Amazon Interview Questions

Securing an Amazon job is perhaps at the top of the wish list for many experienced professionals and graduates, although the interview itself is often the most challenging part to crack. Like many others, Amazon interview questions revolve around the company’s structure and are known to be deeply rooted in its Leadership Principles.

This is a compilation of 60+ Amazon interview questions that are frequently asked and include recruiter insights, interview guides, and past candidate experiences. Along the way, you will understand how the much-talked-about “Interview Loop” of Amazon works, the role of the “Bar Raiser,” and what you need to do in order to be impressive using the STAR method.

Table of Contents:

• Overview: About Amazon
• Understanding the Amazon Interview Process
• Amazon Interview Questions for Freshers
• Amazon Interview Questions for Mid‑Level Professionals
• Amazon Interview Questions for Experienced Professionals
• Amazon Interview Questions for Customer Service
• Cloud Support Associate Amazon Interview Questions
• Amazon Data Engineer Interview Questions
• Conclusion

Overview: About Amazon

Jeff Bezos started Amazon, Inc. in 1994 in a garage in Bellevue, Washington, first named Cadabra and later rebranded to Amazon in 1995. As of 2025, the headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington, with a second HQ located in Arlington, Virginia. As of 2025, the market cap of Amazon is above 2.36 trillion, making it one of the top four public companies in the world. Amazon has over 1.5 million employees worldwide in sectors including retail, advertising, cloud services, and logistics. 

Understanding the Amazon Interview Process

At Amazon, the hiring criteria are the same across all roles and follow a distinct pathway:

• Application submission → Role-specific evaluation test (coding assessment) → Screening interview (phone or recruiter) → Interview Loop → Final evaluation and decision, usually within 2-5 business days
• The Interview Loop consists of 4 to 6 individual 55-60 minute interviews, one of which is a ‘Bar Raiser’ interview. Bar Raisers focus on upholding Amazon’s hiring standards for the given candidate. All interviewers evaluate the candidate on technical skills and Amazon’s leadership principles.
• Behavioural questions are grounded in business contexts, utilising the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) framework. All interviewers assess the candidate on leadership principles such as Customer Obsession, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Learn and Be Curious, Bias For Action, and several others.

Amazon Interview Questions for Freshers

Receiving an offer from Amazon can be a life-changing opportunity, but many students are anxious about what awaits them in the interview. Most Amazon interview questions for freshers centre around the candidate’s academic work and focus on collaboration, flexibility, and overall potential. The answers contribute to determining if the candidate possesses the drive, curiosity, and the right cultural fit to thrive in the organisation.

1. Can you tell me about yourself?

I’m [Your Name], and I graduated recently as a computer science major from [University Name]. I participated in data analytics, cloud computing, and coding competitions. Furthermore, I spearheaded a team project on an IoT smart irrigation system, which won an award at a tech fest. Alongside my studies, I was also part of our coding club, where I even ran some workshops for our younger members. I’m someone who is willing to take on challenges and is always ready to put in the work to learn. I’m a builder who wants to create solutions for problems that affect people on a large scale.

2. What motivates you to do your best work?

I’m motivated by the opportunity to learn and the knowledge that my work drives change. Seeing how my efforts to improve a process, assist my team, or aid a customer drives me to perform even more optimally. For instance, back in college, I volunteered to tutor a couple of my classmates in Python. Watching their self-belief elevate was a tremendous experience, and it motivated me to go all out during my weekly sessions. At Amazon, the fact that even the tiniest of contributions from me can impact millions of customers is the kind of motivation that will keep me at my best every single day.

3. Why do you want to work at Amazon?

What stands out to me at Amazon is their culture of innovation and being obsessively customer-focused. Amazon fundamentally and boldly transformed multiple industries, and thinking big is its nature. I want to spend my first career years in a place with meaningful work, where I can learn from leaders in the field and where my contributions could truly make a difference in a global context. Amazon’s renowned guiding principles, specifically ‘Learn and Be Curious’ and ‘Bias for Action’, amplify the focus I want for my professional development, which is to be self-driven and resolute in delivering positive impact.

4. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Looking ahead five years from now, I aspire to have progressed to a role with increased responsibility, ideally at Amazon, where I would be leading initiatives or guiding new talent. My first objective is to fully embrace the role, see how the company operates, and learn its customers and systems in depth. Ultimately, I want to be an expert in my domain so I can deliver meaningful impact and have the opportunity to drive innovation and lead teams. The high-ownership culture at Amazon, so dynamic and fast-paced, gives me the confidence to pursue my professional aspirations.

