Amazon is a global leader in e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, and it is well known for its customer-centric approach and innovative solutions. As a Research Scientist at Amazon, you will engage in cutting-edge research across various domains, from machine learning and optimization to quantum computing and sustainability.
The position requires deep domain knowledge, strong technical skills, and the ability to manage and deliver high-quality research projects. You will work closely with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, engineers, and product managers, to drive impactful research that shapes the future of Amazon’s services and products.
In this guide, Interview Query will walk you through the interview process, covering common Amazon research scientist interview questions and valuable tips to help you succeed. Let’s dive in!
The interview process usually depends on the role and seniority; however, you can expect the following in an Amazon research scientist interview:
If your CV is shortlisted, a recruiter from Amazon’s Talent Acquisition Team will contact you and verify key details like your experiences and skill level. Behavioral questions may also be a part of the screening process.
Sometimes, the Amazon Research Scientist hiring manager may be present during the screening round to answer your queries about the role and the company itself. They may also indulge in surface-level technical and behavioral discussions.
The whole recruiter call should take about 30 minutes.
You’ll be invited to an initial technical interview after passing the recruiter screening. This stage often involves a virtual interview featuring discussions about your background and previous projects, typically lasting around 45-60 minutes. You may expect questions that probe into your research methodology, project achievements, and technical know-how in areas like machine learning, AI, and image processing.
Potential questions include discussing your work with CNN models, DSA questions, and how your research could be applied to business settings. Being well-prepared to discuss challenges, results, and mathematical formulations related to your work is crucial.
If you successfully navigate the initial rounds, the next stage is the onsite interview loop, which includes multiple interview sessions. These sessions aim to evaluate your expertise in core technical areas and your alignment with Amazon’s Leadership Principles.
There may be a mix of Behavioral Interviews, Technical Interviews, and Research Presentations. Typical technical rounds can involve: - Machine Learning concepts - Optimization problems - Statistics and probability - Data structures and algorithms
Behavioral questions often focus on scenarios requiring accountability, decision-making under pressure, and customer-oriented problem-solving.
Typically, interviews at Amazon vary by role and team, but commonly, Research Scientist interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.
Given a text document as a string, write a program to determine the TF values for each term and round the term frequency to 2 decimal points.
Given a list of strings, write a Python program to check whether each string has all the same characters. Determine the complexity of this program.
Given two tables, a users
table with demographic information and a neighborhoods
table, write a query that returns all neighborhoods with 0 users.
Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department. If more than one person shares the highest salary, the query should select the next highest salary.
Given two strings, write a function to return True
if the strings are anagrams of each other and False
if they are not. Note that a word is not an anagram of itself.
A team wants to A/B test changes in a sign-up funnel, such as changing a button from red to blue and/or moving it from the top to the bottom of the page. How would you design this test?
Explain the advantages of dynamic pricing and describe methods to estimate supply and demand for implementing this strategy.
Analyze the results of an A/B test where one variant has 50K users, and the other has 200K users. Determine if the unbalanced sample sizes will bias the test towards the smaller group.
Describe the Martingale strategy and discuss its potential applications in online advertising.
Given two tables, user_orders
and ordered_items
, identify the user with the highest average number of unique item categories per order. Assume there is only one user with the highest average.
As a data scientist at Amazon, you want to improve the search results for product searches but cannot alter the underlying search algorithm. What methods could you employ to increase recall?
Explain the concept of linear regression to three different audiences: a child, a first-year college student, and a seasoned mathematician. Ensure each explanation is appropriate for their understanding level.
Given a dataset of perfectly linearly separable data, what would be the outcome when you apply logistic regression?
Compare two machine learning algorithms. In which scenarios would you prefer a bagging algorithm over a boosting algorithm? Provide examples of the tradeoffs between the two.
Explain the differences between Lasso and Ridge Regression.
Amazon has a warehouse system where items are located at different distribution centers. In an example city, the probabilities that item X is available at warehouse A or B are 0.6 and 0.8, respectively. Given that items are only listed on the website if they exist in the distribution centers, what is the probability that item X would be found on Amazon’s website?
You are playing a dice game with 2 dice. What is the probability of rolling at least one 3? Additionally, what is the probability of rolling at least one 3 given N dice?
Explain the concept of a p-value in simple terms to someone without a technical background.
Describe what time series models are and explain why they are necessary when simpler regression models exist.
You are in charge of shipments at Amazon, with two types of parcels, A and B. Packages in parcel A are damaged with probability p and parcel B with probability q. What statistical test could you use to determine which parcel is better? What would the test conclude if p=0.4 and q=0.6, given data from 200 shipments, half with parcel A and half with parcel B?
To help you succeed in your Amazon Research Scientist interviews, consider these tips based on interview experiences:
Average Base Salary
Average Total Compensation
Amazon’s Leadership Principles are extremely important in the interview process. Many interviews will focus on behavioral questions aligned with these principles, such as customer obsession, bias for action, and ownership. Be ready to provide stories and examples from your experiences that highlight these values.
The journey to securing a Research Scientist position at Amazon is as rewarding as it is challenging. To boost your chances of success, ensure you practice common interview questions and scenarios you might encounter.
If you want more insights about the company, check out our main Amazon Interview Guide, where we have covered many interview questions that could be asked. We’ve also created interview guides for other roles, such as software engineers and data analysts, where you can learn more about Amazon’s interview process for different positions.
At Interview Query, we empower you to unlock your interview prowess with a comprehensive toolkit, equipping you with the knowledge, confidence, and strategic guidance to conquer every Amazon machine learning engineer interview question and challenge.
You can check out all our company interview guides for better preparation, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Good luck with your interview!