No vendor is named, and no games exist in the process
Official sourceAmazon’s own careers pages describe Amazon-branded assessments — a Work Style Assessment and a Work Sample Simulation — and name no third-party assessment vendor, and no game-based test appears anywhere in its documented process; prep sites that claim SHL, HireVue or Cappfinity provide them are uncorroborated. We searched specifically for pymetrics, Arctic Shores, Aon, Criteria, SHL, HireVue, Codility and HackerRank evidence at Amazon and found nothing beyond prep-site assertion. A candidate thread that describes the Work Simulation interface in close detail names no platform and no vendor URL, which is meaningful negative evidence: someone who sat the tool would likely have named it.
Source: Amazon official careers pages; targeted vendor searches, 11 September 2026
The Work Style Assessment is a questionnaire, not a test you can fail on speed
Official sourceAmazon states that the Work Style Assessment’s "questions are centered around Amazon’s peculiar culture and Leadership Principles" and that it "typically take[s] 10-20 minutes to complete". The SDE OA page times it at 15 minutes and calls it the Workstyles Assessment. It is a self-report instrument: you rate statements about how you prefer to work. There is no clock pressure, no right answer in the arithmetic sense, and nothing cognitive being measured. Consistency across similar items matters more than trying to reverse-engineer an ideal profile.
Source: AWS official — How we hire
The Work Simulation is a situational judgment exercise in a fake workplace
Official sourceAmazon describes it as completing "virtual tasks related to the position you’re applying for", typically 20 to 60 minutes, and allots 60 minutes for full-time SDE. Candidates describe the actual interface: a chat or inbox environment resembling a team messaging tool, where virtual teammates send you messages and you select the appropriate reply, plus reading provided logs to locate errors and answering design questions about a virtual product. One candidate summary puts it bluntly — it is "basically an application of the leadership principles". Treat it as a situational judgment test wearing a simulation costume.
Source: AWS official — How we hire; candidate thread describing the interface
The SDE online assessment is timed component by component
Official sourceFull-time SDE: Coding Assessment 70 minutes, Workstyles Assessment 15 minutes, Work Simulation 60 minutes, Feedback Survey 5 minutes. Amazon says the OA assesses "coding skills, technical problem solving, and Amazon’s Leadership Principles" and reassures candidates that "No Amazon-specific knowledge is needed to complete the OA successfully." One candidate thread claims the Work Simulation is reserved for SDE 2 and above and that SDE 1 gets only coding plus leadership questions — that is unverified and contradicted by Amazon’s own page, which documents the simulation for full-time SDE without a level carve-out. Your invitation email lists your actual components.
Source: Amazon official — Online assessment prep for SDE roles
The Feedback Survey is mandatory, not optional courtesy
Official sourceThe official SDE OA page lists a 5-minute Feedback Survey as a component that must be completed before your results are finalized. It is easy to read it as an optional exit survey and close the tab. Do not — it is a required step in the assessment.
Source: Amazon official — Online assessment prep for SDE roles
Your OA may arrive in one part or two, depending on country
Official sourceAmazon states: "Depending on the country the role is in, the OA will be in one or two parts", and tells candidates to "Check your OA email to determine your OA structure." Where it is split, the coding part and the Workstyles plus Work Simulation part arrive as separate invitations. Candidates widely call these OA1 and OA2; those are candidate labels, not Amazon’s terminology. Amazon publishes no list of which countries get which structure.
Source: Amazon official — Online assessment prep for SDE roles
Amazon publishes no completion deadline — your invitation email does
No evidence foundAmazon does not publish a window for completing the online assessment. Candidates commonly report around five to seven days, and some report recruiters granting extensions or reissuing a link on request, but those figures vary by role and country and are forum reporting rather than policy. The deadline is stated in the invitation email — treat that email, not any general figure, as authoritative, and ask your recruiter early if you need more time.
Source: Amazon publishes no completion window; candidate forum reports vary
Retake policy, score validity and accommodations are not published
No evidence foundWe could not find any verified source documenting whether Amazon lets you retake an assessment, how long a score stays valid, or how to request accommodations. Amazon’s general assessments page exists but rendered no substantive content when we tried to read it. Rather than infer an answer, this page says plainly that it is not documented — ask your recruiter, who is the only reliable channel for these three questions.
Source: Not documented in any source verified 11 September 2026
Leadership Principles are the spine of every stage
Official sourceThis is the single most useful fact about preparing for Amazon. The Work Style Assessment is built around the Leadership Principles. The Work Simulation scores your choices against them. Amazon says the OA itself assesses them alongside coding. The interview loop assigns specific principles to specific interviewers, and Amazon states the interview process "is designed to assess how well candidates align with and can apply these principles" — including inside technical rounds. Preparing the principles is not a soft-skills afterthought at Amazon; it is the assessment.
Source: About Amazon — How to use Amazon’s Leadership Principles in your interview
The Bar Raiser, in Amazon’s words and in candidates’
Official sourceAmazon says the Bar Raiser "is focused on long-term vision rather than the immediate hiring need, and serves as an objective third party to ensure every candidate’s interview experience is open, accurate, and fair." Candidates additionally report that the Bar Raiser sits outside the hiring team, carries decisive weight in the debrief, and that interviewers submit written evidence against their assigned principles before voting. That second part is candidate reporting, not Amazon’s statement — useful context, not policy.
Source: AWS official — How we hire
Amazon does not name a platform for its video or phone screen
No evidence foundSeveral prep sites refer to a HireVue video interview at Amazon. No official Amazon page, no vendor case study and no candidate invitation we could verify confirms that, and the sites making the claim sell HireVue preparation. This page therefore does not name a video platform for Amazon. What is official is the stage itself: a phone interview covering your experience and past situations, with Amazon aiming to respond within two business days afterwards.
Source: No official or first-hand source names Amazon’s video platform; prep-site claims only