Amazon’s Leadership Principles for software engineers

Interview preparation guide for SDEs and FEEs

If you are interviewing for a software development engineer or front end engineer position at Amazon, you should know that Amazon takes its Leadership Principles seriously and that your interview will be approximately half comprised of questions tailored to them.

Amazon’s Leadership Principles blurb on https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles

Glossary

• LP is shorthand for Leadership Principle.
• SDE is shorthand for Software Development Engineer, which typically refers to back end engineers within Amazon.
• FEE is shorthand for Front End Engineer, which typically refers to full stack and/or dev-ops engineers within Amazon.
• L1, L2, and L3 are shorthand for level 1, level 2, and level 3. Juniors are level 1: SDE1 and FEE1. Mid-level engineers are level 2: SDE2 and FEE2. Seniors are level 3: SDE3 and FEE3.

Levels 1–3

If you are applying for a junior, mid-level, or senior position, here are the LPs as they apply globally to the job family. If you are applying to an L2 position or higher, there will be additional depth provided later in this article. In addition to the Leadership Principles found on the Amazon Jobs website for all employees, the engineering job family has some…