How to apply to Amazon (the loop and Leadership Principles)

To apply to Amazon, find the role on amazon.jobs, click Apply Now, and create an amazon.jobs profile (separate from your shopping account). Upload one résumé — Amazon does not accept cover letters. Corporate and tech hiring then runs four stages: online application → assessments → phone screening → interview loop. Amazon says the process takes three to six weeks on average. Every candidate is evaluated against the 16 Leadership Principles, and the loop may include a Bar Raiser from another team. applinity's Amazon company page lists the open US roles.

This guide covers corporate and tech roles (SDE, applied scientist, PM, TPM, data, operations management). Warehouse and other hourly jobs hire through a separate site, hiring.amazon.com. Amazon says fulfillment-center applicants do not need a résumé.

How to apply to Amazon, step by step

1. Find the role. Search amazon.jobs by location, business category, job category, or keyword — or start from applinity's full list of Amazon roles. The live count is on the company page. Amazon removes filled roles, so a posting that is gone is closed.
2. Create a profile and upload one résumé. Amazon keeps candidate and customer data separate, so your shopping login will not work. Its FAQ says it accepts one résumé per applicant — an uploaded file or your LinkedIn profile — and no cover letters.
3. Meet the basic qualifications. Preferred qualifications are not required to apply. Basic ones are: Amazon's role pages make them the condition for the next stage.
4. Track status in your profile. Amazon only contacts candidates it wants to learn more about. An application stays active until a final decision, then moves to archived.

Online assessments

Amazon names two common types. Work style assessments are built on the Leadership Principles and take 10 to 20 minutes. Work sample simulations take 20 minutes to one hour. Deadlines are firm: Amazon says it cannot grant extensions on a missed assessment.

• SDE II. Every candidate takes the online assessment: two coding questions in 90 minutes on HackerRank, then untimed system design scenarios and a work styles section. One result covers multiple SDE II postings.
• Business intelligence engineer. Three parts: SQL Challenge, Working with SQL, and Work Styles.

The Amazon interview loop

1. Phone screening (60 min). One or two, with a senior leader on the team. For SDE III, half the time covers Leadership Principles and half covers coding and system design. SDE II goes from the online assessment straight to the loop.
2. Writing assessment. Sent with the loop invite for PM, PM-T, TPM, and SDM roles. Amazon writes narrative memos of one to six pages instead of slide decks, and tests for it.
3. Interview loop. Amazon says you will likely meet two to seven people for 45 minutes to an hour each. Its role pages are more exact: four 55-minute interviews for SDE II and applied scientist, five for SDE III, SDM, PM, PM-T, TPM, and BIE. Questions are behavioral; Amazon avoids brain teasers.

Leadership Principles and the Bar Raiser

Amazon lists 16 Leadership Principles and evaluates all candidates through them. Different interviewers are assigned different competencies. Amazon's own advice on answers:

• Use STAR. Situation, Task, Action, Result. Amazon calls it one way to structure a story, not the only one.
• Say "I", not "we". Focus on your individual contribution, even on team projects.
• Bring numbers, and a failure. Back each example with data or results. Amazon says not every story has to be a success; what you learned is the point.

The Bar Raiser is someone from another team focused on hiring quality. Amazon describes Bar Raisers as objective third-party advisers. Their goal: every new hire should bring skills better than 50% of would-be peers in similar roles. The Bar Raiser makes the final hiring decision with the hiring manager. Amazon tells candidates to treat each interviewer the same.

What Amazon screens for, by track

• Software development engineer. Syntactically correct code, no pseudo code. Data structures, common algorithms, and their runtimes. At least one system design question in the loop — review caching, load balancing, non-relational databases, microservices, and sharding.
• Applied scientist. One or two technical phone screens, then a loop on science depth, ML breadth, problem solving, and coding. Amazon says its applied scientists primarily code in Python. Some teams require a one-hour presentation.
• PM, PM-T, and TPM. PM phone screens split evenly between Leadership Principles and functional product questions. TPM screens add technical questions, and the TPM prep page covers system design.
• Data and operations management. BIE interviews test SQL: joins, filter conditions, query optimization, plus ETL and data modeling. University-hire field manager roles take the 60-minute Field Manager Assessment, which includes a math-based Working with Metrics section.

Levels and compensation

levels.fyi lists SDE I (L4), SDE II (L5), SDE III (L6), and Principal SDE (L7). In early October 2026 it reported US total compensation of roughly $185K, $275K, $390K, and $640K at those levels. RSUs vest on a backloaded four-year schedule: 5% in year one, 15% in year two, the remaining 80% across years three and four.

US postings list a base salary range and state that the package includes sign-on payments and RSUs. One SDE II posting in Sunnyvale we checked in early October 2026 listed $165,200 to $223,600 base. Bloomberg reported in February 2022 that Amazon raised its maximum base salary to $350,000 from $160,000. See how salary bands work.

Visa sponsorship

Amazon had the most H-1B petitions for initial employment approved in fiscal year 2025: 4,644, ahead of Meta (1,555), Microsoft (1,394), and Google (1,050). The figures come from a National Foundation for American Policy analysis of the USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub. Amazon's FAQ says each work-permit case is reviewed individually and that your recruiter is the single point of contact for immigration questions. More in our H-1B sponsorship guide.

Timeline

Amazon's interview FAQ puts the process at three to six weeks on average. The SDE II and BIE online assessments give you seven days to complete and a result within two days; candidates who do not pass are encouraged to reapply in six months. Amazon aims to update you within two business days of a phone screening and within five business days of the loop. Past that, it says to contact your recruiter.

How to position your résumé for Amazon

• Mirror the basic qualifications. Amazon asks applicants to highlight the qualifications relevant to the role. applinity tailors your résumé to each Amazon job description.
• Put numbers and links on the page. There is no cover letter, so the metrics interviewers ask for should already be in your bullets. Amazon says linking publicly viewable work on your résumé is a good idea.
• Run an ATS check. Score yours on the free applinity ATS scorer and read the ATS résumé guide before submitting.

Frequently asked questions