I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Apr 2014
Interview
Direct on-site interview with Amazon. A live project to be implemented within the end of the day.
A couple of Amazon engineers were assigned to go through the process and for 1:1 interview based on the progress with the assigned project.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There was only one Project task assigned, no other questions were asked
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Chennai) in May 2010
Interview
1 Phone round + 4 face to face interview. No HR rounds. All rounds have coding or design questions. You had to write a working code on paper. Pseudo code will not do. Experienced interviewers would ask fairly easy questions. The inexperienced would go for a typical algorithm questions. There are no stress interviews.
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Mar 2014
Interview
I don't remember how I applied, but remember that Amazon contacted me by email. First step was an informal interview with one of the team members, followed by 5 formal interviews. What's the difference between formal and informal? I didn't quite understand.
The interviewers were nice, tasks were well formulated with some exceptions. Mostly trivial algorithms. For all questions involving algorithms I first implemented the task using the most-trivial, least-efficient method, told the interviewer the current complexity and then incrementally improved the algorithm for efficiency. I'd recommend you the same as it gives you the time to analyse the task and have some basis for improvement.
Didn't solve 2 tasks and was asked to send the solutions immediately after the interview. And I sent.
After a week I got a phone call telling me about an offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a system for a cinema theatre. This was the formulation and it wasn't clear what they want - class model design, or an architectural design. Ask questions, check your assumptions and everything will be fine.