Amazon Economist Job Interview

Here is what the Amazon Economist interview process looked like.

Amazon Economist Job Interview Case Study Summary

Candidate: Lisa

How it gets started: a friend gave an internal referral.

Job Level: Entry

Year of Experience: recent college graduate

Degree: M.S. in behavioral science

Offer: Yes

TC: ~200K USD

Location: Seattle WA

Interview process: 3 months

Preparation: 4 months

Has a job: no

Decide to join: N/A

Amazon Economist Job Interview Round 1: Recruiter Phone Call 

1. Logistics questions: if VISA sponsorship will be needed; how soon can she get started, relocation.
2. Asked to choose one of the 3 economist job tracks at Amazon:
   1. Forecasting/ Time Series analysis; (CHOSEN)
   2. Causal analysis;
   3. Empirical IO (industrial organization)

Amazon Economist Job Interview Round 2: 

1. Leadership Principles: 
   1. Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone, how did you handle it, what did you learn?
   2. Give me an example of a task/project that you did above and beyond.
   3. Tell me about a failure. What would you have done differently?
2. How do we forecast amazon's website traffic? Could you walk me through the process?

Amazon Economist Job Interview Virtual Onsite Interview:

Round 1: SQL Coding (see more amazon SQL interview questions on sqlpad.io)

1. Given driver_id, city, timestamp, report the number of drivers by the hour of the day/city for a ridesharing app;
2. How to create a model to predict the number of drivers by city/hour of the day.

Round 2: Time Series Analysis/Forecasting Modeling

1. How do you verify if the time series data is stationary, theoretically and practically?
2. What kind of problems/issues will non-stationary data cause?
3. How do we fix the non-stationary data and fit them with a stationary model?
4. How do you usually select features for your model?

Round 3. Leadership Principles/Behavioral Questions with a Bar Raiser

1. Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss/manager/advisor.
2. Tell me about a time you worked on a project with a tight timeline.
3. What is your biggest weakness?

Round 4: Leadership Principles/Behavioral Questions with the Hiring Manager

1. What do you see yourself in 5 years?
2. Why do you want to join Amazon?
3. Tell me an example you did an end-to-end model, including data modeling, ETL, model refresh.
4. Do you have any questions for me?

Offer

Lisa received the job offer after a month of the virtual onsite interview.