Amazon | Front End Engineer 2 | Canada

Overview

This experience outlines the interview journey for the Front End Engineer 2 (L5) role at Amazon in Canada. Amazon's front-end interviews evaluate a balance of coding proficiency, system design thinking, front-end craftsmanship, and alignment with the company's Leadership Principles. The process is structured to test both technical depth and behavioural readiness, with each onsite round pairing a specific Leadership Principle with a focused technical problem.

Interview Process

The interview process at Amazon for the Front End Engineer 2 role consisted of four main stages:

1. Online Coding Assessment – A timed coding round on a platform similar to LeetCode, featuring medium-difficulty algorithmic and data structure problems.
2. Phone Screen – A 60-minute technical conversation focused on building a reusable front-end component live, with attention to accessibility, styling, and code quality.
3. Onsite (Virtual) – Four back-to-back rounds, each lasting approximately 60 minutes and structured as: 2–3 minutes of small talk, 15–20 minutes of behavioural questions, 20–25 minutes of technical work, and time for the candidate's questions.
4. Result – The recruiter shared the outcome within a week of the onsite interviews.

There was approximately a one-month gap between the phone screen and the onsite, which the candidate used for focused preparation.

Technical Rounds

Online Coding

The online assessment included problems conceptually similar to Number of Islands (grid traversal) and other medium-difficulty questions. Topics tested included BFS/DFS, sorting, and object-oriented design.

Phone Screen

The phone screen centred on building a reusable component from scratch. The candidate was expected to make the component accessible, style it, and write optimised code. No behavioural questions were asked during this round, but the interviewer explored the candidate's favourite framework features, comparisons across front-end frameworks, prior project experience, and most challenging projects.

Onsite Round 1 – Bar Raiser (Insist on High Standards, Deliver Results)

A tree-based algorithmic problem was presented, starting simple and increasing in complexity incrementally. The candidate used DFS to approach the problem, with the bar raiser probing edge cases and optimisation opportunities throughout.

Onsite Round 2 – System Design (Disagree and Commit, Ownership)

The system design round covered a system the candidate had limited prior experience with. Despite the unfamiliarity, the candidate covered fundamental concepts including load balancing, scaling, caching, and protocols. The interviewer primarily drove the discussion, with the candidate clarifying requirements and diving into details when prompted. An online diagramming tool was used for the design.