5. What do you consider to be your weaknesses?

In a group project during my earlier studies, I handled coding, presentation, and coordination, which exhausted me and slowed our progress. Everything I needed to do seemed very important. Now, I’ve embraced role delegation and trust my teammates. I do not overload myself and try to distribute tasks. The lesson for me was that teamwork often outperformed solo efforts, and I continue to develop that skill.

6. Can you tell me about your final‑year project? What challenges did you face?

In my last bachelor’s year, I managed a project that involved the task of constructing a smart irrigation system for farmers that was based on the Internet of Things (IoT). The objective was to create a sensor-based system that would automatically measure and optimise the water used according to the moisture level in the soil. At first, integrating the hardware with our mobile application proved to be a major cost issue. Instead of waiting for approvals, I did some research and ordered some of the sensor modules from a local supplier that offered student discounts. There were some coding issues with the connection between the hardware and the app, so I designed the code on my own and distributed the other tasks to my teammates. After some time, we managed to make a prototype that was able to reduce the water usage by 30% in our pilot tests. The experience of this project has taught me a lot about problem-solving and resourcefulness, which are key traits that matter at Amazon.

7. How did you work with incomplete data in your academic project?

In my data analytics course, my group’s project was to analyse city traffic data. The dataset had a critical issue with missing timestamps for about a quarter of the entries. Rather than discarding those records, I explored interpolation techniques and collaborated with my professor on an approach that used median time estimates and contextual data from government reports. I documented every assumption clearly and openly discussed the limitations of our dataset. Nevertheless, the traffic flow management insights we generated were still quite useful. My professor praised us for the rigour with which we managed uncertainty, which I have come to understand is critical at Amazon, where data is often incomplete or ambiguous.

8. How would you describe your ideal work environment?

Ideal work environments are those that are innovative and place an emphasis on collaboration. I am motivated by cultures where ideas are championed and ownership is taken at every level of the organisation. I am best when I am on a team with constructive feedback and where challenges are framed as growth opportunities. Amazon, based on everything I have read and heard, seems to reflect the cultures of ‘Learn and Be Curious’ and ‘Bias for Action’, which is how I want to develop professionally. I want to make an impact in a place that has high expectations but equally prioritises growth.

9. What motivates you in an entry‑level role?

Being able to learn and make a contribution is what motivates me most. In an entry-level position, I am eager to be mentored, learn, and accept more responsibilities over time. I am motivated to do my best every day because my efforts, even small ones, can improve a process as a team or even impact customers positively. At Amazon, I am even more motivated knowing my work can impact millions of customers.

10. Why Amazon, and why this role as a fresher?

Amazon has always impressed me with its customer-first attitude and innovative practices, such as the launch of Prime, which reset the definition of convenience, and AWS, which changed the face of cloud computing. I am a fresher, and I want my first job to be at a company that I can help to grow and challenge me to see big. This position aligns with my competencies in [insert skill, e.g., data analysis/software development/customer engagement] and offers an opportunity to apply what I have mastered while learning from Amazon’s best. I also love that as a junior, I would be allowed to own projects due to the company’s leadership principles, and that’s the type of responsibility I am eager for.

11. Share a time you took initiative in college.

At our college hackathon, I was a team lead. The team was made up of people with different skills, and I was determined to get the best out of my team. Therefore, I prepared orderly systems and assigned roles that would best suit each individual’s skills, which included coders and designers. I made nightly check-ins, which were very useful as we were able to track our progress. Moreover, I divided the project into smaller steps, which made it simple for everyone to understand. Due to my leadership structure, I was able to guide my team through several conflicts where features were the top priority and help them concentrate on preparing the prototype model. In the end, our project was successful, and we were placed second out of fifty other teams. This experience highlighted the importance of effective communication, strategic delegation, and maintaining a positive and calm environment.

12. How do you handle feedback or failure?

I think of feedback as a chance to improve during a specific evaluation period. Once, during an internship, I submitted a document that had incomplete details and wrong formatting. My mentor made sure to highlight the issue, and I was grateful. After that, I fixed all the problems and implemented a personal checklist to avoid those simple errors and improve. Likewise, I try to evaluate what went wrong when I fail at something and implement those lessons the next time around. Amazon prioritises people who are willing to learn and be curious, just as I do. I firmly believe that stepping stones to improvement are mistakes.

