Get a Job at Netflix: Interview Process and Top Questions

Do you want to work at one of the most prominent entertainment and media companies on the planet?

It should be no surprise that the Netflix interview process is challenging as they fight for the world's best technical talent.

If you're interviewing at Netflix, you'll face several tough rounds of interviews, assessments, and meetings with hiring managers and future coworkers.

Below, we break down the Netflix interview process and top questions you should expect to answer.

What is the Netflix interview process?

The Netflix interview process typically takes about three weeks and involves:

• A call with a recruiter,
• A screening with a hiring manager,
• A technical phone interview,
• An extensive onsite interview.

Netflix doesn't consider themselves a family like some tech companies. Instead, they view themselves as a high-performing sports team. They often refer to their employees as a "dream team".

Netflix is also an engineering-focused company, meaning most roles and interview loops will focus on your technical knowledge or your ability to integrate with engineering teams.

You can interview with several Netflix teams at the same time, potentially improving your chances of receiving a job offer.

The interview process isn't centralized, meaning different teams or roles may not follow predictable formats. To get hired, you must perform well in every interview round, as the hiring team must make a unanimous decision about you.

Step 1: Recruiter phone screen

The first step of the process is a simple recruiter call. Before the call, your recruiter will send you Netflix's core values.

This initial recruiter phone screening will be relatively quick, around 30 minutes or so.

You'll walk through your resume, the role, and then schedule the rest of your interviews. Expect questions like:

• Why Netflix?
• Tell me about yourself.
• What's an obstacle you’ve overcome?

Netflix places enormous emphasis on their core values. The simple recruiter screen is usually easier to make up for harder rounds later on.

Step 2: Technical screen

Next, there’s a technical phone screen.

This interview lasts between 45-60 minutes and varies greatly between teams, including the tooling you’ll use.

The technical phone screens at Netflix are conducted either by a manager or engineer.

Engineering roles

In this round, expect to answer a mix of technical questions, behavioral and culture questions, and a general coding exercise.

You should be able to answer common Netflix LeetCode questions such as:

• Merge intervals (Watch a Dropbox SWE answer)
• Flatten nested lists
• Find K frequent elements
• Random pick with weight

Data roles

For data roles at Netflix, prepare to answer SQL and probability questions.

At this stage, you might get asked about times you’ve discovered and presented data. Or, if it’s a data engineering position, you’ll hear a technical question.

• Tell me about a time you solved a business problem with data.
• How do you conduct effective A/B tests?

Product or business roles

For other roles like in product or business, expect questions about your ability to work with data and support technical teams.

• Tell me about a time you used data to change someone’s mind.
• What metrics are most important for Netflix’s homepage?

Interview or take-home-assessment

In some interviews, you may have a choice between a live technical screening or a take-home assessment.

It will not make a significant difference which one you choose, so long as you ace the round. Choose the format that you’re most confident in.

For example, if you get nervous during live coding exercises, perhaps the take home assignment is the way to go.

Step 3: On-site interviews

Finally, you'll need to complete several on-site interviews. Netflix breaks their on-site interview rounds into two main parts:

Round 1

The first round of on-site interviews consists of approximately five individual interviews.

Netflix's teams conduct interviews differently, but there’s usually a mix of technical screenings and problem-solving tests.

• Engineering roles have coding exercises, deep-dives into data structures and algorithms, white-boarding challenges, and system design components.
• Data roles have questions on experimentation, A/B testing, and machine learning.
• Product and business roles have behavioral, product design, product strategy, and metrics questions.

All roles will go through an HR review interview to better assess your culture fit.

All interview stages matter, but the final first-round meeting with the hiring manager is particularly important.

Round 2

The second round of interviews is much shorter. This time, you’ll meet with three Netflix team members: A member of HR, a hiring manager, and another engineering or product leader.

These interviews will be generally less technical. However, the engineering manager may grill you.

These interviews are more about finding a culture fit with behavioral questions.

Hiring Decision

After completing all on-site meetings, your role in the Netflix Interview process is done.

Expect a wait of 1-2 weeks for Netflix to get back to you about your candidacy.

If your previous experience was relevant and you were considered a good fit for Netflix’s culture, you'll receive a call to negotiate salary and discuss other details!

If you’re not hired, don't worry. You can reapply after 6-12 months.

