As a Software Engineer at Prime Video, you are at the heart of one of the world’s most sophisticated streaming platforms. Your work directly influences how millions of users discover, watch, and interact with entertainment content. You will be tasked with building scalable, high-performance distributed systems that handle massive traffic spikes, ensuring low-latency delivery, and innovating on features that define the viewer experience. This role is critical to the Prime Video ecosystem because it operates at the intersection of extreme scale and high availability. Whether you are optimizing content delivery networks, refining recommendation algorithms, or developing robust backend services, your contributions directly impact the company’s ability to "deliver results" at a global scale. You will be expected to tackle complex architectural challenges and drive technical excellence within your team. This is a high-impact position that demands both deep technical proficiency and the ability to navigate ambiguity. You will work alongside talented engineers to solve problems that don’t have textbook solutions, making this an ideal environment for those who thrive on ownership and want their code to have a tangible, daily impact on a global user base.
Online Assessment
reportedInitial assessment to evaluate candidates' technical skills.
What to demonstrate
- Initial assessment to evaluate candidates' technical skills
- Depth in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: How would you implement an LRU cache from scratch using a hashmap and a doubly linked list?
- Answer aloud and timed: Given a list of meeting intervals, find the minimum number of conference rooms required.
Recruiter Screening
reportedDiscussion with a recruiter to assess fit for the role.
What to demonstrate
- Discussion with a recruiter to assess fit for the role
- Depth in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
How to prepare
- Be able to walk your CV end to end in two minutes, and say why this company specifically.
- Have your salary expectations, notice period and location constraints ready, and ask for the rest of the loop in writing.
Technical Rounds
reportedSeries of interviews focusing on technical coding or design.
What to demonstrate
- Series of interviews focusing on technical coding or design
- Depth in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Can you dry-run your code and explain the time and space complexity for your chosen approach?
- Answer aloud and timed: How would you design a streaming service architecture similar to Prime Video or Netflix?
Behavioral Rounds
reportedInterviews that assess behavioral competencies and cultural fit.
What to demonstrate
- Interviews that assess behavioral competencies and cultural fit
- Depth in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
How to prepare
- Prepare three examples from your own work, each with a decision you made and an outcome you can quantify.
- Re-read the description of the behavioral rounds above and write down what you would ask to confirm before it.
Interview Loop
reportedBack-to-back interviews with team members and a Bar Raiser.
What to demonstrate
- Back-to-back interviews with team members and a Bar Raiser
- Depth in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: What database selection criteria would you use for a highly available system, and why?
- Answer aloud and timed: How would you handle service discovery, load balancing, and fault tolerance in a distributed environment?
26 candidate reports. Individual accounts describe a particular role and hiring cycle.
Prime Video Software Engineer interview: LRU cache and eviction
My first real screen ran longer than expected and went deep into implementation. I was asked to design an LRU cache using a hashmap and doubly linked list while keeping eviction correct. The interviewer was direct and kept probing my approach, especially the eviction behavior and the reasoning behind it. The rest of the process added more technical depth along with behavioral interviews connected…
Read full experiencePrime Video Software Engineer Interview Experience: broad fundamentals and leadership themes
The process had a looping structure. It began with an online assessment, then moved through data structures and algorithms, basic OOP and DBMS concepts, and Amazon leadership principles. There was also an HR interview and a low-level design component, so the process covered a broad mix rather than one narrow subject. I learned about the steps as things progressed. The leadership-principle part st…
Read full experiencePrime Video Software Engineer Interview Experience: high-pressure coding and design rounds
I began with a LeetCode-style coding round and solved two DSA problems, one medium and one hard. I had to explain my thinking, cover edge cases, and give time and space complexity. The interviewer kept asking about alternative approaches and the trade-offs behind them. Next came system design. I worked through a problem resembling a scaled Amazon-style service and discussed API design, data model…
Read full experiencePrime Video Software Engineer Interview Experience: leadership, coding, and system design
After applying, I completed an online assessment and then spoke with a recruiter. About a week later, I entered an onsite loop. From the assessment through the final decision, the process took roughly a few months. The loop had multiple back-to-back rounds in one day, mixing technical and behavioral evaluation. Early on, the bar raiser focused on Amazon-style leadership principles. I used STAR-st…
Read full experiencePrime Video Software Engineer interview: DSA screening and technical loop
The Prime Video process opened with a conversation about my resume and experience, then moved immediately into technical work. The first serious step covered mid-to-hard DSA: dynamic programming, matrix-related problems, and graph questions. They wanted to hear the approach I planned to take before I started. The screening and loop followed what felt like a standard order. The phone interview was…
Read full experiencePracHub editorial advice for the preparation topics above.
