# Amazon Technical Program Manager (TPM) Interview Guide Aced (formerly Exponent) publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.aced.io/agents/agent-access. Source: https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-technical-program-manager-interview Source observed: 2026-11-04T21:21:24.123Z Last checked: 2026-11-04T21:21:24.123+00:00 Indexed: 2026-11-05T03:58:31.768+00:00 --- # Amazon Technical Program Manager (TPM) Interview Guide **Updated 3 days ago by Amazon candidates** ![Amazon logo](https://exponent-static.s3.amazonaws.com/company_logos/amazon.png) We provide this expert guide to Amazon Technical Program Manager interviews. The guide includes links to [12 interview experiences](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-technical-program-manager-interview/experiences), [124 interview questions](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-technical-program-manager-interview/questions), and [resumes](https://www.aced.io/guides/amazon-technical-program-manager-interview/resumes). Amazon TPM roles suit candidates with strong technical and product understanding. The work is technical and requires a technical degree or background. Amazon hires TPMs most often from experienced professionals. Amazon's e-commerce organization is open to candidates from any background, while AWS prefers candidates with a stronger technology background. Start an application by searching [Amazon's careers page](https://www.amazon.jobs/en/). ## Interview Process ### Recruiter Screening The process begins with a recruiter call to assess role fit. Be ready to explain the experience on [your resume](https://www.aced.io/resume?src=guide), why you applied for the role, and why you want to work at Amazon. ### Job Description Matching Based on the recruiter call and your background, the recruiter identifies suitable listings across Amazon teams. Candidates usually apply to no more than 2–3 roles. ### Phone Interview The hiring manager's initial phone conversation lasts **one hour** and is divided into three **15-minute** sections: 1. **Program management experience:** hypothetical questions such as “How would you handle a scenario where...?” and experiential questions such as “Tell me about a time where...?” Review your experience and prepare short, focused examples. 2. **Technical questions:** questions assessing your ability to work as a TPM. Performance here may determine whether you proceed as a technical program manager or a non-technical PM. 3. **Leadership Principles:** behavioral questions concerning [Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles](https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principles). The interview begins and ends with a five-minute icebreaker or opportunity to ask questions. Usually there is one phone interview, but a second may be scheduled if the interviewer is uncertain about your candidacy. ### On-Site Round The on-site consists of **5–6 one-hour rounds**. Each round includes five minutes of introductions, 50 minutes of interviewing, and five minutes for your questions. A typical schedule is: - **10 AM–12 PM:** two interviews - **12 PM–1 PM:** lunch - **1 PM–4 PM:** three interviews Interviewers may include product managers, technical program managers, software developers, software development managers, a bar raiser, and the hiring manager. All interviewers ask about Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles. Interviewers generally carry equal evaluation weight, except the bar raiser. A bar raiser is a more senior interviewer from another business unit who assesses fit with Amazon rather than only fit with the hiring team and has special veto power. Bar raisers aim to ensure that hires are at least better than 50% of the current workforce. During lunch, you can eat with someone outside the interview committee and ask questions you might not want to ask the hiring manager. Lunch-conversation details are not disclosed to the committee. On-site results are provided within **24 hours**. ### Offer When performance is strong and there is mutual fit, an Amazon recruiter calls **24 hours after the on-site** to discuss compensation expectations. TPM compensation consists of base salary, a joining bonus, and stocks. Compensation varies by several factors; AWS generally pays the most and human resources typically pays the least. If the on-site goes well but the original team is not a mutual fit, you may enter team matching and speak with hiring managers from other teams. These conversations are generally more casual, but continue preparing Amazon Leadership Principles stories. ## Sample Interview Questions Amazon behavioral interviews are organized around the Leadership Principles. ### Customer Obsession Leaders start with the customer and work backwards, work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust, and focus more intensely on customers than competitors. - Tell me about a time when you declined a customer requirement. - Tell me about a time when a customer gave you critical feedback. - Tell me about a time when you developed something for a customer that they did not ask for. ### Ownership Leaders think long term, act for the entire company, and do not say “that’s not my job.” - Tell me about a time when you worked on a project outside of your scope. - Tell me about a time when you had to leave a task unfinished. ### Invent and Simplify Leaders expect innovation and invention, simplify, seek ideas externally, and accept that