Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer Interview Guide
An Amazon job is one of the most coveted positions in the tech industry, and the reason is not far-fetched. The tech giant provides a great work environment with competitive salaries for its staff. A lot of people apply to work in the growing company.
Therefore, it is no wonder that the employment process for the company is rigorous and often shrouded in mystery. But, we are here to demystify it for you. Do you want to work as a Business Intelligence Engineer at Amazon? This guide provides all the information you need to scale every part of the Amazon business intelligence interview.
General Overview of the Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer Interview
Amazon is a large company with several interests, different departments, and numerous teams. This complexity means an almost infinite amount of data is generated daily. Amazon business intelligence engineers analyze data and provide crucial insights to improve performance, working with other data-driven roles like data analysts.
Amazon business intelligence engineer (BIE) interview is not so different from the Amazon standard interview process. There are typically 1-2 phone interviews that last about 30 minutes, followed by an onsite interview that takes about 4-8 hours in one day.
These interviews will cover different questions, ranging from technical to behavioral questions. Amazon aims at employing people who are not only skilled at the technical aspect of what they do but also have the attitude of the “world’s best employees.”
You have to be ready to show that you have what it takes.
This interview guide contains all the details on how to prepare.
But before we go into the step-by-step, let’s give you a quick peep at the kind of teams and projects you can work with if you secure a Business Intelligence Engineer position at Amazon.
team-meeting
Types of Teams
There are over 100 internal product teams at Amazon within 40 departments, and each of these teams has a couple of BI engineers. You can apply to any of the teams seeking a Business Intelligence Engineer. Some of the teams at Amazon include;
Amazon Customer Service
Amazon Care
Amazon Books
Amazon Entertainment
Amazon Go
Amazon Alexa
Legal
Human Resources
Prime Video
Retail
Types of Projects
Depending on the team you’re assigned or applied to, you can work on different projects as a Business Intelligence Engineer. Some of those projects include;
Payment Infrastructure
Automated Inventory Management
Catalog Systems and Operations Organization
Customer Insights and Analytics
Transportation Risk, Compliance, or Marketing
How to Prepare for Business Intelligence Engineer Interview
Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer Interview follows the structure of other technical Amazon interviews. You get two phone interviews, asserting you’re fit for the role, and an onsite interview. Each of these interviews is unique, and you need to prepare for them separately.
Initial Phone Interview
The first interview covers basic questions about your work experience. The goal here is to see that you can do the job. Study every part of your resume closely and be ready to answer questions on it.
You might also be asked to give reasons why you want to join that particular team on Amazon. Understand what the team does and how you fit into the role.
Be ready to talk about your previous projects, the challenges you encountered, how you solved them, and the skills you used. Your responses at this stage will determine if you get to the next stage.
Technical Phone Interview
The second phone interview is a live technical screening where you have to demonstrate your skills in SQL and Python. This interview stage only consists of about five questions, given in order of increased difficulty.
Note that it is not the only technical screening you will have to do. You’ll still have to demonstrate your technical skills in the onsite interview. The questions could also span business analytics and data visualization.
It would help if you prepared to show your ability to solve the questions and business acumen and presentation skills. You want the interviewer to see that you can take corporate data and make accurate business decisions.
Onsite Interview
Once you get to this stage, it is time to buckle up tighter. This interview consists of 5 one-to-one interviews spanning about 45 minutes to one hour with a lunch break. You will get interviewed by Amazon’s Business Intelligence Engineers, data scientists, and a hiring manager.
The goal is to see that you can solve real-life Amazon problems, so expect a lot of scenario-based questions. Ensure you understand Amazon’s history and structure beforehand. We also cannot overemphasize understanding Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles.
Be ready for more questions like those of the technical interview. You will be asked statistics, data science, business analytics, and SQL questions. You might also have to complete whiteboard exercises with the interviewers.
Each interview round is essential as each interviewer has an equal say in the hiring decision. However, there is one, the bar raiser, who has the veto power to reject you, regardless of how you perform in other rounds.
This interviewer checks if you are a good fit for the company and not just good at your job. You must show that you’re better than at least 50% of Amazon employees to pass this round. This interviewer is not known to you, though. So, you have to ace each interview.
Tips for the Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer Interview
Practice answering possible questions, especially for the queries
Brush up on your skills in SQL and ETL processes. It would also help to know how to use different business intelligence solutions like Tableau and AWS.
Use the STAR method in answering the situation-based questions.
Get familiar with Amazon’s 14 leadership principles. It is the Amazon Bible, and many questions will come from it. Know stories about you that apply to the leadership principles.
Be yourself and don’t be nervous. There is no need to tell lies or cook up stories. If you don’t have the technical skill, you can tell them NO.
However, there are skills you must be prepared to show your abilities in as they are crucial to the execution of the job.
Soft Skills Required
Communication skills
As an Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer, you will have to communicate with professionals at different levels and teams. Your interview should reflect that you have proper communication skills and ethics.
Leadership skills
Amazon expects every employee to be a leader, regardless of role or level. Therefore, leadership skills are a vital requirement of the employment process.
Technical Skills Required
Knowledge of Tech Tools
As a Business Intelligence Engineer, you need specific tools to carry out your duties, and it is essential to show your knowledge of these tools in your interview. For the role of an Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer, you’ll be expected to have a working knowledge of SQL, ETL tools, Data Analytics and Visualization, Python, Statistics, and related tools.
Experience
Learning how to use the tools is not enough to land you an Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer role. Your work experience should reflect activities connected to the role. You should be able to create and maintain data pipelines, do relational and dimensional data modeling, and use SQL as a Business Intelligence Engineer.
Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer Questions
You can’t guess all the questions for your interview and shouldn’t try. However, you can prepare by knowing the possible questions. We have some questions you might encounter in behavioral and SQL interviews. It will help you know the structure of the questions and prepare your answers.
Business Intelligence Engineer Behavioral Interview Questions
Who is the most important person to you and why?
Tell me about a skill you recently acquired.
What did you do to improve a project you worked on, and did it work?
Tell me about a time you would have done something differently if you didn’t do it in haste.
How do you get shareholders on a project to trust you?
Business Intelligence Engineer SQL Interview Questions
What are the different types of joins in SQL?
Can you describe a join to someone who knows nothing about tech?
How do you carry out query optimization?
Write an SQL query to get the desired output.
How do you use the WHERE and GROUP clause?
Conclusion
Amazon Business Intelligence Engineer Interview is not as hard as many think it is. You only need the necessary skills and experience, and the job is as good as yours. This Amazon business intelligence engineer interview guide provides every detail you need to secure the job, from questions to the interview structure. So, good luck and ace that interview!
FAQs
What is a Business Intelligence Engineer at Amazon?
An Amazon business intelligence engineer works alongside data analysts, product managers, business leaders, data engineers, and scientists to improve customer experience. Their job is to analyze data and provide insights for actions. They can work on different teams and projects on Amazon.
What is the Salary of a Business Intelligence Engineer at Amazon?
An Amazon business intelligence engineer gets paid an average of $103,719 per year. This figure varies based on your experience, region, and qualifications. You should also note that the role comes with benefits and the possibility of a salary increase.
What do Business Intelligence Engineers do?
Business Intelligence Engineers use analytical and business intelligence tools to facilitate decision-making. They go beyond data analysis to interpreting the data for meaningful insights. These insights help to improve customer satisfaction and profits.
