Tech IndustryJun 12, 2019
VMwarebond-007

Amazon leadership principles

So I had amazon onsite recently and I was asked a lot of LP questions and I was able answer the questions reasonably not very good answers. But it got me thinking am I eligible for Amazon or will I fit if I get the job ( which I think I won't). This is because one of the question was how I convinced other team to make changes in their module when I changed some interface. I don't usually get into these scenarios but whenever I did faced such situations it was super easy, people I work with are understanding and might will change without any convincing or may be I myself will do it. Another question was about conflicts, I hardly have had any disagreements or if I had, maybe in that case I was wrong or we will come to common ground just after a small talk. There were a lot of these kind of questions on collaboration. This got me thinking may be I work in a team where there is not much of collaboration needed or work at Amazon involved a lot of cross team collaboration. Is that so? Also what should I do to improve on this situation, I have 4 years of experience while I do come up with new things to improve in my project/module, I particularly don't do much to improve on a bigger level. Whereas amazon asked questions in that area too. TLDR: Do you guys at Amazon live by LP?

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Arista Networks jfkjfjci Jun 12, 2019

As someone said here earlier, LPs are like a high school exam: You prepare, you pass and you forget about them.

VMware bond-007 OP Jun 12, 2019

Ok maybe so but how to fake it. I can't seem to do so and froze a bit while answering LP.

Arista Networks jfkjfjci Jun 12, 2019

Prepare an example in STAR format for all 14 principles beforehand and map them to the questions asked.

AppOnboard anon818 Jun 12, 2019

The LPs are actually used on a daily basis. People tend to over index on certain ones.

Amazon abdrushin Jun 12, 2019

Don't worry too much. The LPs are just common sense. If you struggle to come up with some good examples it doesn't mean the end of the road for L4/5. Your coding skills will outweigh any struggle on LP responses as long as you didn't respond with red flags that would put you into grey zone behavior in business (like if you claim customers are idiots asf.)

SolarCity Musko bey Jun 12, 2019

As simple as sitting and relaxing and just re-evaluating what you have done on the past. Every story have LP’s involved and you can just relate in your discussions easily. Remember three things. Make sure you tell the problem statement. What you have done to resolve that problem. How the business you are responsible for have benefited out of it. 100 percent sure you will be in.

Google rafaNadal Jun 12, 2019

I know Amazon engineers who bring in LPs even when arguing with their wives on domestic matters 😂 Most people exaggerate situations when asked about some LP questions. Think about what the person is evaluating - for eg, it’s not about if or not you faced conflicts; it’s about if there’s a conflict, are you capable of navigating and clearing it or not.

Intel mr_pleb Jun 13, 2019

Thing is a conflict has to include at least two persons. You may have perfect soft skills and fail to find a solution if the other one is a moron. Of course, gtfo is a solution too but I suspect not the answer they're looking for.

Amazon anonts Jun 13, 2019

I had a friend interview for SDE2. The day had 1 full round of LP questions, and 15 mins of LP in the other 4 rounds. Total of 2 hrs out of 5 spent on LP for an SDE2 interview. If that ain't a broken system, I don't know what is.

VMware bond-007 OP Jun 13, 2019

It was same for me

Amazon anonts Jun 13, 2019

Oh and also the interviewer who took the LP round flat out told LP is bullshit to the candidate. 😂

AppOnboard anon818 Jun 13, 2019

LPs matter...man

Microsoft dplover Jun 18, 2019

So when you talk about conflict with XX , what should be the outcome? -you won the argument, then you can’t earn others trust - or they won it, then you are not a leader who is mostly right.