. They make a significant impact on organizational direction, define long-term goals for their teams, and manage cross-team dependencies 10-20 years ~$260K – $775K+
L7 Principal/ Senior SDM Responsible for large, complex, and high-impact areas, manage other managers and driving technical strategy across a broader organization 13-15+ years ~$315K – $1.35M+
L8 Director/ VP Senior leadership, define the overall strategy for massive technical divisions, decide on investments and future growth 15+ years $526K – $1.95M+

Typical Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Process

Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Process
Figure 1: Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Process

The Amazon interview process is rigorous and structured, and the acceptance rate is less than 1%. Your skills are matched with requirements for specific projects and departments.

Figure 1 illustrates the general stages of the Amazon engineering manager interview process. The duration, number of stages, and depth of technical and behavioral questions depend on the level and role for which you are considered.

Usually, candidates for L7 and above levels are interviewed more for their technical and team leadership skills, and less for coding tasks. L5 and L6 roles are expected to be active coders and should have a deep knowledge of coding.

However, all levels are expected to have deep tech domain expertise and have an overview of Amazon technology.

Let us look at the focus areas and details of each round.

What Amazon Evaluates in the Engineering Manager Role

Amazon evaluates Engineering Managers on several areas of deep technical competency, problem solving and thinking, and behavioral and cultural fit. Important areas are system design, project delivery, mentoring, creating a collaborative culture, and the ability to act as a two-way interface between strategy and team execution.

Let us look at these areas.

Technical Competency

As indicated in this Amazon engineering manager guide, technical competency is evaluated on system design and architecture, technical judgement and decision making, coding and algorithms, problem solving and data utilization, and technical depth and breadth.

Core domains evaluated will be about system design, ML and AI, data management, and Amazon-specific use cases.

Depth: L5 and L6 candidates face deep technical coding questions, while L7 and L8 candidates will face questions on balancing tradeoffs. Let us look at some of the questions in the core domains.

What Amazon tests:

Coding Questions: Sample Amazon engineering manager interview questions on coding are:

System design questions: Sample Amazon engineering manager interview questions are:

Machine learning: Sample Amazon engineering manager interview questions on machine learning are:

Common failure patterns: Amazon engineering manager interviews see less than 1% success. Some reasons for failure are:

Weakness in technical depth: Amazon often requires managers to have strong technical competence. Other reasons are a lack of recent hands-on coding experience, an inability to handle concurrency in system design, and tradeoffs. Insufficient at-scale experience: Candidates give examples that do not show the complexity needed for the target level.

Also Read: Dive Deep Amazon Interview Questions

4.2 Problem-Solving & Thinking

According to the Amazon Engineering Manager interview guide, questions for problem-solving and thinking focus on ambiguity, trade-offs, and communication clarity. You will be given scenarios on technical ambiguity, improving processes, managing competing priorities, and demonstrating innovative solutions that deliver business value.

What Amazon tests:

Depth: Amazon engineering manager questions examine the depth of your analysis, multi-dimensional approach, and the possible business impact your decisions have. Let us look at some examples of problem-solving and thinking for the Amazon engineering manager interview questions.

Behavioral & Culture Fit

Amazon engineering manager interview questions on behavioral and culture fit interviews are based on the 16 Amazon leadership principles. Questions will be on core principles of ownership, customer obsession, and diving deep. Prepare 4-6 use cases with the STAR framework.

What does Amazon test? Amazon tests the candidate’s sincerity and dedication to its principles. If you fit into the Amazon culture, how you will be as an employee, your dedication to customers, your ability for ownership, and how you handle ambiguity and failure.

Depth: The Amazon engineer manager interview questions guide suggests that you will be evaluated for your role in the processes and the business impact you made.

Red flags:

Sample Questions: Let us look at some Amazon engineering manager interview questions.

Amazon Engineer Manager Interview Rounds Deep Dive

The previous section of the Amazon engineering manager interview process presented different stages and rounds of the interview. Let us deep dive into each round of the interview.

Round 1: Resume Screening

When you upload your CV or apply for the Amazon engineering manager call, your resume will be one of the thousands that Amazon receives. A human recruiter or an HR professional cannot check each resume. Amazon uses an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to find keywords and technical terms.

You should write a professional resume with appropriate keywords to meet the role criteria. Check the job ad, see what skills Amazon seeks, and include them only if you worked in the practice areas. If your CV is long listed, you may receive a call from the recruiter.

