Amazon Machine Learning Interview Questions
11 machine learning questions reported by candidates who interviewed at Amazon, out of 499 Amazon questions we track. They average 3.5/5 difficulty (hard). Most common topics: Transformer, ML Knowledge, Medium Difficulty, PyTorch. 10 were reported asked within the last year, most recently in June 2026.
Practice Amazon questions →Difficulty
- 3/5 — medium7
- 4/5 — hard2
- 5/5 — very hard2
Asked for MLE (10), RS (9), SWE (2), RE (1)
Reported Amazon machine learning questions
LLM conceptual questions
3/5Dive into foundational theoretical concepts underpinning modern transformer architectures and large language models. This set of conceptual questions examines computational bottlenecks, such as the quadratic time and memory complexity associated with self-attention mechanisms relative to sequence length and embedding dimensions. It is an essential review for engineers preparing for rigorous machine learning system design interviews. Access the complete conceptual overview, detailed explanations, and expert answers with a subscription.
asked June 2026# Amazon OA - AI Assistant Repo Bug-Fix
3/5Experience a practical debugging simulation modeled after online assessments at Amazon, where candidates troubleshoot a malfunctioning web application using an integrated artificial intelligence assistant. The exercise emphasizes diagnostic proficiency, log analysis, and targeted code modification within a strict timeframe rather than algorithmic puzzle-solving. Master effective AI-assisted troubleshooting workflows and view comprehensive analysis by unlocking our full library of technical interview guides.
asked June 2026paper reading deep dive - amazon applied scientist interview
4/5Tackle a rigorous research paper analysis typical of applied scientist evaluations at Amazon, centered around modern large-scale architecture reports. This deep dive tests your comprehension of advanced distributed training techniques, specialized routing mechanisms, and hardware-aware parallelism strategies. Interviewers will probe the architectural trade-offs, advantages, and limitations of complex neural network designs. Unlock the full discussion breakdown, architectural insights, and model answers by subscribing today.
asked June 2026Work Simulation & Work Style Assessment (OA)
3/5As part of the software engineering assessment process at Amazon, applicants encounter a non-coding evaluation consisting of a situational judgment work simulation and a forced-choice work style survey. These modules test your professional decision-making capabilities across various realistic workplace scenarios and measure your alignment with corporate leadership principles through behavioral rankings. Review detailed guides, scoring strategies, and comprehensive assessment preparations by obtaining a full platform subscription.
asked June 2026Work StyleBehavioralOnline AssessmentTransformer / Attention Deep-Dive
3/5Prepare for Applied Scientist and machine learning engineering interviews at Amazon with this deep dive into transformer architectures. The session covers self-attention mechanics, mask implementation for encoders and decoders, multi-head configurations, and advanced optimization techniques. This topic heavily tests theoretical understanding and practical awareness of modern deep learning scaling methods. Access the complete technical breakdown and model responses with a paid subscription.
asked April 2026TransformerML KnowledgePyTorchML Breadth Orals — Linear / Logistic / Random Forest / Optimizers
3/5This Amazon Applied Scientist technical screening evaluates core machine learning knowledge through a rigorous conceptual discussion covering classical algorithms, regression foundations, loss functions, and optimization dynamics. Interviewees must explain underlying statistical assumptions, differentiate between gradient descent variants, and reason through feature selection methods in tree-based ensembles. Preparing for this round ensures readiness for deep theoretical follow-ups often posed by hiring managers. Unlocking the complete guide with expert answers requires a paid subscription.
asked April 2026ML KnowledgeMath ReasoningProbabilityLoRA and PEFT Variants
3/5This reported Amazon interview question explores advanced parameter-efficient fine-tuning techniques for large language models. It tests your conceptual understanding of low-rank adaptation methods, their combination with full training paradigms, quantization strategies, structural variations, and hyperparameter optimization choices. You will examine the trade-offs involved in adapting massive neural networks efficiently while managing compute resources. Access to the full problem breakdown and expert solutions requires an active subscription.
