A lot of places I've worked end up coming up with a prioritised list of who they think they want to hire as candidates are going through the pipeline. The first preference for various reasons might not be the first to finish the interview process. What typically happens is if a strong candidate finishes the process first they'll get a "our team need time to discuss their feedback, we'll get back to you in 10 days" type of answer. The X days is often less to do with the team getting together to compare notes and more to do with when another candidate is expected to finish their interview. At which point the two candidates can be compared to each other and a decision made. There's also the expectation that if _we_ rank someone highly in our pipeline they are probably high in someone else's and so we might just lose them to a better offer. So having a plan b to send an offer to is useful.
At Amazon there wasn't meant to be that kind of candidate comparisons/ranking. If you're first through and pass you get an offer. But... if a team felt strongly about a specific person it was entirely feasible to prioritise them by giving them first option on potential interview dates, and offering later dates to other people. Thereby increasing the chances the preferred candidate was the first one to successfully complete the process.
At Amazon there wasn't meant to be that kind of candidate comparisons/ranking. If you're first through and pass you get an offer. But... if a team felt strongly about a specific person it was entirely feasible to prioritise them by giving them first option on potential interview dates, and offering later dates to other people. Thereby increasing the chances the preferred candidate was the first one to successfully complete the process.