12 min read
The phrase amazon online assessment does not describe one test. Amazon publishes two separate official pages for its software-engineering assessment alone, and they describe two different exams — one has a section the other does not. Add the versions for internships, analyst roles and AWS positions and the single phrase covers exams that overlap only partly — and diverge exactly where preparation time goes.
That is why so much preparation misses. Candidates practise the format they read about, not the one they are sent. Here is what Amazon actually documents, where the versions diverge, and how to tell which one is coming.
Key takeaways
- Amazon’s university/new-grad SDE assessment lists a 60-minute Work Simulation and does not list a system design section. Its SDE II assessment lists a system design section and does not list a Work Simulation. Both pages are official, and neither mentions the other.
- Amazon states outright that the structure varies: “Depending on the country the role is in, the OA will be in one or two parts.” Your invitation email is the only reliable source for your own format.
- Coding time tracks level — an average of 70 minutes for university/intern SDE, 90 minutes for SDE II. Amazon states two questions for SDE II; the university page gives no number, though candidate accounts consistently report two.
- Amazon logs your browser activity during the coding section and permits public references but not logins or private repos. Using print screen ends the session.
Amazon Publishes Two Different SDE Assessments
This is the clearest evidence that the search term is doing too much work. Amazon maintains one assessment page for university and internship software-engineering roles and a separate one for SDE II. Neither links to the other. Their contents differ in a way that matters enormously if you prepare from the wrong one.
| Section | University / new-grad SDE | SDE II |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | average time: 70 minutes | 90 minutes, 2 questions |
| Work Simulation | 60 minutes | — not listed |
| System design | — not listed | approximately 15 minutes |
| Work style | 15 minutes | approximately 10 minutes |
| Feedback survey | 5 minutes | approximately 1 minute |
| Total guidance | “up to two hours of uninterrupted time” | Seven days from the date sent; Amazon also recommends reserving two hours |
Read the two columns side by side and the problem is obvious. A candidate preparing for an SDE II assessment by reading new-grad advice will spend an hour rehearsing a Work Simulation that is not in their exam, and no time at all on the system design section that is. A new graduate reading SDE II advice does the reverse.
The internship version is different again: it drops the Work Simulation entirely, and Amazon says it “takes about 90 minutes to complete” rather than up to two hours.
One official page lists a system design section and no work simulation. The other lists a work simulation and no system design. Both describe the Amazon online assessment.
Amazon Says the Format Varies, in Its Own Words
You do not have to infer the variation. The official university SDE page states it: “Depending on the country the role is in, the OA will be in one or two parts. Check your OA email to determine your OA structure.”
That single sentence undercuts every guide that presents a fixed section list as the format. It also gives you the correct first move, which almost no preparation article leads with: open your invitation email and read what it says you are being sent. That email is authoritative for your assessment in a way that no third-party guide, including this one, can be.
It is worth knowing what the assessment is for, too. Amazon describes it as evaluating “coding skills, technical problem solving, and Amazon’s Leadership Principles,” and is explicit that “No Amazon-specific knowledge is needed to complete the OA successfully.” Time spent memorising Amazon trivia is time wasted.
What Is Actually in the Coding Section
The coding section is the most consistently reported part, and the accounts broadly agree with the official pages. Two problems. Seventy minutes at university and intern level, ninety at SDE II. The difficulty most commonly reported is LeetCode-medium, with candidates describing one easier problem and one harder.
One first-hand account on LeetCode Discuss adds a detail worth knowing: “The first section featured two medium-level Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) problems with a 70-minute time limit. Each problem had 15 test cases (2 public and 13 private).” If that split holds for your assessment, passing the two visible cases tells you very little.
For SDE II, Amazon is specific that submissions must be “syntactically correct code—no pseudo code.” It also notes, in full, that “While the 90-minute Coding Challenge is the only timed section, we recommend you reserve two hours to complete the OA.” The untimed sections still have to be finished: “To successfully submit your assessment, you must complete all sections.” Skipping the behavioural parts is not an option.
The Rules Almost No Guide Mentions
Amazon publishes conduct rules for the coding section that are more permissive than most candidates assume in one direction and stricter in another. Both are worth reading before you start.
On references, verbatim: “During the Coding Assessment, you’re allowed to use publicly accessible online resources (e.g., the Java Developer Kit or Standard Template Library). Don’t access sites that require a login or are private repositories. Your browser usage is logged.”
So language documentation is fair game. Anything behind a login is not, and Amazon says plainly that it is watching which is which.
On the mechanics, also verbatim: “Don’t use the print screen functionality, because your session will be terminated, and you’ll be locked out. Avoid copying and pasting in the assessment. We expect this to be your own code.”
Ending your own assessment by reflexively screenshotting a problem statement is an avoidable way to fail, and it is documented on Amazon’s own page rather than buried in a terms-of-service link.
The Debugging Section Prep Content Still Teaches
Search for practice material and you will find guides describing a debugging round: a section where you fix logical errors in supplied code rather than write your own. One archived account of a 2021 campus assessment describes it as a “Simple code debugging section, in which you have to fix the basic logical errors in the code like brackets in for loop etc,” alongside an aptitude round of roughly 25 questions.
Neither section appears on either of Amazon’s current SDE assessment pages, and none of the 2025 or 2026 first-hand accounts we found reports encountering them.