Structure your stories
Use the STAR method for every behavioral question. Be specific, provide metrics, and highlight your individual contribution.
Think out loud
Your interviewer needs to understand your thought process. Even if you are stuck, verbalize what you are considering and why.
Clarify the problem
In system design and coding, never start coding or designing until you have asked clarifying questions to define the scope and constraints.
Be ready for follow-ups
If you mention a project, be prepared to answer deep-dive questions about the architecture, the biggest challenges, and the final impact.
Choose a category, try a prompt, then open its approach, worked solution or follow-up when you need it.
How would you implement an LRU cache from scratch using a hashmap and a doubly linked list?
How would you implement an LRU cache from scratch using a hashmap and a doubly linked list?
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Given a list of meeting intervals, find the minimum number of conference rooms required.
Given a list of meeting intervals, find the minimum number of conference rooms required.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Explain the logic behind finding a cycle in a linked list or performing a topological sort on a graph.
Explain the logic behind finding a cycle in a linked list or performing a topological sort on a graph.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
How would you optimize a solution involving sliding windows or dynamic programming for a specific data set?
How would you optimize a solution involving sliding windows or dynamic programming for a specific data set?
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Can you dry-run your code and explain the time and space complexity for your chosen approach?
Can you dry-run your code and explain the time and space complexity for your chosen approach?
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Explain why the owner filter ignores the listing index
The only index on resource is (tenant_id, status, updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC). A new endpoint returns one user's resources across all statuses, newest created first: WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND owner_user_id = $2 ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 20. On a tenant with 2M rows it takes 900 ms and EXPLAIN shows a sort above a large scan. Explain precisely why the existing index cannot serve it, give the index that can, and state which of these the new index still will not help: owner_user_id alone across tenants; the same query ordered by updated_at. PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Separate the two jobs an index does. For filtering, a composite btree is seekable only on a left prefix, so with no predicate on status the scan can at best range over tenant_id and test owner_user_id per row; PostgreSQL 16 has no btree skip scan to jump the unconstrained column.
- For ordering, the index is sorted by (status, updated_at) within a tenant and not by created_at, so the LIMIT cannot stop early: every matching row is read and then sorted. That is the 'Sort Method: top-N heapsort' line, and it is why the plan reads 2M rows to answer with 20.
- Derive the replacement from the access path — equality, equality, then the ordering column: CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY ON resource (tenant_id, owner_user_id, created_at DESC). The scan seeks to the (tenant, owner) range and walks 20 entries in order, so the Sort node disappears along with the row-read.
- Treat INCLUDE (title, status) as conditional, not free. An index-only scan still visits the heap for any row whose page is not marked all-visible, so on a table taking 1.2k writes/second the win depends on autovacuum keeping the visibility map current, and the wider index costs more on every insert.
Follow-up
- 90% of rows are status='active'. Would a partial index WHERE status = 'active' change your answer, and for which of the three queries?
- A dashboard runs this for 40 owners in one page load. What changes about the design?
Denormalise tenant onto revisions and backfill it live
resource_revision (revision_id, resource_id, version, actor_user_id, change_kind, patch, request_id, created_at) has 400M rows and no tenant column; tenant_id lives only on resource. Two reads need it: a tenant-scoped audit feed ordered by created_at DESC, and an offboarding purge. Both join back to resource today. Justify adding tenant_id to resource_revision against those two reads, name the anomaly the copy introduces and the constraint that prevents it, then give the ordered migration for a live table taking 1.2k writes/second — the lock each step takes, how the backfill is batched, and where each step stops being reversible. PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Justify from the access path rather than from taste. Without the column, the audit feed either scans resource_revision by created_at and discards other tenants' rows, or resolves the tenant's resource_ids first and probes with them — both proportional to the tenant's whole history rather than to one page. With (tenant_id, created_at DESC, revision_id DESC) it is a seek that stops at 50 rows, and the purge becomes a ranged delete instead of a join.
