11 Amazon Software Engineer (New Grad) Interview Questions (2026)
Amazon's SDE I new-grad loop in 2026 is an online assessment, a phone screen, and a four-round virtual onsite. Behavioral questions explicitly map to Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles, with two LP stories expected per round. New-grad does get a lightweight system or object-oriented design round in many loops.
By Alex Chen, Founder, InterviewChamp.AI · Last verified
Loop overview
New-grad SDE I candidates report a 4-6 week timeline in 2026. The path: online assessment (two coding problems plus a work simulation), phone screen (one coding + one LP behavioral), then a four-round virtual onsite (two coding, one OOD or low-level design, one Bar Raiser behavioral). Every round includes LP-mapped behavioral questions, not just the Bar Raiser.
Behavioral (5)
Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside your immediate scope.
Frequently askedOutline
STAR mapped to Ownership. Pick a story where you saw a gap nobody owned, took it on, and delivered. Quantify impact. Be specific about why YOU took it on rather than escalating. End with what the team learned about ownership going forward.
Tell me about a time you had to deliver under a tight deadline with incomplete information.
Frequently askedOutline
STAR mapped to Bias for Action and Deliver Results. Show you made a reasonable decision with the data you had, accepted the risk, and shipped. End with the outcome and what you would tighten next time. Avoid 'I worked nights' as the punchline — Amazon optimizes for sustainable delivery.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision and what you did about it.
Frequently askedOutline
STAR mapped to Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit. Show you raised the concern with data, the decision still went a different way, and you committed fully to executing it. End with the outcome. This LP is heavily tested in the Bar Raiser round.
Tell me about a time you simplified a complex process or system.
Occasionally askedOutline
STAR mapped to Invent and Simplify. Describe the original complexity, your insight, the simplified version, and the measurable improvement. Avoid vague 'I refactored some code' — show the conceptual simplification.
Tell me about a time you failed and what you learned.
Frequently askedOutline
STAR mapped to Learn and Be Curious. Pick a real, sizeable failure (not 'I worked too hard'). Own your part of it. Walk through what you specifically changed in how you operate. End with how that lesson has paid off since.
Coding (LeetCode patterns) (4)
Given a string, find the length of the longest palindromic substring.
Frequently askedOutline
Expand around center: for each index, try odd-length and even-length palindromes. O(n^2) time, O(1) space. Mention Manacher's algorithm exists for O(n) but skip implementation unless asked.
Given a binary tree, find the lowest common ancestor of two given nodes.
Frequently askedOutline
Recursive: if root is null or matches either target, return root. Recurse left and right. If both return non-null, current root is the LCA. If one returns non-null, propagate it up. O(n) time, O(h) space. Discuss BST variant which is simpler (compare values).
Implement a least-recently-used (LRU) cache with O(1) get and put.
Frequently askedOutline
Hash map for O(1) lookup + doubly linked list for O(1) re-ordering. Map stores key to node pointer. On get/put, move the node to the head of the list. On overflow, evict the tail. Walk through the pointer rewiring carefully — that is where candidates lose points.
Given a 2D grid representing islands, count the maximum area of an island.
Occasionally askedOutline
DFS from each unvisited land cell, return the cell count. Track maximum. O(rows*cols) time and space. Edge cases: empty grid, no land, grid that is one big island.
Technical (1)
Given a stream of integers, return the running median.
Occasionally askedOutline
Two heaps: max-heap for the lower half, min-heap for the upper half. Keep sizes balanced (differ by at most 1). On odd count, median is the top of the larger heap. On even count, average the two tops. O(log n) insertion, O(1) query.
System / object-oriented design (1)
Design an in-memory parking lot system. Support: park a car, leave the lot, find an available spot.
Frequently askedOutline
OOD: ParkingLot, Level, Spot, Vehicle classes. Spot types (Compact/Large/Motorcycle). Vehicle types and their fit constraints. Data structure for available spots per level (priority queue or sorted set). Walk through park() and leave() flows. Discuss thread safety briefly. This is the most common new-grad design problem at Amazon.
Amazon interview tips
- Prepare 8-12 behavioral stories, each mapped to 2-3 Leadership Principles. Every round will ask 2 LP questions, so you need depth, not just one go-to story.
- The Bar Raiser round is heavier on behavioral. The Bar Raiser is a senior engineer from a different team whose vote can veto an otherwise positive loop. They explicitly look for cultural fit to the LPs.
- Object-oriented design (parking lot, elevator, library, vending machine) is the most common new-grad design round. Practice 3-4 of these to have a clean class model and follow-up extensions ready.
- The online assessment includes a work simulation section that scores you on LP-aligned choices. Read each scenario carefully; the 'obvious' answer is often wrong.
- Quantify impact in every behavioral story. Amazon optimizes for measurable outcomes.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Amazon's SDE I new-grad interview process in 2026?
Most reports show 4-6 weeks from online assessment to offer. Bar Raiser scheduling adds 1-2 weeks. Team match happens before offer, not after.
What is the Bar Raiser interview at Amazon?
It is one round in the onsite conducted by a senior engineer from a different team trained to maintain Amazon's hiring bar. Their vote can override the rest of the loop. They focus heavily on the Leadership Principles.
Do Amazon new-grads get a system design round?
Yes, but it is typically lightweight object-oriented design (e.g., model a parking lot or elevator) rather than full distributed system design. Distributed design starts at SDE II.
How many Leadership Principles does Amazon have in 2026?
16 — the 14 original plus 'Strive to be Earth's Best Employer' and 'Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility,' added in 2021 and still in effect.
Should I bring my own LP examples or use the ones in books?
Your own, always. Bar Raisers have read the books. Generic answers from prep guides score lower. Specific, quantified personal stories with named tradeoffs score higher.
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