List of 28 Amazon AWS Interview Questions & Answers
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1.
In a technical support role here at Amazon AWS, we expect that you would be able to bring great customer service skills to the role. Describe your customer service philosophy in the support that you would provide.
How to Answer
While your interviewer will be able to get great insight into your technical expertise during your interviewer, this one question will allow you the opportunity to describe how you will bring solid interpersonal skills to the role. Your interview knows that customers will rely on you to provide quick and sensible support for their needs, but the expectation to do that in a pleasing manner is of utmost importance. Talk from a high level about your feelings on why providing great service is important and give an example or two of ways that you have done that in the past.
Marissa's Answer
"To me, my job duties aren't fully satisfied if an end user leaves our conversation without a smile on their face. While any technical support specialist can handle the customer aspect of the job, few have the people skills to do so pleasantly for their customers. In any interaction that I have with a customer, I talk in a calm and boosting manner. If they are upset or mad about a situation, I reflectively listen and never place any blame back on them. By taking this approach, my customer surveys in my current position have been excellent for the three years I've held that role."
Marissa's Answer
"If hired for this role here at Amazon AWS, you'll quickly find that my mantra in working with customers is speed with a smile. To do this, I need to be resourceful in providing them with an answer or triaging them to the correct person. I need to be knowledgeable in our product base to give them answers with confidence. And last, but not least, I need to be positive in all interactions with them."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
If someone contacts you more than likely theyre not calling to ask you random questions about the company or your job. Theyre contacting you because they need you to clarify something they need or want to know more about or to verify something they already know. You can decide if you need to be more technical or more empathetic. Depending on the situation you can satisfy a customers needs just by letting them know that you understand the direction theyre trying to go in.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Reading through the answer you provide could come across as a lesson for the interviewer vs. a straightforward reply. This approach can easily be flipped by switching you language to I language which will personalize your answer and remove generalizations. The question is asking...what is YOUR customer service philosophy. Feel free to try it out and I can return with feedback )
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2.
Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?
How to Answer
Before your interview, do some research to understand what tech stack Amazon AWS uses so you can best prepare and highlight your expertise. If you aren't as strong in one of the skills you feel is necessary, be sure to explain how you've used it and how you are growing your knowledge to become better. Be sure to be honest in your answer, as the company will likely test your strengths.
Marissa's Answer
"In my last company, we had a bit of an outdated tech stack and used C# and .NET. I found myself fully immersed in those technologies, but had a strong desire to learn more and become more familiar with modern technologies and how I can apply that in my career. That's what has me so interested in this role. Over the last year, I've taken courses in Java and C++, which I noticed you prefer. I've become proficient in the skills and in side projects, applied my increasingly strong knowledge. I'm probably strongest professionally in C# as that has been where my experience lies, but my passion and dedication is on the Java and C++ side, as I feel that's the more modern alternative. I'm excited about the possibility of applying that knowledge in a role at Amazon AWS."
Marissa's Answer
"I am motivated and excited about this new opportunity because it will challenge me to grow in my (X) skills. I love soccer and enjoy spending time with my teammates. I am interested in continuing my education by studying (Y) to further my career."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
Starting out in my career I never considered myself a programmer until I was placed in a role that allowed me to experience work redundancy firsthand. I encountered the same repetitive tasks every hour being sent to the same handful of people. From a fulfillment perspective this was a nightmare. I began exploring the possibility of creating a program that would automatically complete these tasks. Soon Python would come to be my best friend. I searched Google watched YouTube videos and invested in courses. All of this training taught me how to use Python to web scrape take that data and deliver it via email. This saved me time and energy that I could use elsewhere. Since then I have dived deep into programming and developed a passion for application development. I have learned and developed an understanding of DevOps CICD and Automation. These are skills will allow me to understand and deliver the best that the AWS customers infrastructure has to offer.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
You offer good detail here however if you start your response on a more positive tone and avoid burying the lead your answer may be better received. If you are stronger in Python (I am guessing from your response) then begin with that and then discuss how you gained the experience.
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3.
How do you stay organized and on track when working on multiple projects or duties at the same time?
How to Answer
In this role with Amazon AWS, you will likely be expected to manage multiple projects at the same time. Your ability to plan, manage deadlines and handle high needs items that come up on a regular basis will be essential to your success in this role and your interviewer is looking to hear how you plan for success. Whether you utilize an electronic tool or a written list, there are no right or wrong answers as long as you can prove in your answer that this method works out great for you.
Marissa's Answer
"With any project that I am working on, I make sure to set benchmarks to meet deadlines ahead of time and set early personal deadlines to allow for some wiggle room. To do this, I am a proponent of using the Microsoft Outlook calendar and tasks functions to help keep me organized. I find that this method helps me stay on track with multiple projects while also leaving me wiggle room each day to fight the high needs fires that do come up in this job."
