How 6 Weeks of Preparation Helped Me Nail My AWS Interview

Why Rushing Your MAANG+ Interview Could Cost You the Job

Hey, Prasad here 👋 I'm the voice behind the weekly newsletter "Big Tech Careers."

What if spending an extra 6 weeks could transform your interview outcome and fast-track your big tech career? Here's how I did it for my AWS loop interview—and why you can too!

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Big Tech Interview Preparation Workshop | Book a Free 1:1 Discovery call

As I announced in my last week’s newsletter, I'm launching a Big Tech Interview Preparation workshop to help you land a job at MAANG+ in 2025 with proven strategies and expert guidance!

I’ve been getting a questions about whether it’s the right fit for different people. To answer your questions, I'm offering a 20-minute free 1-on-1 call until Sunday, November 17.

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• Any questions you have related to the workshop.

• Whether this workshop is truly suited to your goals and needs.

• What you'll learn in this workshop and how it applies to your career journey.

• Discounts upto 25% that are available at this time.

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This call will help you make an informed decision and see if this workshop will help you land your dream MAANG+ role in 2025.

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In last week’s article, I shared that success in MAANG+ interviews is directly proportional to the amount of time and effort you spend in preparation.

One of my connections reached out with the following message:

How much time should one take to prepare for interviews with big tech companies? Will recruiters give us time to prepare? What if I take too long and the position gets closed?

My response:

Recruiters will provide you as much time as you need. Yes, maybe the position gets filled. Even if you interview immediately, the risk of being overtaken by another candidate remains, as someone else may have interviewed for the same position days ago.

However, if you go unprepared, you'll get rejected and the doors will close with that company for 3 to 6 months. But if you prepare well and go, even if that position gets closed, you will be considered for another position.

So, take as much time as you need. Do not rush into an interview.

For some it might be a week, for some it might be a couple of weeks, and for others it might be even longer.

For me, I took 6 additional weeks to prepare for the AWS Loop interview!

Timeline of my AWS interview process

• April 26, 2019 - AWS recruiter call - initial screening

• May 16, 2019 - First phone interview (technical)

• May 28, 2019 - Second phone interview (behavioural)

• July 22, 2019 - AWS loop interview [5 interviews in one day]

As you can see from the timeline:

• I took 3 weeks between the recruiter call and the first phone interview.

• I took 2 weeks between the first and second phone interviews.

• And then I took almost 8 weeks for my final AWS loop interview.

After I cleared my second phone screen, I was asked to provide my availability for the next 2-3 weeks to schedule the loop interview.

I took stock of the amount of preparation I needed to do, my current personal and professional commitments, and estimated that I needed at least 8 weeks to prepare properly.

I requested an additional 6 weeks to prepare for my loop interview, and the recruiter graciously agreed.

Estimating the preparation time

The million-dollar question is: How does one estimate the time required to prepare for an interview?

In my case, I determined that I needed 8 weeks, drawing on several of my key strengths:

• The ability to comprehend requirements thoroughly - in this case, understanding what AWS interviews entail

• The skill to identify personal gaps - both in technical knowledge and behavioral competencies

• The capacity to accurately estimate time needed to address these gaps - I developed a detailed plan to fill each identified gap

• The foresight to include buffer time - recognizing that peak performance isn't sustainable every day

All of these factors together led me to estimate a preparation time of 8 weeks.

Most people take 2 weeks to prepare for interviews.

I took 8 weeks.

And that extra 6 weeks made all the difference.

In the following section, I will demonstrate the exact process I used to estimate and plan my preparation for the AWS interview loop.

Hopefully, this information will help you estimate and create your own interview preparation plan.

Understanding the requirements of AWS loop interview

My preparation consisted of three key components:

1. Completing the AWS assignment

2. Preparing for the technical interview

3. Preparing for the behavioral interview

Completing AWS Assignment [3 weeks]

While the AWS assignment for loop interviews isn't an elimination round, it must be completed before proceeding to the AWS loop.

As part of the Solutions Architect role application, I received an AWS CloudFormation script that provisioned infrastructure for a simple web app. The challenge was to fix the non-loading web app.

The assignment extended beyond just technical troubleshooting. It required writing a document including documenting of the troubleshooting steps, plus short-term and long-term recommendations for improving the app's architecture.

This proved especially challenging for me as I had ZERO cloud computing experience—I wasn't even familiar with CloudFormation.

I needed to learn AWS, resolve the issue, and document the entire process.

It became an opportunity to demonstrate the "Learn and Be Curious" principle.

I broke down my timeline as follows:

• 1 week: Complete the AWS Solutions Architect Associate course from A Cloud Guru

• 1 week: Do hands-on to deepen and consolidate my AWS knowledge

• 1 week: Fix the web app, create the document and complete the assignment

The three-week timeline primarily reflected my complete lack of Cloud/AWS experience. Those with existing AWS expertise could likely complete this assignment within a week.