13. What are your weaknesses and strengths as a new graduate?

Highly organised, I am capable of managing several competing priorities at the same time. My eagerness to learn is undoubtedly one of my greatest assets, enabling me to embrace new concepts and tools, as well as receive and solicit their associated feedback. In addition, in my view, I am agile, as I adapt fast to things.
Regarding my shortcomings, I used to take on too many tasks personally rather than assigning them to others. While being focused on a collaborative effort, I realised that I had exhausted my energy due to an unsustainable workload. I have since worked towards accepting and sharing responsibility while trusting my colleagues.

Amazon Interview Questions for Mid‑Level Professionals

Amazon, during its mid-level interview stage, looks for proof of impact rather than potential. Candidates are assessed on their ability to project manage, navigate conflicts, achieve favourable outcomes, influence others, and embody Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Below are 10 exclusive Amazon interview questions for mid-level professionals with a STAR answering format to support your preparation.

14. Tell me about a time you improved an existing process. What impact did it have?

Collaborating as an operations analyst, I found our monthly reports to be boring and inefficient. I developed an automated dashboard in Power BI and SQL to streamline repetitive processes. This innovation reduced the reporting cycle from five days to one, enabling my team to focus on high-level analysis. I was awarded for this innovation, and my dashboard was adopted as a best practice across the organisation. This taught me to value the 10th principle of Amazon – Invent and Simplify.

15. Describe a situation where you had to deliver results with very limited resources.

After the marketing budget was slashed by 40% mid-product launch, I was still able to achieve 92% of the original target. I decided to heavily promote low-cost alternative channels, including social media and micro-influencer marketing. In collaboration with the product team, I also created highly shareable in-house content. I learnt how to create and accomplish more with less, which is one of the principles at Amazon.

16. Tell me about a time you identified a risk early and how you handled it.

As I was supervising a logistics project, I saw that one of the vendor’s deliveries was always behind schedule, which risked a holiday sales deadline. To resolve the problem, I escalated the issue, monitored the vendor’s deliveries, placed a backup order, and implemented shipping. Innovation and taking the right action early saved us and the customers from serious delays. This taught me proactive problem-solving, a quality Amazon appreciates in leaders who are ready to dive deep and surf on issues that are likely to arise ahead of time.

17. Give an example of when you had to influence a decision without formal authority.

As a business analyst, I was able to pinpoint a flaw in the onboarding flow, which used up time and resources. Since the flow redesign was not in my jurisdiction, I collected data, crafted a cost-benefit analysis, and brought it to their supervisor. The data was insightful enough to convince the users that it merits testing, which brought down onboarding time by 20%. It demonstrated to me that, even in the absence of direct power, you can sway choices with evidence and perseverance—something that is consistent with Amazon’s culture.

18. Describe a time when a project you led didn’t go as planned. How did you manage it?

I was spearheading a regional sales project, and one of our major clients decided to drop us out of the blue. That was some sizable setback. I organised an emergency team meeting, shifted the priority to other leads, and helped the team go after smaller clients who were more likely to sign quickly. We were able to restore 70% of the lost revenue in just three weeks. Amazon’s Bias for Action principle—reacting promptly, adjusting, and preserving outcomes—was strengthened by the event.

19. Tell me about a situation when you had to handle a difficult stakeholder or client expectation.

A client was about to escalate a recurring issue to the higher management due to dissatisfaction with delivery timelines. I provided them with a concrete recovery plan with realistic timelines. Furthermore, I oversaw daily progress until everything was resolved. Subsequently, the client renewed their contract with us. I was able to resolve the issue through continuous engagement, which was the best approach in a customer-centric company like Amazon.

20. Share an example of when you managed a cross‑functional team.

While working on the product pilot, I was assigned to collaborate with the engineering, marketing, and customer support teams. Each team had different priorities, so I created a shared timeline, held weekly alignment calls, and made sure that every milestone was achieved. The customer insights gained from the pilot were invaluable. Mid-level Amazon employees are expected to possess the ability to balance conflicting priorities, and this is what the experience provided me with.