Marissa's Answer
"For me to stay on track, I make sure to take ten minutes at the end of each day to recap what was accomplished, what new came up on my task list and re-prioritizing my work for the next day. Then, upon arriving the next day and working through emails from the previous evening, I can adjust my task list for the day if needed. I tend to set aside two hours per day to work on long-term project needs while focusing a majority of my time on the short-term needs."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
I was thrown into the pit when I worked for my prior employer. Engineers call it a Sweat Shop and it is the reason why I have the resiliency that I do. I had a load of 22 total projects and 19 active ones. These ranged from changing site IP addresses to full network refreshes. I worked 18 hour days and had so many meetings in the course of a day that I could hardly get any work done. I started categorizing projects based on time and urgency. Sites running out of time for security reasons were my first priority followed by on-site engineer deliverables. I woke up earlier stayed up later and I eventually developed a style to my projects a signature. What are my core building blocks What does the customer want Those were the questions that lead me to finish faster.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Fantastic response You take the interviewer through an engaging timeline and one that truly spotlights your resiliency and ability to work under immense pressure. Great approach and well done.
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4.
Our cloud computing at Amazon AWS requires our experts to take proper security measures in their work. What security measures are you familiar with utilizing in a cloud platform?
How to Answer
As with any server or database storage, unique security risks are posed to organizations that have moved their data and applications to the cloud. At Amazon AWS, part of your role will be to ensure that all security measures are in place with the organizations data in the cloud and your interviewer is looking to hear that you are familiar with diagnosing security risks and taking action to prevent them with this question. Talk about your knowledge of the different cloud service providers and other security measures that you are familiar with taking in your work.
Marissa's Answer
"For me, the planning stage of the cloud deployment process really sets the groundwork for security in a project. In my current role, each project adopts a cloud framework that suits the project the best. This framework is the base for our security measures in the cloud. From there, I always look to utilize a cloud service that encrypts our data and take all measures to steer away from storing sensitive information within the cloud. Last, as with any project, I help implement strict testing measures to check on the security of our cloud operations."
Marissa's Answer
"In my current role, the biggest security risks that we face are loss of sensitive data and malware infections. To take all security measures possible, our first plan of attack for security is to ensure that all of our data is backed up locally with electronic copies of data. To prevent malware in all ways possible, we have implemented a strict password strength policy and we install anti-virus software in our own equipment and recommend that customers do the same as well."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
AWS offers its customers robust tools to help secure and prevent a loss of data. With that in mind understanding the 5 pillars of Cloud Security is essential. AWS recommends focusing on IAM Detective Controls Infrastructure Protection Data Protection and Incident Response. No matter your role following these principles with every implementation is vital to the success of the project.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
This is a good intro Can you share - what security measures you are familiar with
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5.
What SDLC models are you familiar in working with?
How to Answer
As a software engineer, you are very familiar with the software development life cycle. For this question, your interviewer is looking to hear what models you have worked on in the past. While there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer to this question, try to show your flexibility to working with different SDLC models by bringing up your past experiences. Then, show you have knowledge of different models like the waterfall model or agile model. It is also a good idea to use this question as an opportunity for you to learn more about Amazon AWS by asking your interviewer which model they work off of.
Marissa's Answer
"During my training in software engineering and in my early career, the waterfall model was the standard. In this model, each phase of the development process happens in a set order and projects using this model are easily managed. But over time, as the development projects that I have led have become more complicated and intricate, I have implemented the spiral model. This model has allowed the ability of end users to give feedback early on and often during development and helps to build a more customized product to our customers."
Marissa's Answer
"In my current position with XYZ Company, my department utilizes the agile model in development life cycle. Since our products are so tailored to the needs of our customers, we get a working product very early on in the process and then I work hand in hand with customers to fine tune the software moving forward. It is a very effective model that has built a great reputation for our software among customers. I also have familiarity working with the iterative model and it has similar advantages to the agile model. If I were hired here at Amazon AWS, can you expand on what models you use here in your software development life cycle?"
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6.
What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?
How to Answer
While this question gives your interviewer insight into the diversity of your programming language experience, they most importantly want to know that you are adaptable and able to learn on the fly if needed. Talk about the different languages that you consider yourself fluent in and, if possible, do as much research into Amazon AWS as you can prior to your interview and try to speak to the specific languages that they work with.
Marissa's Answer
"From the start of college, where software engineering grew into a passion for me, I've become very fluent in Java, JavaScript and C++. My current role has me working primarily with C++, but I pride myself on my ability and passion to learn new programming languages and would be able to do so if hired for this role with Amazon AWS."
Marissa's Answer
"During my training to be an engineer and then in my current role since graduating, a majority of my experience falls within Python. My current role delves deeply into artificial intelligence and Python is awesome with this advanced technology. As I understand it from talking to another engineer here at Amazon AWS, a requirement would be for me to learn Scala. Though I haven't worked directly with Scala, I believe my experience and willingness to learn would have me up and running in no time if hired for this role."
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7.
At Amazon AWS, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?
How to Answer
While this potential role with Amazon AWS will require your to be an independent worker that can think on your feet, you will also need to work as part of a larger team that is working toward one common goal. Because of this fact, your interviewer will want to hear that you thrive in an environment where you work with team members from other disciplines than you are trained in. In your example, stress to your interviewer that you have excellent communication skills and that you fully understand that every person on a team plays a vital role in the organization's success.
