Amazon Assessment Test Online Preparation & Tips – 2024
Are you interested in applying for a position at Amazon? Perhaps you are wondering how you can prepare and practice for Amazon’s difficult recruitment process and psychometric exams? If so, this article will aid you in your preparation by discussing the details of Amazon’s rigorous recruitment process and pre-employment assessments. In addition to that, on the sub-pages of this article, you can find tips and answers for questions about specific assessments required for positions in financial or data analysis and machinery maintenance.
What Is Amazon?
Amazon is the world’s largest online e-commerce marketplace and cloud computing platform. The multinational technology company focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, and they are based in Seattle, Washington. The company has many different subsidiaries including Audible, Whole Foods Market, AbeBooks, and Zappos. The second largest private employer in the United States, Amazon employs around 1,608,000 employees globally. The company offers job seekers positions in fields such as customer service, IT, data analytics, machinery maintenance, and financial analytics.
What Is Amazon’s Hiring Process?
Amazon has one of the most rigorous recruitment processes and battery of assessments amongst companies that use assessments to screen applicants. The company requires applicants to go through multiple interviews and many different tests to weed out the job seekers who are not fit for the position. The process is outlined below:
Initial Screening
The process begins with the candidate’s application, which should be submitted online through Amazon’s job application page. The job seeker’s application will be screened through the system along with the candidate’s online aptitude exam answers. Once it is reviewed and approved by the hiring managers, the graduate or job seeker will be offered an onsite interview.
Amazon Interview Process
Amazon’s onsite interview, which follows the initial screening, involves basic behavioural questions and case study questions. There will typically be two interviews that last roughly forty-five minutes apiece. Applicants may also be asked to complete the TTI—Talent Style Insights V3—assessment. This interview process is intended to establish whether the applicant is a good fit for the company and has the leadership principles Amazon follows. The interviewer is trying to establish that the applicant:
Is customer-oriented
Takes ownership of their actions
Thinks about how they fit into the big picture
Is action-oriented
Sticks to their decision and will not break under pressure
Delivers results
As you prepare for interviews, focus on orienting answers to common questions around these areas of character that Amazon will be trying to assess. Understand that the company will not hire the first person they interview solely to hire someone and respect that. The hiring process may require the applicant to go through several phone interviews, a day at the company’s office with an interview, and a final interview.
How to Prepare for Amazon Assessments?
Amazon’s recruitment process involves a multitude of pre-employment aptitude tests and psychometric exams. The first one completed will be done online in the screening process along with the job seeker’s application. The pre-employment aptitude tests will be numerical and verbal reasoning tests and are completed online once you have successfully completed the online application stage. These tests are rigorous not because the content is difficult but because the time restraint can be stressful. This allows Amazon to further screen graduates and job seekers in the hiring process. Utilise the following information and tips to help focus your preparation. As you prepare for your assessments, be certain your preparation involves practice for the following types of exams:
Numerical reasoning test Amazon’s numerical reasoning test is timed, and this makes the most difficult part of this test managing time while completing it. The test will involve sections with tables, charts, and other forms of data. Applicants will need to analyse the given information and answer the questions quickly. Focus on being able to interpret data quickly and accurately to be ready for this exam.
Verbal reasoning test The verbal reasoning test is designed to test the job seeker’s work level. It helps the hiring manager to assess the applicant more thoroughly than a typical CV and application would. Amazon will use this exam to test the job seekers’ abilities to extract relevant information from passages of text that they have not seen previously. The test focuses on critical thinking skills and the candidate’s ability to determine what statements are true, false, or unclear based on the information provided. This test may be more difficult for non-native English speakers due to the comprehension aspect, but with practice, non-native speakers should be able to pass the test as well.
Diagrammatic/logical reasoning test This exam, unlike other non-verbal reasoning tests, will test a candidate’s ability to infer a set of rules from a series of operators and outputs. The candidate will then be required to use that set of rules in new situations unrelated to the initial scenario. In this way, Amazon can assess a potential employee’s reasoning in a more focused, specific way than the other non-verbal reasoning assessments can provide. Read more about diagrammatic and logical reasoning tests.
Personality test While there are not necessarily any right or wrong answers according to those who administer personality tests, specific jobs may require specific types of personality traits. Examining the position applied for to determine what qualities the hiring managers may be looking for in the hiring process will help you when taking this test so that you can answer questions in the best way for your position. Take the time to practice and prepare by taking a personality test and considering how you might choose answers in light of the job you have applied for.
Amazon work style assessment The Amazon work style assessment test is geared toward screening job-seekers in the recruitment process. Not all candidates may be required to do this pre-employment assessment, but interns and graduates will have to do so. The test is part of the second set of online assessments candidates complete before interviewing. The most important tip for taking this test is to read carefully and choose the responses to the questions that best describe you.
Case study test For this psychometric assessment, Amazon provides job-seekers with a hypothetical business issue. The point of the case study exam is to demonstrate strong reasoning skills, out-of-the-box thinking, an ability to brainstorm, and an aptitude for finding the best solutions. To succeed at this test, candidates should take time to identify the information which is most important and should be able to think on their feet.
SJT The SJT—or situational judgment test—is a common test that most applicants will be required to complete. The SJT is geared toward bringing classroom and textbook knowledge out into real-world work scenarios. The test grades applicants on aptitude and hands-on expertise, so preparation is essential for a good score on this exam. Without the preparation, chances of doing well on Amazon’s STJ test are small.