asked March 2026ML KnowledgeTransformerMedium DifficultyRLHF: PPO vs GRPO vs GSPO
5/5Dive into advanced reinforcement learning concepts by comparing prominent alignment techniques such as PPO, GRPO, and GSPO, based on applied scientist interviews at Amazon. This deep-dive examines the mathematical formulations behind clipped surrogate objectives, KL divergence penalties, group-based relative advantages, and how recent reasoning-focused models leverage these updates. You will also analyze reward model construction, mitigation strategies for reward hacking, and distributed training topologies. The complete analytical breakdown and model response guide require a subscription.
asked March 2026RlhfPpoGrpoPaper Read Round: Deep Critique and Production Translation
5/5This rigorous Amazon research review session assesses your capacity to critically analyze state-of-the-art machine learning literature and translate complex architectural concepts into practical production systems. During the evaluation, you will dissect advanced artificial intelligence papers, debating structural motivations, computational tradeoffs, and scaling limitations with your interviewer. The conversation focuses heavily on modern algorithmic innovations and how to deploy them effectively at scale. Unlocking the complete study guide, anticipated technical probes, and comprehensive breakdown requires a subscription.
asked March 2026Paper ReadingResearchDeep DiveHandwritten InfoNCE in PyTorch
3/5Implement a custom contrastive loss function from scratch in PyTorch during this simulated Amazon machine learning screening exercise. This task assesses your capability to translate mathematical formulation into efficient tensor operations, handle numerical stability, and construct gradient-compatible components for representation learning. You must carefully manage matrix multiplications, scaling factors, and dimension alignments to correctly compute similarity distributions across batches. Unlock the full problem statement, architectural insights, and production-ready model implementation by obtaining a subscription.
asked February 2026PyTorchTransformerContrastive LearningCompare PPO, DPO, and GRPO
4/5A conceptual question on modern methods for aligning language models with feedback. It checks whether you can state each training objective exactly, explain what data and auxiliary models each one requires, and choose sensibly between them for preference data, verifiable tasks and control problems.
asked July 2025DpoGrpoPpo
Recent Amazon interview experiences
Full loops shared by candidates, every round included.
amazon robotics interview
I found a lot of the interview posts here pretty helpful when I was prepping, so figured I'd share mine too. There doesn't seem to be that much info out there about Amazon Robotics. The process was two rounds, both a mix of behavioral questions and coding. Definitely don't underestimate the Leadership Principles. One of my rounds was pretty behavioral-heavy, so I'd recommend having a few good stories that you can adapt to different LPs instead of trying to memorize a separate answer for every single one. I also got some questions around how I use AI tools in my work/projects, so that's probably worth thinking about too.
Amazon AI-team phone — a GRPO deep-dive: parallelism, node comms, reward design (pass)
A referral phone screen for an Amazon AI team — almost entirely an ML deep-dive, and they went deep on recent RL-for-LLM work rather than any coding. Passed. Heads up: every Amazon round carries a behavioral chunk too.
Amazon in-person onsite — LP rounds + an OOD, genuinely pleasant
In-person onsite and, refreshingly, it was a good experience — food, coffee, decent energy, and no dreaded bar-raiser "dog" round for me. Sharing mostly because the in-person format made a real difference vs. virtual.
Amazon SDE3 onsite — LC445 variant + a nearest-machine vending LLD (fail)
SDE3 loop, didn't make it through. The phone was an add-two-numbers variant, and the low-level design was a genuinely fun one about auto-assigning the nearest stocked machine to a user.
Amazon Applied Scientist — science depth + a manager-tree coding, then a 1-year freeze (fail)
CS PhD, 5 YOE, coming from a Data Scientist/MLE role at a traditional midwest company. Two OA-style rounds and then a one-year HR freeze after the reject, which I'm still salty about. R1 was science depth; R2 a coding problem I ran out of time on.
Amazon machine learning interview FAQ
- What machine learning questions does Amazon ask?
- 11 reported machine learning questions, most often on Transformer, ML Knowledge, Medium Difficulty, PyTorch, Ppo.
- How hard is the Amazon machine learning interview?
- The reported machine learning questions average 3.5 out of 5: 7 at 3/5, 2 at 4/5, 2 at 5/5.
- Are these Amazon machine learning questions recent?
- The most recent report is from June 2026, and 10 were reported within the last twelve months. Dates come from the interview reports themselves.