Amazon HireVue Interview: Questions, Format, and a Worked Answer

Amazon uses HireVue for some roles, most often in operations, area manager pipelines, and military hiring programs. Software roles usually go through a different process. If you got a HireVue link, candidates report 3 to 5 questions with 30 seconds to think and up to 2 minutes to answer. No retakes.

Every Amazon interview, video or live, is built on the Leadership Principles. The questions ask for a time you showed one. This page lists the reported questions, the principle behind each, and a worked answer in the shape Amazon rewards.

The clock and the format are the same HireVue product every employer uses. The timing guide covers what happens when the timer runs out, and how HireVue scoring works covers what the recording is scored on.

Amazon publishes 16 Leadership Principles and interviews against them. The reported HireVue questions lean on customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, and deliver results. Every answer should show data.

• Customer obsession. A decision made from the customer's side of the counter.
• Ownership. A problem you took on beyond your job, with the result.
• Bias for action. A call you made fast with good judgment.
• Deliver results. A number, a deadline, and what it took to hit it.
• Learn and be curious. Something you taught yourself because the work needed it.

Build one story for each line above. Every question below is asking for one of them.

These are the questions candidates report from recent Amazon screens, with the competency each one is built to test. Your set will be a mix of these and close variants.

1. Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside your role. (Ownership)
2. Describe a time you made a decision quickly with limited information. (Bias for action)
3. Tell me about a time you went out of your way for a customer. (Customer obsession)
4. Describe a time you delivered a result against a hard deadline. (Deliver results)
5. Tell me about a time you had to learn something new to get the job done. (Learn and be curious)
6. Describe a time you disagreed with a decision and what you did. (Have backbone; disagree and commit)

For the shape of each answer type, see HireVue interview questions by format. For the answer structure itself, the STAR method guide has worked examples.

Question: "Describe a time you delivered a result against a hard deadline."

"In my last job at a package sorting center I was a shift associate during the November peak. Our belt was running about 800 packages an hour and the target for peak was 1,000. The lead asked for ideas. I noticed that the two of us at the end of the belt were both stopping to re-tape open boxes, which took each of us off the belt for 20 seconds at a time. I suggested one person tape and one person sort, and we swapped every hour. The belt hit 1,050 an hour by the second night and stayed there through December. The lead used the same split on the other three belts. My part was noticing what the stops were costing and asking for the swap."

Why it scores: Numbers at the start, the middle, and the end. A specific action the person owns. This is the shape Amazon scores. About 60 seconds spoken.

Specific to Amazon:

• Put a number in every story. Amazon interviewers write down the data, and a story without any reads as unfinished.
• Match stories to principles before you record. Have one for ownership, one for customer obsession, one for deliver results, and one for bias for action.
• Say "I," not "we." Amazon wants your decisions, not the team's.

For any HireVue:

1. Day 1. Write one story per competency in the list above. Two or three sentences each: the situation, what you decided, what happened.
2. Day 2. Say each story out loud on a two-minute timer. Most people run long the first time. Cut until each one ends on the result with time to spare.
3. Day 3. Run the reported questions cold, in one sitting, no notes. Then set up the room: quiet, camera at eye level, light on your face, wired internet if you have it.

On Day 3, run it as the real thing: a live interviewer on video who asks Amazon-style questions and follows up.

The full setup checklist and a five-day version of this plan are in the free HireVue practice guide.

Still need the resume for the application? Build it on your phone, free to preview. After you submit, results often take a week or more. Here is how to follow up after an interview if the window passes, and a salary negotiation email for when the offer comes. Applying for a move up where you already work? See promotion interview questions.

Company guides in this series, each with the reported questions and a worked answer:

• Goldman Sachs HireVue (investment banking)
• JPMorgan Chase HireVue (investment banking)
• Morgan Stanley HireVue (investment banking)
• Citi HireVue (banking)
• Bank of America HireVue (banking)
• Barclays HireVue (banking)
• Deutsche Bank HireVue (banking)
• Bain & Company HireVue (consulting)
• Boston Consulting Group HireVue (consulting)
• Deloitte HireVue (consulting and professional services)
• EY HireVue (professional services)
• Unilever HireVue (consumer goods)
• PepsiCo HireVue (consumer goods)
• IBM HireVue (technology)
• Boeing HireVue (aerospace and engineering)
• Hilton HireVue (hospitality)
• Delta Air Lines HireVue (airlines)
• McDonald's HireVue (restaurants)
• Shell HireVue (energy)
• PwC HireVue (accounting and professional services)
• Accenture HireVue (consulting and technology services)
• Vodafone HireVue (telecommunications)
• Kraft Heinz HireVue (consumer packaged goods)
• Wells Fargo HireVue (banking)
• BlackRock HireVue (asset management)
• UBS HireVue (banking)
• United Airlines HireVue (airlines)
• Emirates HireVue (airlines)
• Marriott HireVue (hospitality)
• Johnson & Johnson HireVue (health care)
• PNC HireVue (banking)
• Kaiser Permanente HireVue (health care)
• KKR HireVue (private equity)
• Keurig Dr Pepper HireVue (consumer goods)
• Target HireVue (retail)
• Walmart HireVue (retail)
• Nike HireVue (sportswear)
• Macy's HireVue (retail)