Amazon's interview loop decides your level, and the level decides your pay: SDE I averages about ₹30 LPA, SDE II about ₹65 LPA, SDE III about ₹1.3 crore. Whether you're a new grad or a senior engineer aiming for SDE III, rehearse the loop, Leadership Principles included, with an interviewer on Intervue first.
Book an Amazon mock interview → Experienced? Practise system design + LPs →
An Amazon SDE 1 in India earns about ₹29.7 LPA in total: roughly ₹24.3 LPA base, ₹5 LPA a year in stock and a small bonus, with a sign-on bonus on top in the first two years. SDE II averages around ₹65 LPA and SDE III about ₹1.31 crore.
Amazon Salary by Level: SDE I, SDE II, SDE III
All figures in ₹ lakh per year. Base, RSU and total are Levels.fyi averages for Amazon India software engineers. Sign-on is the first-year range from offers candidates have posted.
[[table]]
Level | Base | RSU / yr | Sign-on Y1 | Total
SDE I (L4) | 24.3 | 5.0 | 5–12 | 29.7
SDE II (L5) | 48 | 15.5 | 10–23 | 65
SDE III (L6) | 90.5 | 37.8 | Varies | 131
[[/table]]
Above SDE III, Principal SDE (L7) packages in India reach about ₹2 crore a year.
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Why Amazon offers look lopsided
Amazon's stock vests slowly. A typical grant vests 5% in year one, 15% in year two and 40% in each of years three and four, often in six-monthly chunks. Without help, your first two years would pay far less than your last two.
The sign-on bonus fixes that. It's paid in monthly instalments across years one and two, sized to fill the gap the slow vesting leaves. Here's a real SDE II offer from Bengaluru posted on LeetCode: ₹46 LPA base, ₹19 lakh sign-on in year one, ₹15 lakh in year two, and 220 RSUs on the 5/15/40/40 schedule, plus ₹1.5 lakh for relocation.
Two things follow. First, compare Amazon offers by year, since year one and year three look very different on paper. Second, if you leave before two years, part of the sign-on is usually recovered, so read that clause.
What an SDE 1 takes home each month
On a ₹24.3 LPA base, an SDE 1 takes home roughly ₹1.6–1.7 lakh a month after income tax and PF under the new regime. The monthly sign-on instalments are taxed too, so they add a bit less than their face value.
Amazon SDE 1 Salary for Freshers
New grads join Amazon India as SDE I (L4). The Levels.fyi average is about ₹29.7 LPA, and city makes a small difference: Bengaluru averages about ₹29.7 LPA, Delhi NCR ₹27.1 LPA and Chennai ₹25.4 LPA.
Most freshers come in through campus hiring or the Amazon Jobs site. The loop usually starts with an online assessment of two coding problems and a work-style survey. Then come two or three technical interviews. Each one mixes a coding problem with Leadership Principle questions, so you'll be asked for stories like "tell me about a time you disagreed with your team".
That second part catches freshers out. You can solve every problem and still get rejected for thin LP answers. Prepare four or five real stories from internships, projects or college, each with a clear result, and practise telling them in two minutes.
Useful prep on our blog: Amazon Leadership Principles interview guide, SDE 1 questions on arrays and strings and Amazon interview experience in India.
Amazon scores your LP stories as hard as your code. Book an Amazon-style mock interview with coding and LPs →
Amazon Salary for Experienced Engineers
If you have 3–6 years, you're interviewing for SDE II. With 6–10 or more, it's SDE III. The gap between those two levels is about ₹65 lakh a year on average, and Amazon decides it in the loop itself.
[[table]]
Experience | Target level | Avg total pay
0–2 yrs | SDE I | ₹29.7 LPA
3–6 yrs | SDE II | ₹65 LPA
6–10+ yrs | SDE III | ₹1.31 Cr
12+ yrs | Principal SDE | ~₹2 Cr
[[/table]]
At SDE II, expect four or five rounds: coding, one system design round and LP questions in every round. At SDE III, design becomes the centre of the loop. You'll design a system end to end and defend the trade-offs. One interviewer is the Bar Raiser, from outside the hiring team, and that person can block an offer on their own.
The usual way to lose a level is a design round that stays at the whiteboard-diagram stage, plus LP stories that describe what the team did instead of what you did. Use "I", give numbers, and name the decision you made.
On money, base has a ceiling at each level, so most room sits in the sign-on bonus and the RSU count. A competing offer helps a lot here. Candidates regularly report sign-on increases of several lakh after showing one.
SDE II vs SDE III is decided in the design round and by the Bar Raiser. Practise an Amazon system design + LP round with a senior engineer →
More for the senior loop: SDE 2 interview questions on graphs and DP, SDE 3 system design questions and our Amazon mock interview questions.
FAQs
What is the Amazon SDE 1 salary in India? About ₹29.7 LPA in total on average: ₹24.3 LPA base, ₹5 LPA a year in stock and a small bonus. A first-year sign-on of roughly ₹5–12 lakh comes on top.
What is the Amazon SDE 2 salary in India? Around ₹65 LPA on average. Posted offers show ₹42–46 LPA base with ₹15–19 lakh sign-on in year one.
What is the Amazon SDE 3 salary in India? About ₹1.31 crore a year on average, with roughly ₹90 LPA base and ₹38 LPA in stock.
How does Amazon's RSU vesting work? 5% in year one, 15% in year two and 40% in each of years three and four. The sign-on bonus covers the first two years.
Does Amazon hire freshers in India? Yes, as SDE I through campus hiring and the Amazon Jobs site.
How do I prepare for the Amazon interview? Practise coding, write out four or five Leadership Principle stories with numbers, and add system design if you're targeting SDE II or above. Then take an Amazon-style mock interview to test both at once.
Get the Amazon Offer at the Right Level: Take a Mock Interview
Freshers clear the loop on coding plus LP stories. Experienced engineers get SDE II or SDE III based on the design round and the Bar Raiser, roughly ₹65 lakh a year apart. A 1:1 mock interview with an industry expert on Intervue runs the same format and ends with a written feedback report.
Book your Amazon mock interview →
Comparing big tech pay? See our Google salary in India and Microsoft salary in India guides.