21. Tell me about a time you had to make a decision with incomplete information.

During a review of the pricing strategy, I was assigned to create a new price tier with no data from competitors. Because I was working with incomplete data, I created three scenarios with a mix of some of the insights and suggested a phased approach to minimise risk. The staged strategy was successful, and we later made price adjustments with little risk. It taught me that when data isn’t perfect, which happens frequently at Amazon, sound judgment and measured risk-taking are essential.

22. Describe a time when you had to step outside your job description to get something done.

When our team’s product demo event’s assigned coordinator quit, I stepped in to fill the role even if it wasn’t my role. I took care of logistics and vendor communication and even wrote the event script. The event was successful, and we signed two major clients. This experience reinforced the importance of taking ownership, an Amazon principle, even if it means going beyond your assigned tasks.

23. Tell me about a time you delivered measurable impact on your team or company.

While working at my last company, I saw that our weekly sales reporting was simply listing numbers. I created a dashboard designed to track trends, and it identified underperforming products. This enabled the sales team to change their approach, and it reduced dead stock by 15% in two months. It was gratifying to see the impact of my work on our strategy, and it reinforced that delivering results is about impact, not just effort.

Amazon Interview Questions for Experienced Professionals

For advanced professionals, Amazon’s interviews centre on their impact and corresponding influence on innovation or leadership within the company. At this level, you’ll be expected to demonstrate how you’ve driven transformation, managed ambiguity, and delivered measurable business outcomes. Amazon also looks into how you fulfil its Leadership Principles, whether it be through teamwork, multidisciplinary strategic influence, or tasks.

24. Tell me about a time you made a high-stakes decision with significant business impact.

Working as an operations manager, my team and I identified an important bottleneck in a fulfillment process two weeks before peak season. We had two options: shifting to a secondary facility, which would be costlier, or continuing with the current process, which would incur shipment delays. I analysed potential delays versus reroute costs, and my recommendation was to reroute 60% of shipments. Although this would incur temporary costs, it would avoid trust and penalty costs with customers. It taught me how to weigh risk and act decisively, which is how I learnt to embrace Amazon’s principle of “Bias for Action”.

25. Describe a time you built or scaled a team for a major initiative.

In my earlier job, I was responsible for launching and onboarding a new analytics function for the Asia-Pacific region. I also developed appropriate training materials and built an organisational framework for the function. Within my sixth month of working, my team was generating analytics to increase sales by 12%. With this, I learnt and appreciated Amazon’s principle of “Hire and Develop the Best”.

26. How have you driven innovation in your previous roles?

Collaborating with the supply team, I learnt that our inventory forecasting model was flawed and did not take seasonal trends into consideration, which was the cause of our overstock. This resulted in significant cost savings and an 18% reduction in overstock. Innovation, in my opinion, is more often about creating and streamlining procedures than it is about making huge discoveries, which is quite similar to Amazon’s mentality.

27. Share an example of when you had to handle a major failure or crisis as a leader.

While migrating software, an unforeseen glitch resulted in downtime for an important client. As the project leader, I opened a war room, allocated triage roles, and kept the client updated every two hours. After thirty-six hours, the issue was resolved, following which a comprehensive root-cause analysis was conducted. Accepting and managing that failure and demonstrating accountability aligned with Amazon’s Ownership principle, which ultimately built enduring trust.

28. Tell me about a time you had to manage competing priorities across multiple business units.

While working as a director, I had three business units fighting for resources for their respective priority projects. As a resource management strategy, I developed a matrix based on evaluation for ROI, urgency, and customer impact. I utilised the matrix when presenting to the senior leadership, which, for them, gathered agreement and distributed the resources. This avoided wasting effort by ensuring alignment with the organisation’s goals. I learnt from this experience how important it is to think beyond your immediate needs.

29. Describe a time you influenced senior leadership to change direction on a strategy.

Some time ago, I analysed customer conversion and identified that retention was being negatively impacted by the new pricing model. The leadership team was not open to revisiting the model. I created a comprehensive case with trend data, customer interviews, and competitor analysis. After presenting the information, they were on board with the phased rollback, which resulted in a 10% increase in retention. I learnt from this experience how to be tough and respectfully disagree, which is one of Amazon’s most important leadership qualities.