Marissa's Answer
"Throughout my career, I've always enjoyed working as part of a larger team on the job and this personal enjoyment started with my love of and participation in team sports like baseball and basketball. Growing up playing sports, I learned that each team member brought a unique skill set that could help us achieve our goals. Through a great coaching staff that knew how to make these individual skills shine, this same philosophy holds true for a team that is looking to design a new software system. I know that my skills as an engineer are just part of the final product and I work very well with designers, architects, analysts and sales to help build the greatest system possible."
Marissa's Answer
"I am a people person by nature and my current role has me working very closely with our engineering and design staff on writing technical manuals for our products. While I certainly can handle long days at my computer in solitude, my desire to work hand in hand with others really sets me apart from my peers in this field. I have excellent verbal, listening and written communication skills that, if hired here at Amazon AWS, your entire team would appreciate from my first day on the job."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
I have always worked for my current employer. The setting is team-oriented. I am often tasked with something individually and then asked to work on something with another group because of my skill set. In my position I have been tasked with helping other departments transition into the cloud and to develop strategies and procedures for cloud adoption. I often bounce back and forth between my work and the teams work.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
A solid intro With that said behavioral and situational based interview questions that begin with Tell me about a time... require a specific story example. The easiest way to frame an answer like this is by using the STAR framework httpswww.mockquestions.comarticlesMaster Behavioral-Based Interviews Using The Star MethodFeel free to revisit this question and I can return with feedback.
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8.
What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?
How to Answer
As a software engineer for Amazon AWS, your interviewer wants to hear that you have experience in utilizing tools that you make you more proficient in your work. Dig back on your past experiences and talk openly about your experiences with the different analysis and design tools that are available to help you be better in the work that you do. In the end, make sure that your interviewer understands that you are proficient in the use of these tools and open to learning and using new tools as well.
Marissa's Answer
"As my career and experience in software engineering has grown over the years, I've come to really appreciate and utilize these tools that are available. A great example of this would be my recent education and use of Structured English for designing insurance claim software for a large auto insurer. The simplicity of the structured decisions in the program were a perfect example of a program that could utilize the tool and the end product ended up very functional for our customer."
Marissa's Answer
"I have great working knowledge in creating and reading data flow diagrams. To help with both our own sales staff and with customers, DFD's have been super helpful and I consider myself very proficient in creating them. I've also recently been introduced to decision tables to aid in product testing. I was working on a new system that involved some very complicated business rules and the decision table helped outline everything perfectly for our testing."
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9.
Do you have experience working with different CASE tools? If so, what do you have experience with?
How to Answer
The world of software engineering has greatly benefited from advancements in computer aided software engineering tools. Because Amazon AWS is at the forefront of the industry, your interviewer will be looking to hear which tools you have experience with. Make sure not to concern yourself with providing a correct answer here, but rather focus on your flexibility to learn new aides when needed while explaining what you have experience with.
Marissa's Answer
"In my current role, I regularly utilize both diagramming and web development tools. The diagram tools assist our software projects by outlining the system data and components in a graphical form for us and this saves us a great amount of time while also being very reliable. The web development tools greatly help me visualize site changes that I am making because I don't have a deep background in web development. If hired for this position, I'd look forward to learning other CASE tools for prototyping, quality assurance and maintenance."
Marissa's Answer
"During my career and in my experience with CASE tools, most of my experience is in the lower CASE elements that focus on coding and testing the software after initial development. CASE tools have certainly made life as a software engineer more efficient and effective and I'd look forward to learn any new CASE tools if hired for this position here at Amazon AWS."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
As a Network Engineer I have used CASE tools to diagram network topologies both physical and logical. VISIO is a tool that is familiar to most engineers. This program supports basic flowcharts wiring diagrams to multi-level port mapping.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
I recommend leaving out generalizations (i.e. VISIO is a tool that is familiar to most engineers)...the interviewer will know that. What are YOU familiar with I recommend that you focus on your own skills and experiences and use every question as an opportunity to sell yourself as a candidate versus advocating for your field in general.
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10.
Software technology continually changes. How do you stay current on new technologies and sharpen your skills?
How to Answer
As technology needs rapidly change for each company, the interviewer would like to know how you adapt to new technologies. This question also gives the interviewer an opportunity to hear more about your learning style and how you take the initiative to learn new things. Interviewers like to hear about specific courses or training, but try to keep them as recent and relevant as possible.
Marissa's Answer
"I enjoy learning about new technologies in the software space both personally and professionally. I like to read software and data related articles, and I recently completed an 'Introduction to Python for Data Science' course to help build my skills, even though my current employer didn't require it."
Marissa's Answer
"I define success by what we achieve as a team. The project, as a whole, needs to deliver on expectations before I consider the job a success."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
Fortunately for me understanding how things work is what interests me. When it comes to learning I spend most of the time identifying what is new but relatable to what I currently do. I figure out why the idea formed and how it helps. If I try to blindly learn something new without context the information learned will be lost.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Your answer is pretty general - can you share what resourcessources you use to stay current
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11.
