This doesn't answer your question, but many HN posts talk about how awful it is to work at Amazon. You sound smart and resourceful. Apply somewhere that's more likely to make you happy.
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/old-man-at-amazon-gives-advice-...
They appear to be using stack ranking and performance improvement plans to massively churn their work force so a significant percentage of employees doing good work are disposed of by their two year anniversary just because their system is designed that way. They seem to be making their “teams" in to brutal exercises in survival of the fittest or more accurately survival of those most able to play the stack ranking game. Stacking ranking nearly destroyed Microsoft so you assume it is or will do the same to Amazon.
I feel for young programmers starting out, because the work environment seems to be bad and getting worse in a lot of places.