I applied through college or university. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2011
Interview
The interviewer from Amazon wore very causal cloth, for example jeans, which shows their culture. The conversation was nice and relaxing. It is a behavior-based interview. The interviewer asked several basic background question then went to behavior-based questions. The interviewer did not ask about many aspect, but for each aspect he went very deeply based on your answer, such as problem solving, how to handle ambiguity, what's your biggest achievement.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Provide an example about the task without specific instruction.
I applied online. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Amazon in May 2009
Interview
Initial contact was from someone in Seattle,WA even though the job is in the East. The questions were brief, just your typical phone screen--I was asked about my interest in the role, why I was interested, and went through a brief review of my resume and work experience. The interviewer kept focusing on the fact that I didn't go to a "top tier" business school...felt kinda offended, since not all of us were able to get our degree right out of high school and/or have Mommy and Daddy pay for it.
Second interview was much more structured, and involved a conference call with the Site Director and HR Manager for the location I had applied to. The interview is behavioral based; here are some of the questions:
"Tell me about a time you helped to implement a positive change in your company"
"Describe a time when you had to prioritize competing tasks...how did you do this and what was the outcome?"
"Tell me about a time you disagreed with a supervisor. What did you do, and what was the outcome?"
During the structured interview, the interviewers told me more about the job, such as walking miles per day would be required (not a problem), and that "long hours" would be required. When I inquired about the definition of "long hours", the interviewers informed me they meant the typical day would be 12+ hours.
About a week after I did the phone interview, I received an email that I had not been selected.