How do you ensure that you have a healthy work-life balance in your career?
How to Answer
In the fast paced world in software and technology development, heavy work loads and potential on-call duties have created a lot of burnout in professionals. Your interviewer is looking to hear that you are cognizant of the risks of burnout and that you do what is necessary to maintain your own personal health and well being and that of your family as well. While you can use this time to talk about personal interests or hobbies outside of work, try to focus on how these items help keep you refreshed for the work that you'll be doing for Amazon AWS.
Marissa's Answer
"As I am passionate about my career as a UX designer, I am also passionate about my family. Any moments outside of work are spent coaching my kids traveling baseball teams in the summer months and then spending as many weekends as possible on the ski slopes. These activities help keep me active, physically fit and keep my mind centered on what it truly important in my life when work weeks get stressful."
Marissa's Answer
"Having watched many of my senior colleagues over time suffer from work burnout that has caused marital issues and health issues, I make it a priority to maintain a healthy balance between my work and my home life. My free time is spent in the outdoors with my wife, whether that be on the lakes and rivers fishing or biking around town. I consider myself fortunate to be considered for a position here at Amazon AWS because I know that you put a focus on your employees maintaining this healthy balance because the organization realizes how important this is to be productive."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
I believe having a foundational passion for what you do will ensure that you are always maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Of course things come up and life is unpredictable but if you are excited about what you do the challenge of being tasked with a last-minute assignment should intrigue you. Creating harmless competitions for yourself to me sounds exciting. For example seeing how fast and accurate I can complete a task 30 minutes before my shift ends adds healthy spontaneity to my life ultimately making me better.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
I really encourage you to remove you language and generalizations from your interview responses. The interviewer will notice a lack of personalized and direct answers. It can be a challenging shift for many people but it makes all the difference ) If you were in a focused one-on-one conversation and the person asked you this question it would be more natural to say I ensure a healthy work-life balance by doing A B C versus giving a lesson to the person by saying you you you. If you need more clarification on that I am happy to expand
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12.
How would you handle a situation where a colleague was being very difficult to work with?
How to Answer
In the team based atmosphere at Amazon AWS, departments with different skills and backgrounds can often see things from different points of view and these situations can cause some internal conflict between coworkers. With this question, your interviewer is looking to hear how you handle situations where you are working with someone that can be seen as difficult. To give them the sense that you are able to work through conflict in a professional and sensible manner, try to talk through how you handled a conflict at work previously in the past and highlight the interpersonal skills that you used to help make it a positive situation.
Marissa's Answer
"In all honesty, any great work atmosphere that I've been a part of in the past has involved conflict between colleagues. In situations I have witnessed, conflict has stemmed from very open-minded people giving their two cents in particular situations and two people not seeing eye to eye. This happened recently to me in the planning phases of a new project. On of our UX Designers and I had a disagreement on the final layout of a new software roll out we were planning. It worked best for both of us to talk about our ideas and list the pro's and con's for our ideas. I kept an open mind to learn from her point of view and she did the same to me on my end. This led us to come up with a great compromise in the end."
Marissa's Answer
"Last year, we had a new engineer join our team that was hired on from his internship with us. From his first day, he made it very evident that he would only handle certain tasks within our team and only work on certain projects. As his mentor to help get him up and running, I sat him down and discussed the expectations of each of our engineers as part of our larger team. I explained to him that our approach was not to pigeonhole ourselves into smaller tasks, but rather be well rounded engineers that could handle any project and be able to cover for each other if needed. He really appreciated this approach when I explained the benefits for his long term career goals with this approach. This example shows my approach to being very direct with people that I have a conflict with in the workplace and doing so in a very professional and educational manner."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
Context is always key therefore understanding what may be bothering your colleague is essential to forming a workable relationship with him. Youre not going to get along with everyone but learning to co-exist is a start. If you see that your colleague is being difficult simply ask him how his day is going so far. Ask him about something outside of work. Probing will help you identify key areas to focus on and maybe get him to open up. You never know but these simple questions have lasting effects.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
The language you use feels very removed for behaviouralsituational based interview question. I have a guide that may help httpswww.mockquestions.comarticlesMaster Behavioral-Based Interviews Using The Star Method
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13.
Talk about a time when things didn't go as planned on the job. What was the situation and what allowed your to persevere in that situation?
How to Answer
As a professional in the tech industry, you have likely had a project that failed, a promotion that passed you over or a meltdown occur at some point in time. Realizing that your interviewer fully understands and expects that failure happens, talk openly and honestly about a situation where you experienced failure or failed plans. Most importantly in your answer, focus on how you overcame the particular situation and discuss lessons that you learned moving forward that you can bring to this role at Amazon AWS.
Marissa's Answer
"A couple of years ago in my first role as a UI designer out of college, my team was tasked with coming up with a very short notice proposal for a potential high end customer. With a week turnaround time, I set right to spending my time gathering information on the company to build a mock design. When the proposal was submitted, I found out that the potential customer scoffed at my idea and the customer went with another organization's proposal for their use. The biggest piece of feedback that I got was that the UI design just wasn't conducive to the type of customers they were expecting. From that point forward, whether it has been with short notice or long-term products, I take the time to communicate with key decision makers from clients to gather information for making my design as user friendly as possible."
