I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Netflix (San Francisco, CA) in June 2019
Interview
First round recruiter called me and asked me standard questions. Spoke about the so called "Culture Memo". Was pretty impressed with their honesty.
Second round was with the director who asked me few questions about my current experience and described about the current role etc. Then gave me a take home assignment.
I completed the assignment but I was not totally happy with some parts of the code , but since I committed to a date I submitted the assignment.
What was funny was the feedback I got. I was told that the code did not compile and had missing dependencies. Which is funny because it definitely compiled and no way could the code compile without the dependencies. Also, it stated that the tests should have captured these bugs ? seriously tests should have captured compilation errors ? ( which did not exist in first place ) . I doubt the calibre of the directors who are testing or evaluating the candidates.Gosh , if they wanted to reject why give such frivolous reason. I was scheduled to have a code review and the director sent me an email couple of hours before the meeting saying that they have decided not to move on.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a tool to evaluate github stars, forks etc.
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