No, it feels like Amazon is over-reacting, and unduly distrustful of the bright young people who would wager their careers and reputations to come work for them.

And if they do, it'll probably only be for the minimum term anyway given what an awful workplace Amazon is. I live in Seattle and hear Amazon stories all the time.

https://sites.google.com/site/thefaceofamazon/

Yes and no. I think Amazon is trying to make their intern recruitment process more efficient. By eliminating cheating possibilities, people who do not meet certain criteria will not move forward and thus there will be less phone screens to schedule.

Cheating in interviews is real and shockingly common. I don't think this is as much of an overreaction as you think it is.

I'm not saying that there's no "benefit" to these restrictions. It's just that (1) they address problems that can be easily solved otherwise, and (2) they come with substantial negative side effects -- like turning away any candidates with a shred of self-respect and/or some notion of their true worth (even as a fresh engineering grad) on the open market.

"turning away any candidates with a shred of self-respect and/or some notion of their true worth"

Given that this thread seems to be fairly split on this issue (at least at the time I'm writing this) this seems like a bit unfair to say. Personally, I wouldn't give a shit, and I like to think that I have at least some self-respect.

Looking at your comment history, it seems like you only post on HN to defend Amazon.

Why?