Be careful how you read that. We could not find any source, official or otherwise, documenting that Amazon removed these sections — only that current documentation does not list them and current candidates do not describe them. That is weaker than a removal notice, and given how much the format varies by role and country, the honest conclusion is that debugging drills are a low priority rather than a proven waste.
Where the Accounts Genuinely Disagree
Preparation guides tend to present one tidy structure. The real accounts do not line up that neatly, and the disagreements are informative.
- How long you actually get. Amazon’s page advises setting aside up to two hours. One candidate account describes a window of five and a half hours with an expected completion time of about ninety minutes. Those are not necessarily contradictory — a deadline window is not working time — but a candidate expecting a two-hour countdown and receiving a multi-hour window will misjudge their pacing badly.
- What the non-coding sections are called. Amazon’s university page lists a “Work Simulation.” A detailed April 2026 candidate write-up instead describes a “Workplace Judgment / Situational Judgement Test” and a separate “Business Case / Trade-off Evaluation,” and never uses the phrase Work Simulation at all. Whether that is the same instrument described differently or a genuinely different battery is not something we could resolve.
- Timed or untimed. The SDE II page says the coding challenge is the only timed section. Candidate accounts give minute estimates for the later sections while noting they carry no time limit. It is easy to mistake an estimate for a countdown and rush answers that were never being clocked.
What About AI Tools?
Amazon’s position on AI assistance during hiring is documented. Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan told GeekWire in March 2025 that the company prioritises candidates meeting a high technical bar, and that “when applicable candidates must acknowledge that they won’t use unauthorized tools, like GenAI, to support them during the interview or assessment process.” Note the qualifier: this is an acknowledgement Amazon requires where it applies, not a blanket statement about every assessment. Internal guidance seen by Business Insider and reported by IT Pro the same month reads: “To ensure a fair and transparent recruitment process, please do not use GenAI tools during your interview unless explicitly permitted,” adding that “Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in disqualification from the recruitment process.”
Beyond the ban itself, be sceptical of what circulates. There are claims that Amazon has added human-verified rounds or rebuilt the assessment around AI-assisted repository debugging in response to AI use. We could not confirm either. The human-verification claim traces to one candidate’s account of what a recruiter told her — and that candidate was sitting a multiple-choice SQL test for a business intelligence role, not the SDE assessment. One of the sites promoting the AI-assisted format concedes in its own text that “Amazon has not published one universal AI-assisted OA format.” Amazon’s live SDE pages describe neither.
How to Prepare for the Right Amazon Online Assessment
- Read the invitation email first. Amazon says the structure varies by country and tells you to check the email for yours. Do that before reading any guide, including this one.
- Match the guide to your level. University and intern advice describes a Work Simulation. SDE II advice describes a system design section. Using the wrong one wastes preparation on an exam you are not sitting.
- Budget the coding section properly. Two problems in 70 minutes at entry level, 90 at SDE II. Practising against that clock matters more than the total number of problems you have solved.
- Do not skip the behavioural sections. Amazon requires all sections to be completed for the assessment to submit, and the Leadership Principles are explicitly part of what is assessed.
- Skip the Amazon trivia. Amazon says no company-specific knowledge is needed. Spend that time on the coding clock instead.
For how other employers structure their screening tests, our coding assessment test guide covers the major platforms from the candidate’s side, and our Amazon software engineer interview guide covers what comes after the assessment. Amazon’s own university SDE online assessment page and its separate SDE II assessment page are the primary sources for the official material quoted above. The candidate accounts and news reports are attributed inline where they appear.
Amazon Online Assessment FAQ
How long is the assessment?+
It depends on the role. Amazon advises setting aside up to two hours for the full-time university SDE version and says the internship version takes about 90 minutes. The SDE II assessment gives you seven days from the date it is sent, with only the 90-minute coding challenge timed.
How many coding questions are there?+
Amazon states two questions for the SDE II assessment. The university page does not give a number, though candidate accounts consistently report two there as well. Time tracks level: Amazon gives an average of 70 minutes for university and intern SDE roles, and 90 minutes for SDE II.
Is there a system design section?+
On the SDE II assessment, yes — Amazon lists one at approximately 15 minutes. The university and internship versions do not list a system design section at all. This is the single biggest difference between the two official formats.
Can I look things up during the coding section?+
Public references are allowed — Amazon names the Java Developer Kit and Standard Template Library as examples. Sites requiring a login and private repositories are not, and Amazon states that your browser usage is logged. Print screen terminates the session. On AI, Amazon requires candidates, where applicable, to acknowledge that they will not use unauthorised tools including GenAI.
Do I need to know Amazon’s Leadership Principles?+
They are explicitly part of what the assessment evaluates, and the work style and simulation sections are built around them. But Amazon also states that no Amazon-specific knowledge is required to pass, so understand the principles rather than memorising them.
Is there still a debugging round?+
Not on either current official SDE page, and no recent first-hand account we found describes one. A debugging section did exist in older campus assessments and prep material still teaches it. Since Amazon has published no removal notice and the format varies by role and country, treat it as a low priority rather than a certainty either way.
The Honest Summary
A lot of bad preparation for the Amazon online assessment is not lazy. It is aimed at the wrong exam. Amazon runs several assessments under one name, documents two of the software-engineering versions on pages that do not acknowledge each other, and says openly that the structure changes by country.
The fix costs nothing. Open the invitation email, identify which version you have been sent, and only then decide what to practise. Everything else in this guide is secondary to that one step.
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