Marissa's Answer
"Last year, I was working on a large scale project that put me face to face with a key customer. After traveling onsite with the customer to spend time with them, I exchanged contact information with two of the key decision makers. In the weeks following, I was sending them follow up emails with our business proposals and was getting frustrated at the lack of response from the clients. After my manager had questioned the viability of the potential customer, I picked up the phone and called them directly. It turns out that their responses back to me were being sent to a junk email folder that I neglected to consider. I apologized for the mistake, took action quickly and we came to a great agreement on future business together. After having a laugh about it with my boss, I now incorporate diligent communication follow ups both by phone and email with customers while also regularly checking all email inboxes."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
I always thought once you pass the interview it meant that you were safe. I was let go from my prior company as part of a reduction in force. I believe I was let go for not having enough of the needed skills to keep my job. Shortly after the lay-off I began to learn as much as possible about IT including programming cloud and infrastructure. For six months I searched studied and applied for every position I could qualify for. A year later I have an AWS certification Im working on many more and I am finally interviewing with the company of my dreams.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Good for you This situation would have been challenging to navigate but you pushed through and came out ahead. Your answer is personal and takes the interviewer through a journey.
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14.
Tell me about your problem-solving skills. Do you enjoy analyzing and solving complex problems?
How to Answer
Software developers spend a great deal of time debugging programs. It is essential for Amazon AWS to have someone experienced in quickly identifying problems and responsive in providing solutions. The interviewer would also like to gauge how you work with internal and external customers when problem-solving.
Marissa's Answer
"In my last development position, I was responsible for front-line communications with end users. Third tier helpdesk staff would contact me with software bugs, and I was able to quickly and professionally respond to problems. I was able to reduce the bug backlog by 70%."
Marissa's Answer
"If you did not have a good relationship with your previous boss: "I have had healthier relationships in the past with previous employers, but we did the best that we could. Our communication styles were very different which made it challenging at times."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
A problem is like a puzzle and the key to solving it is hidden within the pieces. What I like to do is understand the issue at a high level. I then work from the outside-in. In other words I ask how something should work and then work backward. In a previous position I was tasked with identifying potential security risks in the network before the 2016 Presidential election. I used a program called Nessus Tenable to scan identify and mitigate all network vulnerabilities successfully safeguarding the network from any attacks on election day.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Excellent example The task at hand was complex with potential risk as well. You do a nice job describing the situation and the action that you took.
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15.
The next cloud engineer that we hire here at Amazon AWS needs to be able build a system that can handle a high amount of traffic. How would you test our system's ability to handle large amounts of traffic?
How to Answer
This question allows your interviewer to gain insight into your thought process and ability surrounding building a cloud network that has an architecture that can handle large amounts of traffic without failure. Some key points to focus on your answer are your ability to match capacity to system demand and use horizontal scaling in the design of the system.
Marissa's Answer
"Cloud computing has certainly revolutionized the storage of high amounts of data and a key piece that cloud based systems bring to the table are their elasticity for handling large amounts of traffic. I see my job as building a cloud based system to scale horizontally to be able to handle the most data and traffic possible. To test systems, I've used a few different tools that were all very accurate prior to go-live."
Marissa's Answer
"In my current position as a cloud engineer, I have utilized internet scale services like Amazon S3 and Elastic Load Balancing to ensure that our cloud systems could handle large volume that fluctuate seasonally. Because of the great functionality of the internet scale services, internal testing wasn't necessary as we knew we were in good hands through those services."
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Anonymous Interview Answer
The first step in testing is making sure that the network has implemented industry best practices. Theres no point in re-inventing the wheel. However certain situations call for innovation and or creativity. Working with load balancers in the past like F5 A10 from Cisco and ELB from AWS I have developed a solid understanding of what the foundation of a system should look like.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
It seems you have a lot of confidence in your approach which the interviewer should undoubtedly notice Would you have any questions for the interviewer at this time related to their needstrafficcurrent system abilities
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16.
What is one thing that really tests your patience when dealing with your coworkers?
How to Answer
While on the surface this question may seem like your interviewer is trying to get you to talk negatively about a situation, it is really more of a test to see what can potentially drive you crazy on the job in a team atmosphere and how you handle those situations. In your answer, be honest about your pet peeves when it comes to coworkers and do so in a positive light. Then, expand on your answer by talking about how you handle those situations.
"As a person that values diversity and differences of opinion in the workplace, there aren't many things that grind my personal gears when it comes to my colleagues. The only real true test of my patience is a coworker that doesn't pull their weight in a team effort. When I've been in this situation in the past, I first seek to learn if the issue is a lack of training or knowledge. If it is, I take the necessary steps to help my colleague get on track. But if I find that it is due to a lack of effort, I talk to the person immediately in a professional manner. The sum is only as good as the effort of all of its parts and a team efforts requires everyone's maximum effort."
