Three candidates describe an Amazon Marketing Analyst process built around Leadership Principles answered in STAR format. Two also mention an Excel business case. Here is what they reported and how to prepare.
$113K
Avg. Base Comp
$130K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
Across three candidate accounts, the Amazon Marketing Analyst interview leans far more on Leadership Principles than on marketing theory. Each person describes being asked for concrete past-work examples, and the clearest shared lesson is to bring STAR stories with specific numbers and clear impact, because interviewers kept probing for detail.
The principles named include ownership, customer obsession, earn trust and bias for action. One candidate's recruiter flagged ownership, earn trust and bias for action ahead of time. That candidate was pressed on numbers and percentages in a hiring manager phone screen. Reported prompts include helping a struggling co-worker, working to a tight deadline without time to weigh every option, and a time a commitment to a team member could not be met. Another candidate was asked how they go above and beyond for a customer.
The analytical piece is lighter than many people expect. Two candidates mention an Excel case. One worked from a small sheet of product metrics, explaining week-over-week or month-over-month revenue and volume changes and adding a few KPIs of their own. The other described a practical, less conversational Excel case study inside the loop. Two candidates also took an assessment before their interviews, one of which included a work-style section. A third mentions a virtual test that simulated a day in the job.
Of these three candidates, one received an offer and one did not. Prepare several adaptable stories, practice naming the principle each one shows, and rehearse reading a simple metrics table out loud.
Synthesized from 5 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Amazon process.
The hardest part of my Amazon interview was realizing how much of it was really about Leadership Principles rather than traditional marketing case questions. I applied online, then had to pass an assessment before moving on to a fairly standard phone screen. My recruiter was actually helpful and gave me a heads-up on what to expect, which I appreciated because the process was long and pretty demanding overall. The next step was a 60-minute call with a team member, and that round was heavily focused on Amazon LPs. They wanted every answer in STAR format, so I spent a lot of time structuring examples from my past work to make sure I could answer cleanly and directly.
After that I went into the final loop, which took a few weeks to schedule and ended up being a five-hour interview block. That part was intense but manageable because I had prepared specifically for it. The questions were more detailed than the phone screen and still centered on leadership principles, with interviewers probing deeper into the examples I gave. The main question I remember was about a time I couldn’t meet a commitment to a team member: what the commitment was, what got in the way, what happened next, and what I learned. Another round included an Excel case study, which felt more practical and less conversational, but still not overly technical. I also heard of a group on-site format with a case study and one-on-ones, so the process can vary a bit, but the common thread is definitely LP-heavy interviews and STAR answers. I ended up receiving an offer, and my biggest takeaway is to prepare several strong work examples and practice telling them in a concise STAR format, since that was the core of almost every round.
Prep tip from this candidate
Prepare 6-8 STAR stories that map cleanly to Amazon Leadership Principles, especially examples about missing a commitment, ownership, and long-term tradeoffs. Also be ready for at least one Excel case study in the loop and practice answering in a tight, structured way.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Amazon
Write a SQL query to create a histogram of the number of comments per user in the month of January 2020.
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Compute Deviation | |
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Customer Orders | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Upsell Transactions | |
| Top 3 Users | |
| Download Facts | |
| Experiment Validity | |
| Identifying User Sessions | |
| Average Quantity | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Manager Team Sizes | |
| Month Over Month | |
| Button AB Test | |
| Flight Records | |
| Paired Products | |
| Swipe Precision | |
| Longest Streak Users | |
| Subscription Retention | |
| Always Excited Users | |
| Project Pairs | |
| Retailer Data Warehouse | |
| Rolling Average Steps | |
| Address Schema |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Two candidates describe an assessment before their interviews. One took a work-style section of about 45 minutes, and the other says they had to pass an assessment before the phone screen. A third completed a virtual test that simulated a day in the job and leaned on operational efficiency and collaboration, without saying where it fell in the process.
One candidate had a straightforward recruiter round about background and fit to the job description, followed by a hiring manager interview. Another had a hiring manager phone interview that was mostly behavioral, with follow-ups on numbers and percentages. A third had a standard phone screen with a helpful recruiter who set expectations.
One candidate had a 60-minute call with a team member that focused heavily on Leadership Principles and expected every answer in STAR format. The main question recalled was about a time they could not meet a commitment to a team member, including what got in the way and what they learned.
One candidate had three interviews over about three hours: two behavioral and one mini business case using a small Excel sheet of product metrics. Another met four or five interviewers in a mostly behavioral on-site. A third had a five-hour block that took a few weeks to schedule and included an Excel case study.
