Just completed my final loop interview today and was in for quite a surprise. Prior to the interview, of course I did my due diligence and researched all that I could about the loop and read about others experiences. I was quite surprised that many parts of my loop differed from the experiences and advice found online so I thought I’d share my experience in case it would help others:

1. I was told that each interviewer would be assigned two LPs And ask you a question or two for each LP. Because of this I prepared about two stories format for each LP. However, many of my interviewers asked me 3, 4, even 5 questions! I was nowhere near prepared with that many stories for each LP.

2. I also read on here that we were not supposed to reuse a story that was already shared in the previous phone screens however, this turned out to not be accurate either according to my recruiter. I explicitly asked him if that was OK and if anyone from the loop would have access or see my phone screen answers. He told me the loop interviewers do not look at notes from the phone screen, and that it would be fine to tell those stories again in the loop. Not sure if this was just my situation or if it changes depending on the interview.

3. Another thing I see here a lot is that people claim that you only get a call after the loop if there’s good news. Some people say that they don’t hear back until the fifth day and that’s when the recruiter sends a calendar invite for a phone call to touch base. However, this was also different for me. My recruiter told me in the very beginning what day they would be debriefing and making a decision. He also explained that he would call me immediately after.

Overall I felt that my recruiter was a little… all over the place and it threw me off a bit.

Anyway the loop was probably one of the hardest interviews I’ve ever done in my life. I hope this could help or provide another perspective to anyone that’s about to go through it. Good luck!

How did you feel about your preparation? Were you highly confident?

I gave my final loop interview for Amazon yesterday, and I’d say it was the most intense interview I’ve ever had especially the round with the hiring manager. There were four rounds in total, with the third round conducted by a Bar Raiser.

My first two rounds went quite well, one team member even gave me feedback that I did a really good job with my answers. The next day, I had interviews with the Bar Raiser and the Hiring Manager. The Bar Raiser was very kind, and that interview went well, though not exceptionally.

The final round with the Hiring Manager was definitely the toughest, but by then, I had a much better understanding of the role. He asked some really challenging questions, and I did my best to provide thoughtful answers. He seemed impressed by parts of my experience when I explained using the SMART method, although he did interrupt and cross-question me mid-answer, which I’m not sure is a good sign. I also made 1–2 noticeable mistakes while answering.

What I’m most concerned about is that the job description mentioned a basic qualification of 2+ years of experience, and I have 1.5 years plus my master’s degree. I was still shortlisted and completed the interview process, and now they’ve said it will take up to 5 days for a final decision.

Update: I GOT THE OFFER!

Hello all! Like the title asks…I’m kind of freaking out with anticipation after completing the Amazon on-site ‘loop’. To those not familiar, ‘the loop’ is a term they use to describe the intensive final round one goes through the interview process. I had additional interviews previously, as well as had to submit a writing sample.

I received an email from my point of contact in recruiting after all of my interviews were completed, thanking me for my time as well as instructing me to contact them after 5 business days if I have not been contacted.

I know the hiring process is rigorous, and that all the people who interviewed me in that final round need to meet and have a conversation…and that can be a challenge in terms of scheduling. But I have not heard from them…I know it’s not necessarily a bad thing because of the scheduling…someone could be on vacation, sick, etc. I just reached out today as it’s now been 5 business days…but I’m freaked out to check my email…do they actually call you if you got the job or do they email you? Will they call with a rejection?

I just needed to type/vent this out…this is a job I want so bad and have been in process for a few months now…I’ve invested a lot of time and emotional capital…anything anyone could tell me would help me calm the eff down.

Thanks all!

Hello everyone, I had my loop yesterday. Idk how i feel about it.

Round 1 : with sdm, he asked 3 lp’s and follow ups and I answered those very well. He said i have some good learnings. And he gave me a leetcode medium and I performed well and completed the code

Round 2: with sde, gave two medium lc’s one is strings and another one is tree based problem. It was kind of rushed and i did complete the both questions but idk it was less conversational, he’s typing something maybe doing some work while i am coding

Round 3: Bar raiser, we had introductions and she’s sweet. Asked 4-5 lp’s but upfront she asked me to not to repeat stories and for every story she didn’t let me complete the star format, she cuts me off ( very politely ) and starts asking like questions by herself, like what’s the situation? What did you do? How did you communicate this? What was the outcome? Who is the incharge of this? Like really going deep at time i felt like she didn’t believed my story lol, but she always kept telling me that she need to take the notes and sorry for cutting me off. She took notes through out the interview. And at the last 5 min we chatted a bit about amazon and she’s really sweet. But i fumbled a bit with nervousness during ghis interview.

Idk how i feel about this, but i wish i could have done bar raiser better. Since it’s going to have a veto power in the loop

I’m aware it says upto 5 days but wanted to hear your experience.

Edit: I got inclided for the role! Negotiating pay now.