Amazon Engineering Manager Interview Guide

The short answer: Amazon calls its engineering managers Software Development Managers (SDMs) and publishes an SDM interview prep page. According to Amazon, the loop starts with a 60-minute technical phone screen split between Leadership Principles and system design, followed by a writing assessment, then five 55-minute interviews covering system design, management skills and the Leadership Principles, with a possible Bar Raiser. Amazon says to expect a decision within 5 business days. The prep page does not mention coding, and candidate reports disagree on whether SDM loops include it. Last reviewed October 2026.

Amazon engineering manager interview: quick answers

The Amazon engineering manager role

What Amazon engineering managers work on, the skills its job postings ask for, and what a week can look like. Amazon posts the role as Software Development Manager (SDM), often with a team suffix such as S3 or SageMaker Training; Software Development Manager III; and Sr. Software Development Manager.

Amazon engineering manager levels and pay

Your level sets the bar you are interviewed against and the pay band of the offer.

Amazon's SDM postings and prep page do not state levels. Candidate reports and guides label the SDM loop L6.

Pay in Amazon's US job postings

Amazon's US SDM postings list a base salary range by location and mention sign-on payments and RSUs without amounts.

Ranges depend on location: the same AWS Neuron posting lists a higher range for Cupertino than for Seattle, and the Palo Alto SDM posting is higher than the Washington ones. Ranges seen October 29, 2026.

Amazon engineering manager interview process

Every step below comes from Amazon's SDM interview prep page and its general interview loop page, except where a stage notes candidate reports.

Based on Amazon's own pages and candidate reports.

Amazon says you will likely meet two to seven people in total, and that remote interviews run on Zoom or Amazon Chime and may include a second Amazonian shadowing. Coding is the open question: the SDM page does not list it, and candidate sources disagree, so ask your recruiter. Last reviewed October 2026.

What is different at Amazon

• Software Development Manager is Amazon's engineering manager title. SDM III postings share the SDM basic qualifications and pay band, and Sr. Software Development Manager leads a team of SDMs and engineers. Amazon says SDM teams are usually two-pizza teams.
• You submit a writing assessment. Amazon shares ideas in narrative memos of one to six pages, often read silently at the start of meetings, instead of slide decks, so SDM candidates write a narrative before the loop.
• Every interviewer scores the Leadership Principles, and a Bar Raiser from another team sits on the loop to protect hiring quality. The people-focused principles include Hire and Develop the Best and Strive to be Earth's Best Employer.
• Operational excellence is a named SDM competency: handling major incidents, running operational review meetings and writing operational readiness documents.
• The design screen can be about your own work. Amazon says it may be a deep dive on the most complex existing system you supported, covering trade-offs, stakeholders and your personal contribution.
• Amazon publishes no AI rule for candidates on amazon.jobs. It does say it transcribes some Zoom interviews, only when you have consented in your AI preferences. A March 2025 news report described internal guidance asking candidates not to use generative AI tools during interviews unless explicitly permitted, which is a report and not a published Amazon rule.

Amazon engineering manager interview questions

Questions from our bank, then practice prompts we wrote for this guide around Amazon's work.

1from typing import Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
2
3def ops_review(tickets: List[Tuple[str, int, int, Optional[int]]], now: int,
4               max_severity: int) -> Dict[str, dict]:
5    """Return per-team open count, oldest open age and mean hours to resolve."""
6    pass

1from collections import defaultdict
2from typing import Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
3
4def ops_review(tickets: List[Tuple[str, int, int, Optional[int]]], now: int,
5               max_severity: int) -> Dict[str, dict]:
6    open_ages = defaultdict(list)
7    resolve_times = defaultdict(list)
8    teams = []
9    for team, severity, opened, resolved in tickets:
10        if opened > now or (resolved is not None and not opened <= resolved <= now):
11            raise ValueError(f"bad times for a {team} ticket")
12        if severity > max_severity:
13            continue
14        if team not in teams:
15            teams.append(team)
16        if resolved is None:
17            open_ages[team].append(now - opened)
18        else:
19            resolve_times[team].append(resolved - opened)
20    report = {}
21    for team in teams:
22        ages, times = open_ages[team], resolve_times[team]
23        report[team] = {
24            "open": len(ages),
25            "oldest_open_hours": max(ages) if ages else None,
26            "mean_hours_to_resolve": round(sum(times) / len(times), 1) if times else None,
27        }
28    return report
29
30# Complexity: O(n x t) time for n tickets and t teams (O(n) with a set), O(n) space.

How to prepare

A plan for the Amazon loop, most important first:

1. Write a story for each Leadership Principle you expect, using "I" and metrics, since every interviewer asks two or three LP questions.
2. Write the narrative for the writing assessment early, about something innovative and complex you drove, and get someone to critique it.
3. Prepare a deep dive on the most complex system you supported, then practice new design prompts with 2x and 10x growth and operations built in.
4. Build stories for each management competency Amazon lists: roadmaps and risks, major incidents and operational reviews, and growing, hiring and managing performance.
5. Review distributed systems basics Amazon names: service-oriented architecture, n-tier design, caching, load balancing, non-relational databases, microservices and sharding.
6. Ask your recruiter whether your loop includes coding, since Amazon's SDM page does not list it and candidate reports disagree.

Practice path

Courses that cover the rounds above:

• System Design
• ML System Design
• Data Structures and Algorithms