Marissa's Answer
"As a person that values diversity and differences of opinion in the workplace, there aren't many things that grind my personal gears when it comes to my colleagues. The only real true test of my patience is a coworker that doesn't pull their weight in a team effort. When I've been in this situation in the past, I first seek to learn if the issue is a lack of training or knowledge. If it is, I take the necessary steps to help my colleague get on track. But if I find that it is due to a lack of effort, I talk to the person immediately in a professional manner. The sum is only as good as the effort of all of its parts and a team efforts requires everyone's maximum effort."
Marissa's Answer
"Having been raised in a rural farm setting, I have always been a stickler for being on time and holding meetings to set lengths of time. While watching people show up late for meetings has bothered me internally because of how I am wired, I don't let it bother me on the exterior. We are all very busy in our lines of work and showing up a few minutes late is only normal from time to time."
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Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback
Anonymous Interview Answer
I rarely feel impatient with co-workers. One exception is when a coworker asks me for assistance but really wants me to take over their assignment - what I call a drop-and-go. Instead of getting upset I inform my manager of the task or speak with someone who is more familiar with the assignment. In this way we can complete it within a few minutes. What looks like a weeks worth of work is often reduced drastically if I relying on my network.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
The drop and go - I love this term... its so relatable Its great that you networked and were able to get the task completed quickly in the end.
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17.
Here at Amazon AWS, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?
How to Answer
As an experience software testing engineer, quality assurance should be ingrained in your brain and your interviewer is looking to get a sense of your personal feelings towards it in your work with this question. In your answer, be sure to highlight QA's importance in reducing errors, maintaining specifications, testing failure parameters and preventing defects from occurring. In the end, make sure that quality is your mantra in the eyes of your interviewer by giving an example or two of how you put QA in the forefront of your work.
Marissa's Answer
"As a test engineer, I take great pride in my role of ensuring that systems go out to consumers as error free as possible. In my current role, I take the time to learn all of the system specifications that are laid out by our design engineers and customize my testing to follow those specifications."
Marissa's Answer
"In my work throughout my career, quality assurance in my testing was an every minute of every day job on my part. While creating effective testing processes on new software is extremely important in following QA protocols, the recording of defects, issuing of reports and assisting the designers on fixing issues are equally important parts of the process that I'd love to let shine here at Amazon AWS."
1 Community Answer
Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback
Anonymous Interview Answer
QA testers are vital to an applications survival I see them as the bridge to deployment. I am not an experienced QA tester but I do understand the DevOps culture. There are many errors that can be avoided if you follow proper QA.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Good Your answer is straightforward and shows a solid understanding of the importance of QAQA protocols.
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18.
A huge part of our business here at Amazon AWS is designing software for iOS. In this role, how would you steer away from retain cycles when using closures in Swift programming language?
How to Answer
This question allows your interviewer to assess your technical knowledge and skills in designing apps for iOS products in a very simple way. To successfully answer it, make sure that you can speak knowledgeably about the swift programming language and using closures to capture and store references within the software. To piece together everything for your interviewer, give a clear understanding of why retain cycles must be avoided in your processing.
Marissa's Answer
"Because ARC handles most of the memory knowledge in Swift, I know ARC is prone to memory leaking and this can cause major issues in apps over time. The fix that I've used in my career to avoid retain cycles is using weak references in my coding."
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19.
What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?
How to Answer
As a company that utilizes Java, Amazon AWS and your interviewer want to make sure that you have an understanding of the Java programming language and they do so by asking this question. Obviously a language packed with unique features, talk about the features that you can speak the most knowledgeably about and tie your direct experience to.
Marissa's Answer
"When I started working with Java three years ago, the first huge benefit was the fact that the Java syntax was based on C++. At that time, I had a great working knowledge of C++ and my transition to Java was absolutely seamless. The other amazing feature that I've come to appreciate with Java is how robust the memory management is in exception handling and automatic garbage collection."
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20.
What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?
How to Answer
As a reputable company, Amazon AWS takes their software maintenance processes seriously and your interviewer is looking to hear that you are familiar with the four different types of software maintenance. Talk to your interviewer about any work you have done in the past with corrective, adaptive, perfective and/or preventative software maintenance. Use specific examples and make sure that your interviewer walks away from your conversation knowing that you understand the importance of proper system maintenance.
Marissa's Answer
"Being familiar with all four types of software maintenance, my most used method of maintenance in my current role is corrective. Based on bug reports from end users, I work through coding and logic issues to resolve issues in a timely and effective manner. In the maintenance I perform, I never hesitate to pick up the phone and contact customers to hear first hand about what they are experiencing. By doing this, they feel like they are an important part of the process and it reflects well on me and my organization."
Marissa's Answer
"In my current role, I'd definitely say that a majority of the maintenance work that I do is adaptive maintenance. Working in banking software that is used around the globe, I help perform system maintenance for changes in currency on a pretty regular basis. This work requires research and talking with end users to help adapt the programs for their use. If hired here at Amazon AWS, I also have experience performing perfective, preventative and corrective maintenance on software as well."
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21.
Tell me about a time your manager changed the scope of the project in the middle of it. How did you deal with it?
