Amazon Leadership Principles Cheat Sheet with Prompts
The Amazon Leadership Principles cheat sheet compiles the 16 current principles with their official wording and one targeted STAR interview prompt for each.
Complete List of the 16 Principles
Amazon publishes the full set of principles on its jobs site and in an official PDF. The list below matches the wording from those primary documents and pairs each principle with a concise behavioral prompt suitable for interview preparation.
| Principle | Official Wording | STAR Prompt |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Obsession | Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. | Describe a time you started with the customer and worked backwards to solve a problem. |
| Ownership | Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. | Tell me about a time you acted on behalf of the entire company beyond your own team. |
| Invent and Simplify | Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. | Give an example of when you simplified a complex process or invented a new solution. |
| Are Right, A Lot | Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. | Share a situation where you sought diverse perspectives to test your own beliefs. |
| Learn and Be Curious | Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them. | Describe a time you explored a new possibility to improve your skills or work. |
| Hire and Develop the Best | Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent and willingly move them throughout the organization. | Tell me about a time you coached someone or moved exceptional talent through the organization. |
| Insist on the Highest Standards | Leaders have relentlessly high standards. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed. | Give an example of when you raised standards and ensured defects did not move downstream. |
| Think Big | Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers. | Describe a time you set a bold direction that inspired results beyond the obvious path. |
| Bias for Action | Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking. | Tell me about a time you made a reversible decision quickly without extensive study. |
| Frugality | Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. | Share a situation where you delivered results with limited resources or budget. |
| Earn Trust | Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. | Describe a time you were vocally self-critical or benchmarked your team against the best. |
| Dive Deep | Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. | Give an example of when you audited metrics that conflicted with direct observation. |
| Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit | Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly. | Tell me about a time you respectfully challenged a decision and later committed fully. |
| Deliver Results | Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle. | Describe a time you delivered key inputs on time despite setbacks. |
| Strive to be Earth's Best Employer | Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. | Share an example of when you supported employee growth or improved the work environment. |
| Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility | Leaders create more than they consume and always leave things better than how they found them. | Tell me about a time you considered the broader impact of your actions on the community or environment. |
Preparing for Amazon Interviews Using the Principles
Interview preparation resources map real questions to these principles and recommend the STAR method for responses. Candidates benefit from selecting one strong example per principle and practicing concise delivery that highlights measurable outcomes. Several guides note that Amazon interviewers often probe for evidence of customer focus and ownership even when the stated question references another principle.
Applying the Principles Beyond Interviews
Amazon states that the principles guide daily decisions on projects and problem solving. Teams use them to evaluate new ideas, resolve disagreements, and set performance expectations. External professionals can adopt the same framework to structure feedback, prioritize work, and maintain long-term focus when resources are limited. The final two principles added in recent years emphasize employee development and broader societal impact, reflecting the company’s growth since its garage origins.
Key Sources for Verification
- Leadership Principles
- Leadership Principles PDF
- Amazon Leadership Principles question bank
- Amazon Leadership Principles 2026 Interview Guide
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