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Company interview guides: how top employers hire, and how to prepare

Every employer runs its interviews a little differently: Amazon builds them on its Leadership Principles, Target publishes its sample questions, Starbucks adds a questionnaire, Stripe has you debug real code. These guides explain each process from the company’s own careers pages, the questions you’re likely to get and how to answer them.

Practice for your company, free Browse the guides

The short answer

Start with what the company itself publishes. Many employers explain their hiring process, and some publish their values, sample questions or rules: Target lists five sample questions and asks for answers “without reliance on external AI-generated assistance”, Amazon says each interviewer typically asks two or three behavioral questions about its Leadership Principles, and Microsoft recommends STAR answers with a final reflection. Then map five to seven true stories to what they assess, check the format (phone, video, recorded, onsite), and practice your answers out loud for the specific job.

Retail, restaurants and hourly jobs

Short processes, often one conversation with a manager. They hire for customer service, teamwork, reliability and availability.

Big tech

A recruiter screen, a technical or role screen, then a loop of interviews mixing role skills with behavioral questions. Each company weights them differently.

Comparing several big tech companies, including Meta? See how Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and others interview.

Engineering-led and fast-growing companies

Deeper technical rounds, practical exercises and, often, published rules on how they interview.

Employers that tell you how they interview

When a company publishes its process, values or sample questions, that is the best preparation material there is. These do.

CompanyWhat it publishesLinks
Target An interview guide with five sample questions and a rule against AI-generated help Our guide Source
Amazon Its Leadership Principles, interview prep pages and how the interview loop works Our guide Source
Google Interview tips: STAR answers, explaining your thought process, no Search or AI during interviews Our guide Source
Microsoft Interview tips recommending the STAR(R) model Our guide Source
Tesla A preparation guide with five questions to prepare Our guide Source
Palantir Guides to its phone interview and open-ended questions Our guide Source
Datadog Its candidate experience and AI guidelines for interviews Our guide Source
Starbucks FAQs on applying, the Applicant Insights questionnaire and timing Our guide Source
Walmart How it hires: applications, assessments, timing and accommodations Our guide Source

Checked on . Employers update their pages, so read theirs before your interview.

How to prepare for any company’s interview

The company changes; the preparation doesn’t. Five steps, in order.

For the questions almost every interview asks, see mock interview questions and the STAR method.

  1. Read what the company publishes

    Its careers site, hiring process page, interview guide and values. It tells you what they assess, often in their own words.

  2. Map your stories to what they assess

    Prepare five to seven true stories (a challenge, a conflict, a failure, leadership, a success, teamwork) and note which value or principle each one shows.

  3. Check the format and the rules

    Phone, video, recorded or in person; assessments or questionnaires; and the rules on notes and AI. Several employers now ban AI help during interviews.

  4. Practice out loud for the actual job

    Say your answers out loud, ideally on camera, using the real job posting, until they sound like you and fit in about two minutes.

  5. Prepare questions only this company can answer

    Ask about the team, how success is measured and what the first months look like, not things the careers site already says.

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Company interviews: questions

How do I prepare for an interview at a specific company?
Read what the company publishes about its hiring process and values, map five to seven true stories to what it assesses, check the interview format and any rules on notes or AI, practice your answers out loud for the actual job posting, and prepare questions only that company can answer.
What do big tech interviews look like?
Usually a recruiter screen, a technical or role screen, then a loop of interviews mixing role skills (such as coding, system design or product sense) with behavioral questions. Amazon builds its behavioral questions on its Leadership Principles, Google asks for specific examples, and Microsoft recommends STAR answers with a reflection.
What do Walmart, Target and Starbucks ask in interviews?
Mostly behavioral and situational questions about customer service, teamwork, busy shifts, mistakes and your availability. Target publishes five sample questions in its own interview guide, and Starbucks adds an online questionnaire, Applicant Insights, before interviews.
Can I use AI during a company interview?
Often not. Google says Search and AI are not permitted during its interviews, Target asks candidates to answer without AI-generated assistance, and Datadog bans AI tools in live coding interviews unless the interview is designed for AI-assisted coding. Use AI to prepare, and check each employer’s rules.
Do companies publish their interview questions?
Some publish sample questions or guides: Target lists five sample questions, Tesla’s preparation guide lists five questions to prepare, and Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Palantir and Datadog explain how their interviews work. Many others publish their values, which tell you what the questions will test.

Sources

Employers’ own careers pages, read for our guides and checked on :

Company names are trademarks of their owners. Huru is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these companies.

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