I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Netflix (Los Gatos, CA) in Apr 2022
Interview
Applied directly and recruiter responded after about a month. They had a video chat with me where it was clear they were screening for culture fit. This is absolutely a step where you could get disqualified - it's a part of the intervew.
After the recruiter approved me they put me in touch with an internal "talent coordinator" or something like that who scheduled my meeting with the team manager.
The 30 minute video screen with the manager was very pleasant. He mentioned that every manager at Netflix is pretty much given control over how they want to interview, so I would keep that in mind when you read other peoples reviews here...it really matters who you're interviewing with.
He did say that the culture is not as cutthroat as a lot of people make it seem or even as their culture memo makes it seem.
He did mention that they are still screening heavily for the "brilliant jerk" and trying to get them out of there. Generally, it seems like you will understand your performance, have a helping hand if any correction is needed, and really be set up for success. Autonomy is expected to an extent, but you have to get along with the team. You get fired if they missed a major fundamental in screening or if you don't get along, basically.
It ended here for me before the tech interview despite really positive feedback. The manager just had people with extensive experiences in more niche areas, so he is going with them for now but mentioned he could quite likely circle back to me in the future.
The manager did mention the 3rd phase would have been a shared coding exercise with one of his engineers but that it might be quite easy and to just start on it right away rather than overthinking it. For this particular manager, he said I should not expect a leetcode type of question and that generally most managers there are moving away from that.
After that, which seems like it would have been easy, would be an on site screener with many different engineers. This again did not seem like it would be leetcode style questions but instead some pretty simple stuff to see how you communicate and work with others. I did get the impression that you would be screened reasonably heavily on systems design here, but again it was stressed that even at this stage this is to see how you handle feedback, how you work with others, how you communicate, etc.
It was made very clear that this is a company that would be reasonably forgiving in technical interviews so long as they think you have what they need and can get along with the team.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Hiring manager screener questions:
Why Netflix?
Tell me about what you are currently working on.
Tell me about challenges java & scala have presented to you.
Tell me about how you handle feedback and how you give feedback.
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