Role-play This psychometric exam is not required in the hiring process for every position, but it may be for yours, so preparing and practising for this sort of exercise is important. The exercise will be based on a scenario provided, and applicants are assessed based on behaviour, knowledge, and their method of handling specific scenarios. The scenarios will relate to types of situations the applicant may need to manage in the job. The point of the assessment is to assess both an understanding of the position’s obligations and the applicant’s ability to think on the go.
Group exercise The group exercise assessment may not be required for every role, but it is wise to practice for this exam because it is a common one that Amazon uses to assess job-seekers’ abilities to work in a team and to solve problems with that team. This assessment will have a set time-limit, and it could take several forms. The team may be asked to solve a work-related problem or to work on some other fictional situation to come to a resolution with the team. The essential tips for this exam are to work as part of the team, stay calm and assertive—but do not become aggressive—and include others. Remember that the goal is to solve the problem as a group, and everyone in the group has something to bring to the table.
Written exercise The written exercise is another assessment that may not be required but is often used to screen applicants for the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. The pre-employment test will have two different questions, and the applicant will choose one to respond to. The assessment answer will be submitted online, typically through email, before the interview. Typical lengths of Amazon written exercises are around two pages, and no more than four pages are accepted. Keeping the exercise to around two pages helps to ensure that reviewers do not grow bored or restless due to busy schedules. When completing this exercise, the main focus should be on clarity of thought and expression, which involves proper organisation and structure in addition to thoroughly answering the question.
Typing test The typing assessment is one of the easier exams graduates and job-seekers may be required to take during the recruitment process. The test is used to measure the typing speed and accuracy of an applicant within a given time frame. Applicants’ speed and accuracy are used to determine their WPM (words per minute). Practice tests for this exam can help graduates and job-seekers with their preparation for this assessment by providing tips for improvement and by improving their typing speed and accuracy.
Once the candidate has completed the aptitude and psychometric testing portion of the hiring process, Amazon checks the candidate’s factual information, which was submitted at the start of the recruitment process, and does criminal, work, and educational background checks. The background checks required may vary from country to country, but if you are applying in the United States or European Union, you will need to wait for the background checks to be completed. If these run through without an issue, the company will extend an offer.
What Qualities Do Amazon Recruiters Look For?
The company has a very competitive job market with thousands of applicants at any given point. Because of this, Amazon has a rigorous list of values that recruiters and interviewers ask questions about. Applicants should prepare to gear their answers toward these values:
Customer-focused
Responsibility-driven
Results-oriented mindset
Innovation with simplicity
Accuracy
Big picture view
Frugality
Awareness of weaknesses
Respectfulness
All-in mentality
Willingness to disagree and stick with that decision
Results-driven
How to Prepare for Amazon’s Recruitment Process
Given the rigorous nature of Amazon’s hiring process, practising the aptitude tests and psychometric assessments and learning useful tips for taking them will be essential to your success. If you do not practice, you should not expect to succeed in taking Amazon’s assessments.
To aid you in the preparation process you can use, sample materials, examples, explanations, and practice simulations as you prepare. While you should prepare for the tests that are more generic, if your desired position has specific tests you know about, be sure those assessments are on the list of aptitude and psychometric exams that you practice.
Taking time to prepare and practice for interviews is as important as the preparation and practice you do for online psychometric and aptitude exams. Make sure that your preparation for the pre-employment process involves review of sample interview questions and preparing answers to those questions. Whenever you answer questions in an interview with Amazon, make sure that you frame your response around the qualities that the recruiters are looking for in the graduates and job seekers going through the hiring process. This will help you to ace the interview and prove to the interviewer screening applicants that you have the traits they want to see. Below, some sample questions and possible answers or guidelines and tips for answering are provided to aid you in your preparation for this part of the recruitment process.
What do you know about AWS? This question is testing basic knowledge about Amazon’s web services. Use the information below to answer this common question:AWS is a secure cloud services platform. It offers customers compute power, database storage, content delivery, and other functionalities to help businesses grow. The service is committed to running in the most environmentally friendly way possible and uses the cloud service to achieve that goal. The main goal of AWS is to help organisations move faster, lower IT costs, and scale.
What is your opinion about the main qualities an Amazon employee should have?In answering this question, your goal should be to show the interviewer that you carried out detailed and extensive research. You might respond with something similar to this:“From what I have learned, Amazon’s employees are hard-working. They know how to get the job done in the best way possible and with excellence. To fit in with Amazon’s culture, you would need to be just as hard-working and willing to do what it takes to do the job the right way in the best manner possible. Previous jobs have taught me the importance of hard work, and I believe I would be a good fit for Amazon’s hard-working environment.”
Can you give an example of a conflict you had in a previous job and how you dealt with it? This question has many possible answers and is highly personalised. Your experience with conflict will not be the same as someone else’s. However, to guide your answer, take time to consider what the qualities Amazon is looking for are. Then shape your answer to show how you fit the qualities desired in that conflict.
Whichever way you choose to answer the questions asked in your interview, always bring your answers back to the ways you fit the company’s needs and culture because this is what recruiters want to assess throughout the hiring process.
Conclusion
Looking at this, you may be feeling overwhelmed by Amazon’s intense and comprehensive hiring process. The list of examinations and necessary qualifications may seem daunting, but with proper preparation and practice, you will be able to excel in your exams and your interviews. Preparation really is the key to doing well in Amazon’s assessment centre and interview process. Without preparation, success is nearly impossible. However, keep in mind that gaining a job with Amazon is not impossible. Their goal is to hire the right person for the job, so if you prove that you are the right person, you’ll land the job.
