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AMAZON · STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Amazon staff engineer interview

The staff and principal software engineer level at Amazon is Principal SDE (L7) and above, for staff, principal and senior staff engineers. The rounds at this level, how each one is scored, and the questions to practise first.

From public candidate reports and Amazon's careers pages, checked November 2026. Processes vary by team. AlgoRung is not affiliated with Amazon.

Track my Amazon prep
Amazon titlePrincipal SDE (L7) and above
ExperienceStaff, principal and senior staff engineers
Interviews after screeningAbout 5
System design roundYes

The Staff Software Engineer rounds, in order

  1. Phone / recruiter screen · 60 min

    Experienced hires usually get one live coding screen that also includes Leadership Principle questions; new grads often go straight from the OA to the final loop.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Frequently a hiring-manager conversation about scope and impact instead of pure coding.

  2. Coding (DSA) × 2 · 55 min

    Each round is usually one or two medium problems (sometimes hard), and Leadership Principle questions open or close every technical round.

    At Staff Software Engineer: One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

  3. System design (HLD) · 60 min

    System design is standard from SDE II and increasingly shows up in SDE I loops; SDE III and above often get two design rounds.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Two rounds at many companies. Expected to handle ambiguity, cost, operations and cross-team trade-offs, and to change the design when the interviewer pushes.

  4. Behavioral · 60 min

    A round focused on Leadership Principles: four to six STAR stories, each mapped to one or two principles, with detailed follow-up probing.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Expected scope: org-wide impact, setting direction, hard trade-offs with leadership.

  5. Bar raiser · 60 min

    A trained interviewer from outside the hiring team, usually not identified to you, who checks whether you raise the company-wide bar and can block a hire.

    At Staff Software Engineer: Org-level impact and judgment.

What Amazon interviewers look for

Behavioral rounds are based on the Leadership Principles: Customer Obsession, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Are Right, A Lot, Learn and Be Curious, Hire and Develop the Best, Insist on the Highest Standards, Think Big…. Questions for each one.

Coding questions to practise for Amazon Staff Software Engineer

One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Difficulty
Topic
24 questions
  1. Number of Islands Medium Graphs also Microsoft, Meta, Goldman Sachs +1
  2. Two Sum Easy Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft, Atlassian, Swiggy
  3. Merge k Sorted Lists Hard Heaps also Microsoft
  4. Trapping Rain Water Hard Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce +1
  5. Course Schedule Medium Graphs also Google, Netflix, Uber +1
  6. Top K Frequent Words Medium Heaps also Goldman Sachs
  7. Meeting Rooms II Medium Intervals also Meta
  8. Binary Tree Zigzag Level Order Traversal Medium Trees & BST also Walmart Global Tech
  9. Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum Hard Trees & BST also Google, Adobe
  10. Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree Hard Trees & BST also Meta, LinkedIn, Oracle
  11. Copy List with Random Pointer Medium Linked List also Microsoft, Meta
  12. Reverse Nodes in k-Group Hard Linked List also Microsoft
  13. Reconstruct Itinerary Hard Graphs also Airbnb
  14. Word Ladder Hard Graphs also Google, LinkedIn
  15. Alien Dictionary Hard Graphs also Meta, Airbnb
  16. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters Medium Arrays & Hashing also Netflix, Adobe, Flipkart
  17. Group Anagrams Medium Arrays & Hashing also Meta, Oracle
  18. Gas Station Medium Arrays & Hashing also Microsoft
  19. Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock Easy Dynamic Programming also Apple, Netflix, Walmart Global Tech
  20. Daily Temperatures Medium Monotonic Stack
  21. Koko Eating Bananas Medium Binary Search also Goldman Sachs
  22. Flood Fill Easy Graphs
  23. Distribute Coins in Binary Tree Medium Trees & BST also PhonePe
  24. LRU Cache Medium Design Data Structures also Microsoft, Apple, Netflix +4

How the coding round is scored · The online assessment

System design at Staff Software Engineer

SDE I loops lean toward object-oriented LLD, though light system design now appears in most SDE I loops. From SDE II, HLD is standard; SDE III and above may get two rounds that go deeper on non-functional requirements. Prompts are often framed around retail or AWS problems.

All Amazon system design questions

Questions people ask

How many rounds are in the Amazon Staff Software Engineer interview?

About 5 interviews after the screening: phone / recruiter screen, coding (dsa), system design (hld), behavioral, bar raiser.

Is there a system design round for Amazon Staff Software Engineer?

Yes. SDE I loops lean toward object-oriented LLD, though light system design now appears in most SDE I loops. From SDE II, HLD is standard; SDE III and above may get two rounds that go deeper on non-functional requirements. Prompts are often framed around retail or AWS problems.

What coding questions does Amazon ask at Staff Software Engineer?

The same question pool is used across levels; the bar rises with level. Most reported: Number of Islands, Two Sum, Merge k Sorted Lists, Trapping Rain Water, Course Schedule.

What does Amazon expect in coding rounds at Staff Software Engineer?

One or two rounds, sometimes design-flavoured (build a small class with several methods). Coding is a bar to clear, not where level is decided.

Staff Software Engineer interviews at other companies

Staff Software Engineer interview questions across all companies · Behavioral questions