How to Answer
With this question, your prospective employer is looking to see how you handle change, especially change that can be frustrating and disrupting to your work. In your answer, be sure to explain what happened, as briefly as possible, and how you handled that change to get back up-to-speed and on-track with your project.
Marissa's Answer
"We were working on a software upgrade project which was supposed to take 12 weeks; however, 4 weeks in, my manager approached us and requested different modifications, even though the modifications were almost 75% complete. I understand that changes can happen and it was my job to get back on track and get going on it. I immediately took action and worked with my team and manager to come up with a plan moving forward, as that disrupted our schedule. We were able to all pick up extra and through that, we still hit our initial deadline."
Marissa's Answer
"I can assure you that, if hired, I would put the customers of Amazon AWS first. When working in the financial services world, your customers can determine your success. I have a very high referrals rate which tells me that my customers are happy."
1 Community Answer
Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback
Anonymous Interview Answer
Honestly change does not scare me perhaps because of military experience or the rapid-fire projects Ive completed while working for my current employer. However if something does change I like to understand the reasons behind it. This allows me to create a sense of urgency in my work. When my tasks are changed it offers a challenge that makes the job more exciting.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Its terrific that you are able to deal with sudden or unexpected changes - thats a major factor for many hiring managers When asked a Tell me about a time... question the interviewer is looking for a specific story example. I recommend approaching these types of queries with the STAR framework which is an acronym for Situation Task Action Result. I have a guide here if youd like to do further research httpswww.mockquestions.comarticlesMaster Behavioral-Based Interviews Using The Star Method
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22.
In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?
How to Answer
As a reputable provider of software, Amazon AWS relies on their software testing engineers to both test and debug their products when necessary. Make your interviewer aware that you are knowledgeable on both processes by briefly explaining each process as you've worked on them in the past. Then, talk about your openness to working both testing and debugging processes if hired for this position.
Marissa's Answer
"Yes, I definitely would consider myself proficient in both testing and debugging software. My current role that I've held for four years since graduating from college has exposed me to both processes. In testing, I use known conditions and predefined methods to test for expected outcomes to find errors within the system. I utilize testing prior to new software rollouts. The debugging process happens to already released software that has had issues and comes with unknown conditions and unpredictable outcomes. In this process, my goal is to find the cause of the error to fix it efficiently and effectively to roll an updated program back out to end users."
Marissa's Answer
"While a majority of my career has been focused on software testing, I am very familiar with debugging processes as well. If hired for this position, I would take the time to focus on debugging processes to bring myself up to speed while being able to hit the ground running on testing processes."
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23.
In designing Android software, what is your experience using parcelable versus serializable within an app?
How to Answer
Because parcelable is optimized for Android to be faster and more customizable, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you are willing to put in the extra work to utilize the parcelable method to achieve better performance within the software that you design. Give your interviewer your thoughts on the differences between the two methods of passing object references to activities within an app that you design and make sure that they understand that you are ready to perform the work to utilize the parcelable method when necessary.
Marissa's Answer
"Having written code for Android apps for many years now, I am very familiar with both serializable and parcelable methods. In my first hand experience, parcelable provides a much faster and better user experience so I will always strive to take the time to write custom code for marhsaling and unmarshaling to create less garbage objects within an app."
Marissa's Answer
"Due to it being a standard Java interface and its ease of implementation, serializable interface is pretty commonly used. But, because it uses reflection, many temporary objects are created within Android apps and this creates a very poor user experience. When the parcelable interface was introduced for Android systems, I have extensively focused on its use and finished products have benefited greatly."
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24.
Do you have experience working with data in a cloud computing environment?
How to Answer
Over recent years, more and more companies are converting to cloud based computing services because the conversion allows them to save money and have better auditing trails. As a prospective data engineer with Amazon AWS, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you are at least familiar with the concepts of working with cloud based data. Talk in details about the experiences you have while keeping your mind open to working with more in the future if hired with Amazon AWS.
Marissa's Answer
"My current organization has been using Apprenda, a PaaS, that allows us to develop, test and maintain our software projects. I also have experience mining and converting data off of public, community and private cloud networks. If hired here at Amazon AWS, I think I would bring a wealth of cloud based experience to the data engineering team."
1 Community Answer
Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback
Anonymous Interview Answer
I do not possess work-related experience integrating data into the cloud however I have experience creating cloud data. I also have an understanding of cloud security and how a customers data should be protected.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
Its great that you focus most of your answer on what you DO have versus what you do not. This is a smart move If you can find a way to avoid starting your answer with I do not... then I recommend doing so as beginning with a negative is rarely a positive approach )
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25.
If hired here at Amazon AWS, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?
How to Answer
The key to answering this question with confidence starts with understanding that you are interviewing with Amazon AWS because your interviewer feels that you are a strong candidate for this position. What your interviewer is focusing on with this question is how they could be of most help to you if hired for the job. So, take the time prior to your interview to think about an aspect of the position that would be the most difficult for you to overcome to be up and running at full speed and then take time to explain how you would plan to overcome that hurdle if hired. This structured answer will tell your interviewer that you have put thought to your potential shortcoming with a plan of action.