30. How have you balanced short-term results with long-term vision in your career?

In my role as a senior manager, I had to deal with the challenge of a reduced budget, especially for training programs. Although I understood the immediate benefits that would arise as a result of the budget cuts, I also understood the harm it would do to the team’s productivity for the rest of the year. I suggested replacing traditional training with a blended online training version, which would maintain the essential programs. This training shift provided a 25% cost cut while also balancing a team’s long-term productivity with immediate savings. That is precisely the type of trade-off Amazon expects its leaders to make.

31. Tell me about a time you mentored or developed future leaders.

Leadership, in my opinion, is about encouraging innovation among team members and inspiring them to take initiative. I established a shadowing role for my two high-potential team members during my client strategy meetings at my previous employer. This role allowed them to learn executive skills in a real-life scenario. Eventually, both of them ended up in managerial positions. This is a great example of “Hire and Develop the Best”, and in my opinion, it is one of the core principles of Amazon, which I will do my best to follow.

32. Describe a time when you had to drive a cultural or organisational change.

From my earlier experiences, I know that when a company changes from a siloed structure to cross-functional teams, it usually does not get the best of welcomes. I decided to run workshops that would help lay out the major benefits. I also organised joint planning sessions and organised celebrations for the achievements. Overall, these strategies worked best to improve collaboration and, with that, productivity. This helped me understand the importance of Earn Trust and Learn and Be Curious as essential parts of any successful transformation.

33. How have you demonstrated customer obsession in your career?

An important business client was frustrated with missed deadlines for new features. I went above and beyond by stopping to gather feedback from their office instead of simply providing updates. After understanding their needs, I ensured the engineering team expedited the necessary features. Because of this, the client decided to renew their contract with us. This exemplifies customer obsession, which is Amazon’s most important leadership principle, and is something I always make sure to integrate into my job.

Amazon Interview Questions for Customer Service

Amazon’s Customer Service Associates are the first point of contact for the company’s reputation, attending to queries, addressing issues, and safeguarding the company’s “Customer Obsession”—their first and foremost leadership principle. While attending to customer service positions, be prepared to answer questions about scenarios that would require your ability to communicate, be patient, and de-escalate interactions.

34. How would you handle an irate customer whose order was delayed?

Active listening requires me to refrain from interjecting until the other party has finished speaking. Empathy entails acknowledging the difficulties the other party faced, for example: ‘I truly apologize for any issues you may be experiencing, and that’s not the company’s expectations for you.’ I would promptly check the status of the order, provide a clear explanation for the delay, and offer a clear remedy, such as an expedited replacement, refund, or discount if permitted by policy. My objective would be to make a bad experience better by being composed, taking responsibility, and making sure the client feels appreciated and acknowledged.

35. Who was your most troublesome client, and how did you handle them?

During the previous internship, there was a client who constantly provided incomplete documents, then turned around and pointed the finger at us for the delays. I maintained professionalism and patience while gradually illuminating the gaps and even creating a checklist to simplify the process. The client, with time, improved their organisation skills and indeed thanked me for the assistance in helping them organise better. This taught me the value of patience and effort in overcoming challenging clients, as, with the right approach, these clients can be effectively managed. Such strategies come in particularly handy in Amazon’s customer service.

36. How would you explain Amazon Prime to a customer who doesn’t understand it?

Amazon Prime is a membership that grants you access to and provides free and fast delivery on millions of items, Prime Video, Prime Music, and other exclusive deals. It’s aimed at saving you money and time while adding entertainment value. For better user understanding and to emphasise user engagement, I may, where appropriate, mention notable services such as one-day delivery and Prime Day.

37. Describe a time you solved a customer’s problem beyond what was expected.

A customer requested a product that had been discontinued while I was on part-time in retail. Instead of telling the customer I could not assist him/her, I checked with other stores and even the supplier. I actually found one last unit and put a hold on it for the customer. The customer was indeed pleased and left a fantastic review.
That experience reminded me how important it is to make additional efforts towards improvement of oneself—a shift in thinking that is recommended by Amazon’s “Customer Obsession” philosophy.

38. How do you handle a situation where you don’t immediately know the answer to a customer’s question?

Honesty is key. I’d tell the customer, ‘That’s a great question. I want to get you the correct information, so let me double-check with the right team.’ Then I’d either do quick research or escalate it. I’d resolve the issue and update the customer with prompt information. It also shows ownership and reliability. In this example, seeking information is better than guessing, and it is also better for the customer.