Round 2: Recruiter Screening

The recruiter screen is the first official interview step for an Amazon engineering manager. It may last up to 60 minutes, and a non-technical recruiter conducts the interview. The recruiter acts as the gatekeeper for further rounds. The recruiter decides if you are worth taking the application forward.

What Amazon evaluates:

Sample questions:

Red flags: Vague, high-level stories, Blaming others, Weak technical depth

How to prepare:

Prepare 6–8 STAR stories on ownership, delivering results, hiring and development, customer obsession, failing projects, and mentoring.

Also Read: Amazon Phone Interview Questions

Round 3: Technical and Behavior Screening

There are one or two rounds in the technical and behavioral interviews. The rounds evaluate your engineering leadership, technical depth, decision-making under ambiguity, and alignment with the Amazon Leadership Principles. Usually, hard-coding tasks are not given, but you should be prepared.

Each round will be around 45-60 minutes.

What Amazon evaluates: Amazon evaluates your technical leadership, depth and breadth of technical knowledge, ability to scale applications, and alignment with leadership principles. Amazon also evaluates

Sample technical questions:

Red flags: Only delegated work, vague responses without metrics, less technical depth, and more people-focused

How to prepare:

Prepare details of examples with the STAR framework. Describe scale, latency, cost, metrics improved, and business impact. Prepare story banks for scaling system, managing outage, conflicts, mentoring, delivery under pressure, and technical trade-offs. Take up mock interviews and deep dive into technical details

Round 4. Onsite virtual Loop

The virtual onsite loop rounds are explained in the Amazon engineering manager interview guide. There will be 3-5 rounds of 45-60 minutes each, conducted by technical experts. Different weights will be given for the interview type.

As an example, people management + org leadership interviews have a very high weight, technical system depth + architecture has a high weight, and Bar Raiser (culture + LP alignment) has a critical weight. However, you must score top grades in all interviews to be considered.

Round 1: Hiring Manager (Team Fit + Leadership): The interviewer would be your senior. Focus is on Amazon, your management style, and execution of ownership.

Sample questions are:

Round 2: Technical Depth + System Design: In this round, you are evaluated for architecture depth. Amazon evaluates your depth and not delegation, technical judgement, and long-term thinking.

Sample questions are:

Round 3: Bar Raiser Interview: The objective of this round is ensure that you meet Amazon’s high standards, identify behavior patterns, and cultural alignment. You will be examined for ownership beyond scope, increasing standards, and managing conflict.

Sample questions are:

Round 4. Final interview with senior managers: The top management will take this interview. You will be evaluated for ownership, if you can operate at a senior level, and serve as the culture carrier of leadership principles.

Sample questions are:

Also Read: Amazon Onsite Interview Questions

Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Questions

Amazon Engineering Manager Domain Interview Questions
Figure 2: Amazon Engineering Manager Domain Interview Questions

The Amazon engineering manager interview questions guide presents sample questions and answers and questions, grouped as per various domains. Engineering managers would work in one of the several departments and projects, and will be matched as per their experience.

Let us look at the Amazon engineering manager interview questions.

What Amazon Expects: Responses are evaluated for correctness, code quality, clarity and optimization, leadership, tradeoff, edge cases. communication, and testing mindset.

Amazon coding / technical engineering manager interview questions

Let us look at sample coding questions and answers:

Q1. Design a function to detect if two strings are anagrams

def is_anagram(s: str, t: str) -> bool:
    if len(s) != len(t):
        return False

    count = {}
    for c in s:
        count[c] = count.get(c, 0) + 1

    for c in t:
        if c not in count:
            return False
        count[c] -= 1
        if count[c] < 0:
            return False

    return True

Q2. Implement an LRU Cache

class LRUCache:
    def __init__(self, capacity: int):
        self.cache = OrderedDict()
        self.capacity = capacity

    def get(self, key: int) -> int:
        if key not in self.cache:
            return -1
        self.cache.move_to_end(key)
        return self.cache[key]

    def put(self, key: int, value: int) -> None:
        if key in self.cache:
            self.cache.move_to_end(key)
        self.cache[key] = value
        if len(self.cache) > self.capacity:
            self.cache.popitem(last=False)

Q3. Find the maximum subarray sum (Kadane’s Algorithm)

def max_subarray(nums):
    current = max_sum = nums[0]

    for n in nums[1:]:
        current = max(n, current + n)
        max_sum = max(max_sum, current)

    return max_sum

Sample more coding Amazon engineering manager questions are:

Also Read: Amazon QA Engineer Interview Questions: Testing, Coding & Behavioral

Amazon system design / architecture engineering manager interview questions

Amazon engineering manager interview questions on system design interviews examine scalability, reliability, and high-level architecture. You need to specify requirements, trade-offs, and address 10x growth. Let’s examine sample questions and answers.