Marissa's Answer
"As you can see from my resume, I don't have any direct working experience with the financial industry and I would see that as my largest learning opportunity if offered this position. Like I did with my current job in the healthcare industry, I would take the time to learn the basics of the industry that would help me design the most intuitive user interfaces in the products here at Amazon AWS."
Marissa's Answer
"Being a team player by nature, I've always considered my first challenge at any new company to be the task of getting to know my colleagues, their work preferences and their work styles. In the same breath, I want them to know who I am and how I best work as part of a team with them. To accomplish this, I would take the initiative to set one on one meetings with individuals that I didn't get to touch base with during my orientation process to get to know them better."
1 Community Answer
Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback
Anonymous Interview Answer
Fully understanding AWS services and how they can help customers would be the biggest challenge for me. Even though I have my AWS certification having expert knowledge of services helps build customer trust and confidence in AWS. I plan to continue my pursuit of earning every certification AWS has to offer. This would ensure that I am well-qualified and ready to tackle the most complex environments.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
YES - this is fantastic You showcase your knowledge but also what you plan to do to fill in the gaps. Your eagerness to learn and grow is apparent.
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26.
If hired here at Amazon AWS to develop iOS and Android software, when would you use a fragment rather than an activity?
How to Answer
In the development of apps for both iOS and Android, using code to create an activity versus a fragment is a highly debated topic to this day. For this question, your interviewer is looking to hear that you understand what the differences between the two are and when you feel that using a fragment is the proper direction to go. Make sure to speak to the high level overview of what an activity does to an app versus fragments.
Marissa's Answer
"As a best practice in my development of Android apps in the past, activities are really the complete screen that a user experiences as part of the app. Fragments are really small sub activities that take place within the activity. Because fragments within an app have their own life cycle and receive their own input events within the app, there are specific times where fragments make the most sense to use in development. In my experience, I always use fragments when the app is working with UI components that are going to be uses across multiple activities within the app. As well, fragments have also served very well when using swipe views within the app."
Marissa's Answer
"In the past year, I honestly don't recall designing a new app that ran solely on an activity alone. The fragments are almost necessary today to bring life to an app. I use retained fragments to persist across activity restarts within the app and this helps make a user friendly experience for our end users."
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27.
What do you feel is one of the top issues that is faced by data engineers today?
How to Answer
Being in the midst of the greatest technological revolution in the history of man, data engineers face many difficult issues in the work that they perform on a daily basis. While there are many directions that you can go with this question, be sure to focus your answer on something that you can speak passionately about. If you can research a common issue in the industry that Amazon AWS works in, you may likely score some bonus points with your interviewer.
Marissa's Answer
"Over the past couple of years, I've come to realize that one of the largest issues we face as data engineers is the large amounts of data that are needed to store and then draw information from. Here at Amazon AWS, I can only imagine how big of an issue that is in the healthcare industry. I have a lot of experience with cloud based data storage and also server based storage."
Marissa's Answer
"In my recent experiences, continuous, real-time integration is an issue that we will face each and every day moving forward. The need for fast paced information is certainly to blame for this. To stay on top of the continuous integration landscape, I am happy to hear that new and improved systems are being created to stay more real-time and up to the minute. Here at Amazon AWS and working in the financial industry, how have you seen this need for real-time data impact your products?"
1 Community Answer
Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback
Anonymous Interview Answer
Data security is always a top priority for engineers. Even with advanced encryption like AES it still leaves us vulnerable. Hackers look for ways around authentication which is susceptible to human error but encryption is secured using mathematics. It becomes tricky when a user gets their information stolen and blames your company but more than likely they had a weak password or it was compromised in some other way. So without placing blame data engineers should implement ways to force customers to tighten up their security.
Rachelle's Feedback for the Answer Above
You bring up a valid concern indeed Moving further into the conversation consider adding thoughts on how you would encourage tightening up of security if it were entirely up to you.
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28.
What data cleaning methods are you familiar with and comfortable using if hired for this role at Amazon AWS?
How to Answer
To improve data quality and increase overall productivity of a system, Amazon AWS relies on their data analysts to use data cleansing methods to ensure quality data exists in their software. Be open and honest with the ways that you've helped ensure quality and accurate data in the systems that you've worked with while also showing that you have an open mind to learning and utilizing more methods if hired for this position.
Marissa's Answer
"In my current work, I use a very methodical fashion in cleaning data for finished systems. My first step is to remove duplicate and irrelevant observations within the data. Then I scan the data to remove extra spaces, convert numbers stored as text into numbers and remove duplicate data. These steps help ensure clean and accurate data and I never overlook them. If hired for this position, what methods does the current data analyst team her at Amazon AWS utilize?"
Marissa's Answer
"I am familiar with many methods used in the cleansing of data. The initial monitoring of errors within a system is very important to identifying where errors occur and give insight into how to fix corrupt data. I have utilized the tools within Domo software to validate data accuracy and scrub for duplicate data in my processes as well. Being very proficient in data analysis, I'm very open to learning new methods as well if hired for this position."