- Name the cost exactly: a second copy of a fact can disagree with the first. Make the disagreement unwritable rather than documented — add UNIQUE (resource_id, tenant_id) on resource so it can serve as a foreign-key target, then FOREIGN KEY (resource_id, tenant_id) REFERENCES resource (resource_id, tenant_id) on the revision table. A revision can then only ever carry its parent's tenant.
- Step one, expand: ALTER TABLE resource_revision ADD COLUMN tenant_id BIGINT NULL, with no default, so it is a catalogue change and no rewrite. It still needs ACCESS EXCLUSIVE for an instant, and that instant queues behind the longest open transaction on the table while every later query queues behind it — set lock_timeout to 2s and retry rather than wait.
- Step two, dual-write: deploy the writer that populates tenant_id on every new revision while reads still use the join. Reversible by redeploying the previous build, because nothing reads the column yet.
Follow-up
- The backfill is half finished and a rollback is required. What state is the table in, and what does the previous build do with a half-populated column?
- How do you verify the backfill actually finished, given rows are still being inserted while it runs?
How would you design a streaming service architecture similar to Prime Video or Netflix?
How would you design a streaming service architecture similar to Prime Video or Netflix?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Design a rate limiter for an API that handles millions of requests per second.
Design a rate limiter for an API that handles millions of requests per second.
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
How would you design a parking lot system or a file system with specific constraints?
How would you design a parking lot system or a file system with specific constraints?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
What database selection criteria would you use for a highly available system, and why?
What database selection criteria would you use for a highly available system, and why?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How would you handle service discovery, load balancing, and fault tolerance in a distributed environment?
How would you handle service discovery, load balancing, and fault tolerance in a distributed environment?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Read latency spikes on a sixty-second sawtooth
The cached listing read path serves about 14k reads/second at an 85% hit rate. p99 sits at 35 ms for 57 seconds, jumps to 900 ms for 3, and repeats. During each spike the primary shows several hundred identical listing queries starting within the same millisecond, all carrying one large tenant's id. Cache entries use a 60-second TTL. Give the mechanism, the ordered checks, the fix, and the correctness hazard your fix must not introduce.
Approach
- Match the period to a configured number before theorising about load. A spike every 60 seconds against a 60-second TTL is an entry expiring, and you confirm it by correlating spike timestamps with the entry's write time rather than with the traffic curve. If the period had matched a cron or a GC interval instead, this is a different investigation.
- Establish the concurrency of the miss. Several hundred identical queries in one millisecond means the miss path has no coalescing: every request that arrives between expiry and repopulation recomputes. The herd size is that key's arrival rate times its recompute time, so at 1.2k reads/second for the hot key and a 250 ms recompute you expect about 300 concurrent misses, which matches what is observed.
- Add single-flight on the miss path so one caller per key recomputes under a short-lived lock while the rest wait for its result. Prefer stale-while-revalidate where the read tolerates it: return the expired value immediately and refresh asynchronously, which removes the latency spike rather than serialising it into a queue of waiters.
- De-synchronise the keys. Write TTLs with jitter, for example 60 seconds plus or minus 10%, so a deploy or a mass invalidation does not align every key on the same second and turn a per-key herd into a fleet-wide one.
Follow-up
- The same sawtooth appears on a key that is invalidated on write rather than expired. Is that the same bug?
- How does your answer change if the recompute takes 4 seconds instead of 250 ms?
Built from the rounds and topics Prime Video candidates report.
Prepare, practise & reflect
One practical outcome each day. Spend longer where you need it.
0 / 7 done01Map the Prime Video loop
- Write out the reported sequence: Online Assessment, Recruiter Screening, Technical Rounds, Behavioral Rounds, Interview Loop.
- For each round, write one sentence on what it is judging, from the description above, and mark the one you are least ready for.