Preparing for Technical Interview [1 week]

I was interviewing for the role of Specialist Solutions Architect focusing on Microsoft Workloads on AWS. The role involved helping customers migrate and modernize their Microsoft workloads, such as .NET applications and SQL servers, to AWS.

My technical interview preparation had two main components:

• Refreshing my existing technical knowledge

• Strengthening my AWS expertise

The AWS knowledge component was already being addressed through my assignment preparation. Therefore, I allocated one week specifically to refresh my other technical skills.

Preparing for Behavioral Interviews [4 weeks]

My research indicated that behavioral interviews would be the most critical component of AWS loop interview.

I allocated 4 weeks, breaking it down as follows:

1. Week 1: Deep dive into AWS leadership principles through articles, videos, and other resources

2. Week 2: Document personal experiences, gather relevant data, and align them with AWS leadership principles

3. Week 3: Structure experiences into STAR format stories and create detailed scripts

4. Week 4: Practice story delivery through recording and self-review

Most candidates underestimate the preparation required for behavioral interviews.

Ask any experienced interviewer at MAANG+ why candidates fail their interviews.

Their #1 reason is consistent:

💡 Smart technical professionals who can't clearly articulate their past work. They ramble too much, miss the main points, and can't explain their decision-making process.

I followed 4 steps to prepare for behavioral questions:

1️⃣ Understanding Amazon Leadership Principles (LPs)

I focused on two key resources:

• "The Amazon Leadership Principles - A Complete Interview Guide" by Dave Anderson

• Interview Genie's Amazon Interview resources by Jennifer Scupi

Being a paper-and-pen person, I printed these materials and studied them extensively to understand:

• The meaning behind each Amazon Leadership Principle

• Common behavioral questions

• How to structure STAR format responses

2️⃣ Story Identification and LP Mapping

First, I documented significant career experiences:

• Brainstormed both successes and failures

• Wrote detailed accounts of the experiences

• Captured as many details as possible without worrying about structure

Then, I created a mapping system:

• Collected and categorized behavioral questions by LP

• Matched my stories to relevant LPs

• Noted that stories often demonstrate multiple LPs, and each LP can be shown through various stories

3️⃣ STAR Format Structuring

To organize my stories effectively:

• Referenced example answers from my research materials

• Structured each story into the STAR components

• Invested significant time in writing out complete STAR responses

4️⃣ Practice and Refinement

My practice routine included:

• Speaking stories aloud in front of a mirror

• Recording and reviewing my responses

• Incorporating feedback and improvements iteratively

• Preparing for follow-up questions

Every time, I would find ways to improve the story.

It's an iterative process to get my stories right.

My AWS Interview Outcome

I'm grateful to this day that I didn't rush into the interview and took the necessary time to prepare thoroughly.

Investing time in behavioral interview preparation and gaining expertise in STAR format storytelling yielded significant benefits:

• I cleared the AWS interview on my first attempt

• I was hired at the level I applied for (L6)

• I was promoted from Senior (L6) to Principal (L7) within 2.5 years at AWS

You might wonder how behavioral interview preparation contributed to my promotion.

Learning about Amazon Leadership Principles and STAR format storytelling helped me understand the kind of impact I needed to make in my AWS role and how to effectively articulate that impact in my promotion document.

Here's an interesting fact: I was promoted at AWS on my first attempt. But that's a story for another article or series of articles.

The key takeaway is that STAR format storytelling is a superpower that accelerates careers.

And it takes time to gain expertise and create/maintain your story bank.

When you can effectively articulate your experience—both technical and leadership—you'll likely progress in your career faster than most people.

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Live Workshop - Book a Free 1:1 Discovery call

To help you achieve expertise on STAR format storytelling and land a job at MAANG+ companies in 2025, I’m hosting a 9-day live workshop!

Here is the link to the workshop - https://maven.com/prasad-rao/big-tech-interview-workshop

I'll let you go through the link for the full course syllabus and schedule, but below are key highlights:

• Discover how to craft stories that captivate hiring managers, showcase your leadership and technical skills, and position yourself as the ideal candidate for your dream MAANG+ role.

• You'll learn how to effectively showcase your existing technical expertise, highlight your achievements, and articulate your leadership experiences during interviews.

Book your Free 20 mins 1:1 discovery call with me

Spots are limited! Book your free 20-minute discovery call before Sunday, November 17, to start your journey toward a MAANG+ role in 2025.

In this call, we’ll cover:

• Any questions you have related to the workshop.

• Whether this workshop is truly suited to your goals and needs.

• What you'll learn in this workshop and how it applies to your career journey.

• Discounts upto 25% that are available at this time.

You can book your FREE call here: https://cal.com/bigtechcareers/20min

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