19 Amazon Data Analyst Interview Questions + Guide in 2025

Today, Amazon is synonymous with online shopping. It is estimated that Amazon Logistics processed 5.9 billion delivery orders in the US in 2023 alone. Although many things contribute to the company’s success, a key factor is the army of data analysts it hires.

Amazon data analysts are selected through a rigorous interview process. This process culminates in a series of back-to-back interviews in which candidates answer numerous questions to test their technical skills and assess their fit with Amazon’s culture.

If you plan to join Amazon’s team of analysts, we have compiled 19 Amazon data analyst interview questions to help you prepare for the interviews. We cover everything from coding and analytics to the company’s famous leadership principles, so you have a good idea of what’s coming.

Overview

Data analysts at Amazon play a critical role in transforming the massive amount of data the company collects into insights that aid decision-making. As a data analyst at Amazon, you may be asked to perform data analysis, build dashboards, define metrics, etc. You may also design data collection, compiling, analysis, and reporting systems.

The specifics of these roles vary depending on the product or department you’re working in. For example, Amazon Prime data will be quite different from Amazon Alexa data. You’ll be required to collaborate with various teams, e.g., engineering, marketing, data science, etc. Depending on your team, you could be given basic analytics or more technical tasks like data collection.

Candidate Requirements

The requirements to qualify for an Amazon data analyst role depend on the functions, seniority, team, and even location. For example, in some countries, Amazon only requires a high school diploma and a year of relevant experience. However, for many data analyst positions, the qualifications are:

• A bachelor’s degree or higher
• Knowledge of query languages such as SQL
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel, i.e., Macros, VBA, Pivot tables, etc.
• One year of data analytics experience, i.e., analysis, data mining, extraction, etc.
• Knowledge of Python or R
• Experience using data visualization tools such as Tableau, PowerBI, and AWS QuickSight

Some data analyst roles at Amazon are specialized and have niche requirements. For example, the Amazon Tax Team requires data analysts with experience working in tax, finance, or related fields.

Amazon’s interview process for data analysts has multiple steps and can feel quite intense. It helps to know what you might be in for so you can be mentally prepared when you can interview for this company. The typical steps followed for these interviews are:

• Resume Screening: When you submit your application through the online job portal, your resume is first screened by the assigned recruiter. These roles are very competitive, so be sure to follow best practices when preparing your resume to avoid early elimination.
• Online Assessments: For a data analyst role at Amazon, you’ll be asked to take an online assessment to test your aptitude, problem-solving, and coding skills. Amazon has used platforms like HackerRank in past assessments.
• Phone Screen: This phone screening round is common when interviewing at Amazon, and you can be asked behavioral or technical questions. Practice using the STAR technique for behavioral questions and explaining your thinking process out loud for technical questions.
• Interview Loop: Amazon’s on-site interview is dubbed the “loop interview.” It consists of a series of interviews held back-to-back on the same day. Individual interviews are conducted by hiring managers, potential team members, HR, or bar raisers. Be prepared to answer questions on Amazon’s leadership principles in addition to standard behavioral and technical interview questions. You’ll also discuss salary expectations and work patterns.
• Bar Raiser Interview: This is a unique feature of Amazon’s interview process, usually part of the loop round. The interviewer is a member of Amazon’s staff who won’t be part of your team. Their role is to ensure high standards are maintained during recruitment and that the company only brings in the best. Although different types of questions may be asked, questions on Amazon’s leadership principles are typical in this interview.

The interview process at Amazon may seem similar to what you get in many tech companies today. However, due to its unique culture, there are a few things you should pay close attention to when preparing for an Amazon data analyst interview. These are:

• Amazon’s Leadership Principles (LPs): Many Amazon data analyst interview questions focus on the company’s 16 leadership principles. Candidates who understand and embody these principles gain a significant advantage.
• Bar Raisers: As pointed out earlier, bar raisers are interviewers who will not be part of your team. They are considered objective third parties to ensure the company hires the best. Bar raiser interviews can be challenging if you’re unfamiliar with the LPs. Regardless of your performance in other interviews, bar raisers can veto your selection.
• Amazon STAR method: This acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. It describes a structure used to answer behavioral questions, and you’re expected to use this when answering interview questions at Amazon.

Amazon interview questions focus on SQL and Python since the duties of a data analyst at Amazon often require coding skills. Analytics questions are also quite common but often require coding skills to solve. During your Amazon data analyst interview, you may be asked coding questions via an online assessment, a phone screening, or an on-site interview.

Amazon SQL Interview Questions

1. Find the maximum quantity purchased for each product in each year

Assume you have been given a table containing item IDs, User IDs, product IDs, quantity, and the time of the transaction.

This question is used to test your knowledge of the GROUP BY function in SQL. In this case, the goal is to use this function and others to return the total amounts of each item sold in the stated period. Follow the link to the solution on Interview Query.

2. Write a query to return the number of customers who were upsold, i.e., those who bought an additional item after their first purchase.

You are provided with a transactions table containing user IDs, product IDs and quantities, and transaction times. Items sold on the same day don’t count as upsells.

Upselling is a common tactic to maximize revenue by encouraging customers to spend more than they planned. This question will test your ability to use aggregate functions and filter results in SQL.

3. Write a query to identify customers who placed more than three transactions in 2019 and 2020.

Assume you have been provided with a table for user IDs and names, and another with transactions including the ID, user ID, transaction times, products, and quantities.

This question can be challenging because you’ll need to join the two tables, sum up each user’s transaction for each of the two years, and return only those with more than three transactions in both years. Visit Interview Query for a detailed breakdown of the problem.