Deliverable: A one-page map of the 5 reported rounds, with the weakest marked.
02Work Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
- Spend the session on Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA), which Prime Video candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA).
03Work Problem Solving / Algorithmic Thinking
- Spend the session on Problem Solving / Algorithmic Thinking, which Prime Video candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Problem Solving / Algorithmic Thinking and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Problem Solving / Algorithmic Thinking.
04Work Coding Practice (Live Coding)
- Spend the session on Coding Practice (Live Coding), which Prime Video candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Coding Practice (Live Coding) and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Coding Practice (Live Coding).
05Answer out loud: Data Structures and Algorithms
- Answer aloud, timed: How would you implement an LRU cache from scratch using a hashmap and a doubly linked list?
- Answer aloud, timed: Given a list of meeting intervals, find the minimum number of conference rooms required.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Data Structures and Algorithms question(s), under time.
06Answer out loud: System Design and Architecture
- Answer aloud, timed: How would you design a streaming service architecture similar to Prime Video or Netflix?
- Answer aloud, timed: Design a rate limiter for an API that handles millions of requests per second.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported System Design and Architecture question(s), under time.
07Answer out loud: Behavioral and Leadership Principles
- Answer aloud, timed: Tell me about a time you had to deliver a critical project under a tight deadline. What trade-offs did you make?
- Answer aloud, timed: Describe a situation where you disagreed with a teammate or manager on a technical decision. How did you resolve it?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Behavioral and Leadership Principles question(s), under time.
Expand any day for tasks and deliverables. Your progress is saved on this device.
Behavioural rounds judge the decision you made and what it cost.
Tell me about a time you had to deliver a critical project under a tight deadline. What trade-offs did you mak
Tell me about a time you had to deliver a critical project under a tight deadline. What trade-offs did you make?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Describe a situation where you disagreed with a teammate or manager on a technical decision. How did you resol
Describe a situation where you disagreed with a teammate or manager on a technical decision. How did you resolve it?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Give an example of a time you failed. What did you learn, and what specific steps did you take to prevent recu
Give an example of a time you failed. What did you learn, and what specific steps did you take to prevent recurrence?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside of your immediate responsibilities.
Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside of your immediate responsibilities.
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
How do you "Earn Trust" when working with stakeholders who have conflicting priorities?
How do you "Earn Trust" when working with stakeholders who have conflicting priorities?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
- 01
Tell me about a time you had to deliver a critical project under a tight deadline. What trade-offs did you make?
- 02
Describe a situation where you disagreed with a teammate or manager on a technical decision. How did you resolve it?
- 03
Give an example of a time you failed. What did you learn, and what specific steps did you take to prevent recurrence?
- 04
Tell me about a time you took ownership of a problem outside of your immediate responsibilities.
How long should I prepare for the interviews?
Most successful candidates dedicate several weeks to a few months of focused study, specifically targeting LeetCode mediums and high-quality behavioral stories.
Prime Video Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What is the most common reason for rejection?
Failing to demonstrate alignment with the Leadership Principles or struggling to communicate a clear, logical approach to technical problems, even if the code is eventually correct.
Prime Video Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Are all interviews technical?
No. Every round will include a significant portion (often 20–30 minutes) dedicated to behavioral questions based on your past experiences.
Prime Video Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Does the Bar Raiser have veto power?
Yes, the Bar Raiser is specifically empowered to ensure that every hire raises the average talent level of the team, and they carry significant weight in the final decision.
Prime Video Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What topics does Prime Video test in interviews?
Prime Video interviews most often cover Behavioral Interviewing, SQL, Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA), Excel, and Stakeholder Management. The exact emphasis depends on the specific role you apply for.
Prime Video Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Sources & methodology 3 sources ↗
No official company page is cited. Rounds and questions come from candidate reports and PracHub editorial material; each source shows the date it was read.
- 01Prime Video Software Engineer candidate reports ↗
Company-reported rounds, questions and FAQ.
Candidate reports · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 02PracHub Software Engineer practice ↗
PracHub practice material, not company-reported.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 03PracHub preparation framework ↗
PracHub preparation guidance.
PracHub page · Accessed 2026-09-22
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