Amazon SRE interview prep drawn from two candidate reports: a phone screen that mixed OS, networking, Kubernetes and leadership principles, and a data-center troubleshooting question about hardware, network and power failures.
$144K
Avg. Base Comp
$215K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Two candidates, neither of whom received an offer, describe different parts of the Amazon Site Reliability Engineer process. Together they suggest two areas to prepare: broad systems fundamentals and narrating your troubleshooting out loud.
One candidate's phone screen jumped between operating systems, networking and Kubernetes, with leadership principles and some general conversation mixed in. They found the call unfocused and did not get past it. If you land a similar screen, be ready to switch topics quickly and keep a few leadership principle stories handy even when the conversation doesn't look behavioral.
The other candidate remembers a scenario in which a data-center server suddenly went offline, and the task was to decide whether hardware, network or power was responsible. The interviewer seemed more interested in how the candidate narrowed things down than in one correct answer. The candidate first checked whether the failure was isolated to one machine or affected its whole segment, which points toward the network. Power and status indicators came next, to rule out a supply or PDU problem, followed by logs and remote management for signs of a hardware fault.
This candidate also mentioned a recruiter screen and a technical interview. Neither report gives a total round count or an end-to-end timeline.
Synthesized from 2 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
The candidate who described the troubleshooting question also mentioned a recruiter screen ahead of the technical interview. The report gives no detail on what the recruiter covered or how long the call ran.
A different candidate's phone screen moved between operating systems, networking and Kubernetes, with leadership principles and some general conversation mixed in. They called it unfocused and did not advance past this call.
A server goes offline and you work out whether hardware, network or power is to blame. The candidate began by checking whether the failure was isolated to one machine or hit its whole segment, then looked at power and status indicators for a supply or PDU problem, then logs and remote management for hardware faults. The interviewer cared more about the narrowing-down than a single answer.
The phone-screen candidate never got this far but was told the later loop runs roughly two months with several interviewer groups, plus a written essay and strategy questions built around Amazon's work style. This is a secondhand account, so treat the details cautiously.