4. Identify the user with the highest average number of unique item categories per order.

You have been provided with a table of orders placed by users and another for ordered items.

This type of question tests your ability to write complex SQL queries. To solve this question, you’ll need to understand how to use joins, aggregate functions, and other SQL functions.

5. Write a SQL Query to return a monthly customer report for each month in a calendar year.

In this question, you’re provided with three tables: users, transactions, and products.

This question requires you to be familiar with JOIN functions. You’ll also need to know how to use aggregate functions and be able to apply several in a single query. You can work through this problem on Interview Query.

If you’d like some extra practice on SQL, you can also check out this longer list of SQL interview questions.

Amazon Python Interview Questions

6. Write a function that returns a list of all prime numbers to N.

This question is used to test problem-solving skills and your familiarity with loops and conditional statements. To solve it, you must first understand what makes a number prime.

7. Without using any library that does the same, write a function that flattens all the objects in a JSON string with nested objects to a single key-value dictionary.

A JSON string with nested objects is harder to process and analyze thus, inefficient. This issue is solved by ”flattening” the string. This question tests your ability to work with dictionaries in Python.

8. Write a Python program to implement the k-means clustering algorithm from Scratch.

This question tests both your Python programming skills and your understanding of how clustering algorithms such as k-means work. Check out a detailed breakdown of the problem on IQ.

9. Write a function to help you maximize the total value you get when buying items with a discount without exceeding the capacity of your bag.

This is an optimization problem where your goal is to pick items that will allow you to reap the most value within the limits prescribed. You’ll need to know how to create and compare different product combinations before selecting the right one.

For more questions you can practice with, check out this comprehensive list of Python interview questions.

Since this is a role that requires working extensively with data, you can expect your interviewers to test your data analysis knowledge and skills. Some questions you may be asked when interviewing for this role at Amazon are:

10. What does it mean to bootstrap a data set?

This type of question is supposed to test your understanding of data analytics fundamentals and terminology. In this case, bootstrapping is a specific approach to sampling.

11. You have been given a table showing the total number of messages exchanged between two users on Messenger, with dates included. How would you describe the distribution of messages in the conversation?

Answering this question requires some expertise with SQL. However, to properly describe the distribution of messages, you’ll need to be familiar with the concept of distributions in statistics.

12. How would you encode a categorical variable with thousands of distinct values?

There are different ways of encoding categorical variables depending on whether you’re dealing with a classification or regression model. Follow the link for a detailed explanation.

13. Your organization is conducting A/B testing on Tinder. Write a query that outputs the average number of right swipes for two variants of the tests.

This question tests if you can apply your understanding of A/B testing to solve an analytics problem using SQL.

14. Explain the difference between XGBoost and random forest and why you would choose one over the other.

In machine learning, certain algorithms are better suited to solving certain problems. This question tests your knowledge of two popular algorithms and where each should be used.

Designing data storage systems is a task more commonly associated with data engineers, but don’t be surprised if you’re asked to solve a few of these problems in a data analyst interview.

15. How would you design a data warehouse for an e-commerce company?

This question tests both your system design skills and your ability to handle ambiguous challenges where you’ll need to seek clarification or make assumptions about the company’s needs when defining certain features and parameters.

16. Design an ETL pipeline to get stripe payment data into an internal data warehouse.

Building an ETL pipeline is a common task when working with data. Although it’s mainly done by data engineers, you should also be able to create your own pipelines if the need arises.

Amazon places a lot of emphasis on its behavioral interviews due to its unique culture, which it considers central to its success. The company is eager to preserve this culture when recruiting new employees.

Your responses to behavioral questions can influence the level at which you are hired or whether you are brought on at all. Behavioral data analyst interview questions you may be asked at Amazon include:

17. Describe a time or project where you used data to solve a problem.

Project questions are a good opportunity to showcase your skills and process. When answering such questions, you should use the STAR method. Talk about the project iteratively, from the beginning to the end, so interviewers understand your process and how you collaborate with us. You should also try to wrap things up with a quantifiable result.

18. Mention a complicated situation that you faced at some point in your employment and how you resolved it.

This question is asked to assess how you handle challenging situations, whether you can adapt and come up with solutions, and what you learn from these experiences. You should also keep Amazon’s Leadership Principles in mind. This is a great opportunity to show how you embody principles such as Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Think Big, etc. Check out a sample response on Interview Query.

19. Give me an example of when you were able to anticipate a customer need with a solution/product.

This Amazon data analyst interview question may also be asked in the form of, “Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer.” It will help them assess if you’re able to go the extra mile to meet customer needs, perhaps ones they didn’t even know they had yet. Check out a more detailed guide on responding to this question in the link.

Data analyst positions at Amazon are highly sought-after. However, this company has unique staffing needs and goes to great lengths to ensure only highly skilled candidates who are also a good match for the culture are brought on board. Amazon data analyst interview questions will test your technical and problem-solving skills. However, the behavioral questions, which also test if you align with their leadership principles, may make the most significant difference in their decision to hire you.

Interview Query can be the portal you need to take you to the Amazon data analyst role you desire. We offer access to Amazon data analyst interview questions that have been asked during actual interviews at the company, and we guide you on how to answer them. You can use our AI interviewer feature to practice answering these questions as if you were in an actual interview, and you can get extra help from one of our coaches, some of whom have worked at Amazon. You can also visit our data analyst salaries page to see how compensation at Amazon compares with other companies or our job board to see which positions are open at Amazon.

Working at Amazon can be a career-defining period for a data analyst, and we hope our Amazon data analyst interview questions help you on your way there.