I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Netflix (Los Gatos, CA)
Interview
I think they are not serious about hiring and just browsing the job market to see how much other people are getting. Had the usual phone screen which was pretty easy , mostly questions related to HashMap and how its implemented in Java , why equals and hascode function are required etc. Then there was simple coding question.
After that there were onsite interviews. First interviewer asked question about how to figure rectangles objects are equal and then HashMaps and how to implement hashcode function . He was pretty adamant about hearing catch phrase "strategy design pattern" even after providing the solution which was what strategy design pattern would have done.
Second interview as 2 coding questions related to median of array and print level order , it was pretty easy.
Third interview was a design interview.
Forth was more behavioral with director.
Fifth with HR, she tried to much to sell Netflix and asked questions about how much I am making, I told her I dont feel comfortable telling the exact figures but told her what my expectation is. She didnt let it go and said because they have to be on top of the market my exact figures are quite important, which i didnt get.
Got rejection email after a day which was a surprise as my interviews went well. I asked for feed back but they never returned to me, I guess they got what the needed. Anyways wouldn,t have left my current job for Netflix because I kind of got the feeling about their culture which I am afraid close whats there on the Glassdoor.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Median of stream of integers, solved using two heaps min and max.
Print tree level wise
There are 10000 servers and need to send a file of size 1 MB to each server, starting from laptop and there is only 1 MB bandwidth between each server. Shortest time in this is possible . Solved using tree and can be done in logarithmic time.
Seeing the URL shortening service design question caught me off guard at first, but it turned out to be a lucky moment. Just a few days prior, I had practiced a similar architecture problem on PracHub, so I felt somewhat prepared to tackle scalability and data consistency aspects. The process included a recruiter screen, followed by a technical interview focused on system design. Overall, the questions were manageable, but I didn't end up receiving an offer, which was disappointing. The experience taught me a lot, though.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a URL shortening service (similar to bit.ly). What components would you include in your architecture, and how would you handle scalability and data consistency?
The Netflix interview loop is intense and lives up to its reputation. The recruiters are great, but the technical bar is absolute top tier. After a technical phone screen, the virtual onsite consisted of two deep system design rounds, a practical coding round, and very heavy behavioral rounds focused purely on their Culture Memo. They do not care about how many LeetCode hards you have memorized. They care about how you reason through scale, failure, and ambiguity.
Recruiter screen high level discussion.
Tech phone screen live programming exercise.
Virtual onsite, 3 tech rounds two culture/behavioral.
For mine it was like an out-of-body experience, except when I turned to look it wasn't a body at all; it was a plane. Watched it take off, seemed like maybe the pilot hit the throttle a little hard trying to reach cruising altitude and then.. dunno, maybe he dropped his cigarette under the seat or there was a bee in the cockpit or something because next thing you know he's flailing around while I watch the plane tumbling, helplessly aghast as a wing shears off from the stresses he's inducing. No survivors.
But seriously, good interview process. Very helpful recruiter team that will spend time detailing the process and expectations. Exercises are very realistic applied engineering stuff, not brain teasers or obscure algorithms or stuff you haven't done since college. Interview process may be different across the org so YMMV. I interviewed with the Content and Business Products side of the house (i.e., tools for studio, production, not streaming to end users) and the coding, sys design, and data modeling rounds all reflected that.
My advice to you: study the OSS software they publish, know your stuff and *stay calm*.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when you had conflict with someone outside your group