What Are Amazon Leadership Principles?

Full Definition

Amazon's Leadership Principles (LPs) are not abstract values: they are operational evaluation criteria used in every interview, performance review, and promotion case at Amazon. The 16 principles are: Customer Obsession, Ownership, Invent and Simplify, Are Right A Lot, Learn and Be Curious, Hire and Develop the Best, Insist on the Highest Standards, Think Big, Bias for Action, Frugality, Earn Trust, Dive Deep, Have Backbone Disagree and Commit, Deliver Results, Strive to be Earth's Best Employer, and Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility (the last two were added in 2021). In interviews, every behavioral question maps to one or more LPs. The interviewer takes notes against the principle, and the hiring committee votes per-principle on whether the candidate met the bar. Candidates are expected to come with 2-3 distinct stories per LP, totaling ~30-50 stories in their behavioral story bank. Failing a single LP is often disqualifying. The bar raiser (a senior Amazonian assigned to the loop) explicitly grades against LP fit. Preparation typically involves: building a story matrix (LP rows, stories columns) where each story is taggable to 2-3 LPs, drilling STAR structure until stories run 90-150 seconds each, and having distinct stories for 'failure' and 'conflict' questions (the most commonly under-prepared categories).