What Amazon expects: Amazon wants clarity in requirements, logical tradeoffs, scaling, operational thinking, and leadership principles.

Sample questions and answers:

Q1. Present the design a distributed rate limiter

Answer: Requirements: Per-user limits; Low latency; Distributed safe

Q2. Design a system to store and retrieve user watch history

Answer: Requirements: Write heavy; Append-only; Recent history first

Q3. Design a real-time monitoring system

Answer: Data Flow: Agents → Kafka/Kinesis; Aggregation service; Time-series DB; Alert engine

Sample questions on system design and architecture for Amazon engineering manager interview questions:

How to prepare: Read case studies on Amazon technology implementation, perfect responses using question banks and answers, and attend mock interviews.

Also Read: How to Prepare for the Amazon Coding Challenge

Amazon behavioral / leadership engineering manager interview Questions

This Amazon engineering manager interview guide presents several questions and answers on behavior and leadership. The questions are mapped to the 16 Leadership Principles and use past actions as indicators of future success.

What Amazon expects: Amazon wants clarity in alignment with the 16 leadership principles. Your responses should be sincere, logical, show ownership, customer obsession, and ability to dive deep, and be designed as per the STAR framework.

Sample questions and answers:

Q1. Describe a situation when you had to dive deep to solve a technical problem

Answer:

Q2. Explain a case when delivery was under pressure.

Answer:

Q3. Describe how you managed to improve a low performer

Answer:

Some sample questions are:

Also Read: Do Engineering Manager Interviews Include Coding Questions?

Study Plan for Amazon Engineering Manager Interview

The following Figure 3 shows a 7-week study plan and timeline that you can follow for cracking the Amazon Engineering manager interview.

7-week study plan for acing the Amazon EM interview
Figure 3: 7-week study plan for acing the Amazon EM interview

Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Tips

Some important tips for the Amazon engineering manager interview are:

DO NOT: Talk like a PM, expect sympathy, Use We excessively, vague metrics, or dodge failure.

These Amazon engineering manager interview tips will help you land your dream role at the e-commerce giant.

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Conclusion

The Amazon engineering manager interview guide presented a detailed process and stages of the interview. The interview is spread over 6 weeks and has several stages, like a recruiter screen, a technical screen, an onsite/ virtual screen, and a final interview.

The depth of technical interviews depends on the level at which you are interviewed. L5 and L6 levels see more depth in the technical aspects of coding, system design, and architecture. Senior L7+ levels are interviewed for their technical vision and direction.

All levels are expected to show strong alignment with the 16 Amazon leadership principles. You are evaluated for your ability to lead teams, give direction, think of the future, plan, and show exceptional leadership and mentoring skills.

However, only expertise in people management and less focus on technical competency is a big negative. The Amazon engineering manager interview guide has given a 7-week preparation plan and timeline. Follow the plan to gain success.

Cracking the Amazon senior engineering manager interview questions is challenging. You need to have a strong understanding of the technical concepts and other soft skills like problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and other domains.

FAQs: Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Guide

Q1. What is the Amazon engineering manager interview process?

As detailed in the Amazon engineering manager interview guide, the interview process is spread across several phases with multiple rounds in each. These include the recruiter screen, technical screen, virtual onsite screen, and final round.

Q2. What is the duration of the interview process?

The Amazon engineering manager interview process takes 4-6 weeks from recruiter screen to final offer letter, depending on your level and Amazon’s urgency.

Q3. What type of questions are asked in the Amazon engineering manager interviews?

Questions focus on the 16 Amazon leadership principles and technical rounds.

Q4. Are coding assignments given?

Some coding questions may be asked. You may be asked to optimize and improve code, ensure clarity, and review for clarity and consistency.

Q5. How are candidates evaluated in the Amazon engineering manager interviews?

Candidates are evaluated for their technical competency, vision, problem-solving approach, and on the 16 leadership principles.

References

  1. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explains 8 things about Amazon’s Leadership Principles
  2. 16 Amazon Leadership Principles
  3. Amazon SDM Interview Prep
  4. Your complete guide to the Amazon interview process

Recommended Reads:

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