39. What do you do if a customer demands something that goes against Amazon’s policy?

In such a case, I would stick to the policy and stay polite and calm. I will explain the policy and propose a different one that would work. For instance, if it’s past the return window and someone asks for a refund, I would tell them, ‘I see why you would want that, but our policy states we can’t issue refunds after the 30-day mark. What we can do is issue store credit or assist you with the available repair options.’ This is empathy, while balanced with rules by Amazon.

40. How do you prioritise multiple customer issues at the same time?

To start tackling multiple customer issues, I would assess the needs and their relevance. For instance, one customer’s problem with a package that is lost is a higher priority than another one asking for details of a particular product. I would first resolve the issue with the lost package. I will acknowledge the second customer and promise to assist them shortly. This approach ensures no one is left feeling abandoned or unattended to and pressing needs are addressed promptly.

41. Share an example of how you turned an unhappy customer into a loyal one.

In the past, one customer happened to be upset simply because the delivery was not in good shape—and this happened two times in a row. As for myself, I made sure to upgrade the delivery to next-day delivery and personally ensured it was not damaged. The attention I paid to these details made the customer appreciate it a lot, and ultimately, they enrolled in the loyalty program. I personally learnt how important trust and loyalty are and how they can be rebuilt with gratitude, not reiteration.

42. How do you keep calm in stressful customer service situations?

My personal reminder is always to not take the anger personally and instead concentrate on breathing and voice. If a call is heated, it is more common to hear: ‘I do want to help, but I can help only if we do it step by step.’ The calm tone of the voice enables the customer to know that their stress is decreasing and keeps the conversation meaningful and enlightening.

43. What do you think is the biggest challenge in Amazon’s customer service today?

As Amazon keeps innovating speedier shipping and services, one problem is managing growing customer expectations for instant remedies. Consumers now anticipate prompt responses and resolutions. Maintaining Amazon’s renowned customer experience will require striking a balance between automation (such as chatbots) and sympathetic human assistance.

Cloud Support Associate Amazon Interview Questions

The position of Cloud Support Associate at Amazon Web Services (AWS) requires a distinct combination of skills. Customer-facing troubleshooting of AWS services such as EC2, S3, RDS, VPC, and others requires clear customer communication. Amazon seeks candidates who ‘Dive Deep’, take ownership of the customer problem, and exhibit “Customer Obsession” at every touchpoint.

44. How would you explain AWS to someone who has never heard of it?

If I were explaining what AWS is, I would say, ‘AWS (Amazon Web Services) is like a utility provider for computing. Companies don’t buy and maintain expensive servers anymore. Instead, they ‘rent’ services like computing power, storage, and databases. Similar to how you pay for electricity only when you use it, businesses only pay AWS bills for what they use. Companies need the ability to scale up and down instantly, which is a critical requirement for startups and enterprises.

45. How might you present AWS in an elevator pitch?

Amazon’s cloud platform, AWS, powers Netflix, Airbnb, NASA, and a lot more. In under 30 seconds, I would say, ‘They all rely on AWS, which provides over 200 on-demand services like servers, storage, AI, enabling businesses to launch faster, cut costs, and innovate without building their own infrastructure. 
This condensed version is ideal for company executives or clients who require the “why it matters” argument because it emphasises AWS’s size, influence, and worth.

46. What are the core responsibilities of a Cloud Support Associate at AWS?

Fixing problems is not the sole responsibility of Cloud Support Associates. The role requires a deep dive into the customer problem and seeing it through to resolution. This involves:

• Monitoring the technical issues and services of AWS systems such as EC2, S3, RDS, and more.
• Implementing preventative measures to prevent any unforeseen circumstances.
• Serving as a mediator between internal AWS teams and customers.

To illustrate, consider the EC2 instance problem in the first bullet point. Rather than restarting the EC2 instance as many average support staff would do, I would optimise the customer experience and teach them about comprehensive troubleshooting, log analysis, and support lessons on permissions and quotas. This customer-focused troubleshooting is called the ownership mindset and is essential to Amazon’s culture.

47. How would you troubleshoot an EC2 instance that isn’t starting?

The problem resolution approach I would follow is to document the supporting information first, such as region, instance type, recent adjustments, and the error message for the instance type. Next, I would do the following:

• Inspect the AWS Health Dashboard on a daily basis to avoid outages.
• Look through the instance and system logs for root causes such as kernel panic.
• Check the permissions for the IAM roles and security groups.
• Service quotas check for region caps as a possibility.