new work may be misunderstood for long periods. - Tell me about the most innovative project you worked on, why it was innovative, and what the challenges were. - Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem. ### Are Right, A Lot Leaders use strong judgment, seek diverse perspectives, and work to disconfirm their beliefs. - Tell me about a time when you made a decision without having complete information. - Tell me about a time you made a design decision where many people opposed you. Why did they oppose you? - Tell me about a time you made a design decision where many people agreed with you. Why did they agree with you? ### Learn and Be Curious Leaders continually learn, improve themselves, explore possibilities, and act on their curiosity. - Tell me about a skill you recently learned. How did you learn it? - Tell me about an experience that changed your way of thinking. ### Hire and Develop the Best Leaders raise the performance bar, recognize exceptional talent, develop leaders, coach others, and create development mechanisms such as Career Choice. This principle is touched on less frequently in interviews. - Tell me about a time when one of your team members had difficulty doing a project. What did you do? - Who is the most important person in your life and why? ### Insist on Highest Standards Leaders maintain high standards, raise the bar, deliver high-quality products, services, and processes, and ensure defects and recurring problems are fixed. - Tell me about a time when everything was going well on a project, yet you worked on an improvement that no one had asked for. What was the improvement? Why was it important? How would you measure success? - Tell me about a time when you raised the bar. ### Think Big Leaders create and communicate bold directions, think differently, and look for ways to serve customers. - Tell me about a time when you initiated work on a project that affected most of your team and faced substantial opposition. - Tell me about a time when you had to make a bold and difficult decision. ### Bias for Action Leaders value speed and calculated risk-taking because many decisions and actions are reversible. - Tell me about a time when you had a conflict and multiple ways to resolve it. How did you evaluate your options? Which solution did you choose and why? - Tell me about a time when you made a decision too quickly and what you would have done differently. ### Frugality Leaders accomplish more with less. Constraints encourage resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention; additional headcount, budget, or fixed expense does not earn extra credit. This principle is touched on less frequently in interviews. - Tell me about a time when you had to work with limited time or resources. - Tell me about a time when you turned down more resources to complete an assignment. ### Earn Trust Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, treat others respectfully, remain self-critical, and benchmark themselves and their teams against the best. - How do you earn the trust of stakeholders? - Tell me about a time when you made a mistake. - Tell me about a time when you worked on a project that got delayed. How did you handle it? Once you knew it would be delayed, what actions did you take? ### Dive Deep Leaders operate at every level, stay connected to details, audit frequently, and investigate when metrics and anecdotes differ. - Tell me about a time when you had a problem and had to go through several steps to discover the root cause. - Tell me about a time when you had a problem but no one was willing to investigate because they thought it was outside their ownership. ### Have Backbone Leaders respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, maintain conviction, and commit fully once a decision is made. - Tell me about a time when an idea you proposed was not accepted. How did you react? - What do you believe that no one else does? ### Deliver Results Leaders focus on key business inputs, deliver with appropriate quality and timeliness, and persist despite setbacks. - Tell me about your proudest project. - Tell me about a time when everyone else on your team gave up on something but you pushed the team toward delivering a result. ### Miscellaneous In conversations with several people who interviewed for Amazon's non-tech PM role, we heard reports of these additional questions: - How do you prioritize requests from multiple stakeholders? - What is your favorite and second-most-favorite Leadership Principle? - Which Leadership Principle do you least resonate with? ## Hiring Decision After the on-site, interviewers debrief and discuss whether the team received a positive signal for each Leadership Principle. All Leadership Principles are equally important. Each on-site interviewer is assigned two principles and asks questions about them. Answers that violate a principle create a red flag and negative signal. For example, if a critical coworker is on vacation and you need something from them, waiting for their return because their work is outside your scope would create a negative signal for Ownership. Behavioral-question answers are the most important factor. Communicate clearly and succinctly, and demonstrate that you can develop solutions that work at large scale. ## Prepare with Aced We are Aced, formerly Exponent, a tech interview preparation platform offering free interview guides, insider tips, and courses. 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