During these diagnostic steps, I would provide detailed status updates to the customer. For example, “I’m looking for patching issues in your system logs, and it seems one of the booting supports got a patch failure. We can do this, and I’ll talk you through the steps to fix it.”
Fix the problem, explain the solution, and make sure the consumer feels directed. This strategy reflects Dive Deep and Consumer Obsession, two of Amazon’s foundational principles.

48. What’s the difference between AWS EC2, S3, and RDS?

I’ll clarify the difference between AWS EC2, S3, and RDS using these three short points:

• EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is similar to a rented virtual server with your apps hosted on it.
• S3 (Simple Storage Service) is like a massive online drive used for storing objects such as photographs, backups, or files related to websites.
• RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed database service. With it, you do not have to deal with database setup, patching, or scaling, as those have been taken care of already.

I should also point out that these three services are fundamental to AWS; most solutions start with computation (EC2), storage (S3), and data (RDS).

49. Explain IAM (Identity and Access Management) to a non-technical customer.

In AWS, IAM manages administrator rights. Giving out rights to resources is like controlling who gets what and to what degree. For security, IAM is like a building’s security system where you hand out keys to employees and decide what rooms and resources to allow access to. Some have access to everything; others only to one room.
To put it in simpler terms, IAM’s management defines what is to be secured and who is allowed entrance. This approach helps secure accounts without compromising a team’s access, which is vital in handling data, especially sensitive data.

50. What steps would you take if a customer’s application is running slowly on AWS?

I’ll implement the classic problem-solving steps in the following order:

• Understand the situation: What AWS services are in play, such as EC2, RDS, or S3? When did it start to get sluggish?
• Look for answers: What is the current situation on the CloudWatch dashboards for CPU, memory, disk I/O, network traffic, and cloud services as well?
• Isolate the problem: Recommend the bigger instance or solve the autoscaling problem for the maxed EC2 CPU. For slow RDS queries, examine the query logs or check the indexing.

I would go on saying, “I see your EC2 instance’s CPU usage stands steady at 90%, so you were indeed experiencing a delay. I will go ahead and scale your instance so that the traffic can be properly handled.”

51. How do you balance giving technical support while ensuring a great customer experience?

My technical skills, combined with my clear communication, help me better assist customers. Let’s say I’m facing a customer who has raised a support ticket for a misconfigured VPC. I will not provide the customer with an explanation like ‘join CIDR blocks’; instead, I will tell them, “Your network’s address range overlaps with another, which is blocking connections. Here’s how we’ll fix it”, followed by which I’ll explain the exact fix.
The customer is correctly guided, and I also make sure to provide periodic check-ins like ‘Are you following along?’ or ‘Does this make sense?’ in order to allow the customer to provide feedback. These methods build trust and calm the customer, even in tough situations.

52. What AWS services would you recommend for a new e-commerce startup?

The AWS services I would recommend for a new e-commerce startup would be:

• Running the website on EC2. 
• Product images and backups on S3. 
• RDS for handling the database. 
• Global content delivery using CloudFront. 
• IAM for secure access control.

This structure provides the right combination of scalability and efficiency and is ideal for a new startup that is expecting orders. Having the ability to pay as you go means they won’t be overcharged during the startup phase.

53. How would you respond if a customer blamed AWS for downtime, but you discovered the issue was in their code?

I would stay empathetic and not point fingers at anyone. I would say, ‘I checked the AWS services for your region, and they seem to be operating normally. Based on our logs, the error may be originating from the application’s code. Here’s what we found, and here’s how you can resolve it.’
With that explanation, the customer’s pain will be acknowledged. This is the customer obsession approach, which is also factual and respectful of the customer’s frustration.

54. Can you explain the difference between vertical and horizontal scaling in AWS?

Vertical scaling, often referred to as scaling up, is like upgrading an EC2 instance from t2.micro to m5.large. This might mean increasing the CPU, RAM, or even the storage of an EC2 instance or a database. While this approach is simple to administer, it comes with a concrete restriction: a machine can only be scaled so much.
Horizontal scaling, or scaling out, is adding more instances or nodes to a system. Instead of trying to upgrade a single machine, the workload is shared among different instances. This is more suitable for applications experiencing unpredictable or high traffic.
In the AWS ecosystem, services like Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) and Auto Scaling Groups are used to complement horizontal scaling by automating traffic distribution as well as instance health monitoring.