What are the top Netflix interview questions?

Here are some questions Netflix candidates reported getting asked in recent interviews.

Remember, Netflix places a lot of emphasis on their core values. You’ll likely get asked about them throughout your interview loops.

Netflix also prides itself on giving and receiving direct feedback. Be prepared to receive feedback during your interviews.

Behavioral Questions

• Tell me about a challenging situation in your last team that you resolved.
• Tell me about a time you gave difficult feedback to a coworker?
• Tell me about an obstacle you’ve overcome.
• What other entertainment or media companies have you worked for?
• Tell me about a time you were honest at work.
• Why do you want to work at Netflix?

Coding Questions

• Summary Ranges: Compile a list of ranges summarizing the numbers in a sequence.
• Logger Rate Limiter: Design a logger system that prevents messages from being printed if they have been printed in the last 10 seconds.
• Merge Intervals: Given a collection of intervals, merge all overlapping intervals.
• LRU Cache:: Implement an LRU cache mechanism with efficient operations.
• Flatten Nested List Iterator: Implement an iterator to flatten a nested list structure.
• Top K Frequent Elements: Find the k most frequent elements in a non-empty array.
• Top K Frequent Words: Return the k most frequent words in an array of words.
• Random Pick with Weight: Pick a random index from an array, where the probability of picking each index is weighted.
• First Missing Positive: Find the smallest missing positive integer from an unsorted array.

System Design

• Design Reddit.
• Design TikTok.
• Design Netflix.
• Tell me about a time you handled a security problem.
• Tell me about a time you built a system with high availability.

Data Questions

Brush up SQL and probability questions. Be prepared to present or analyze case studies. Expect machine learning questions too if the role calls for it.

• How do you detect anomalies in data?
• How would you design an experiment for a new video streaming feature?
• How would you determine if the price of a Netflix subscription causes churn?
• Write a SQL query to join two tables and extract some data.
• Describe a time you answered a business question with multiple datasets.

Machine Learning

If your data role is engineering-focused, prepare for some machine learning questions too.

• Explain the differences between machine learning and deep learning.
• Explain the differences between classification and regression.
• When is a deep learning neural network inappropriate?
• Build a model to predict churn if Netflix raises its prices.

Netflix Interview Loops Explained

System Design

Coding exercises aren't nearly as important as the system design rounds at Netflix. They're a core component of technical interviews.

These interview rounds are known for their rigorous and customized questions that can challenge even senior engineers.

System design is so integral to Netflix that aspects of it are often incorporated into coding rounds too.

You should have experience with:

• large-scale systems,
• ensuring high availability,
• and maintaining security.

Prepare to explain how you’ve thought about building large scale systems in your previous work.

Your interviewer is listening for indications that you’ll be able to think critically about Netflix.

Scaling, Security, and Reliability

Netflix's system design questions often focus on scaling. They’re designed to be challenging and highlight issues like security and reliability.

The emphasis on real-world application means questions will likely be related to Netflix’s current products.

How to Prepare

Understanding Netflix’s architectural principles and their team's technologies is beneficial.

Study their tech stack, open-source initiatives, and service ecosystem inter-dependencies. This will enable you to propose solutions within their existing frameworks.

The tools and technologies you'll discuss depend on the team, so prepare in a way that's customized to them. Knowing their current systems and potential improvements can help you perform well in the interview.

Behavioral

Netflix, like Amazon, places enormous emphasis on their core values. Your recruiter will send them to you before the interview.

You'll be tested throughout your journey on how well you'll fit into the Netflix culture.

• Judgment: Makes informed, long-term decisions, even with limited clarity.
• Selflessness: Prioritizes Netflix's interests and supports team success.
• Courage: Makes swift, bold decisions and embraces constructive feedback.
• Communication: Listens effectively and communicates clearly in diverse settings.
• Inclusion: Embraces and advocates for diversity and equality in the workplace.
• Integrity: Acts with transparency, honesty, and accountability.
• Passion: Demonstrates deep commitment to Netflix’s success and excellence.
• Innovation: Innovates and simplifies processes to adapt to changes.
• Curiosity: Actively seeks new knowledge and understands consumer trends.

Netflix Interview Tips

What should you know before your interviews start?

Netflix hires for teams.

The Netflix hiring process is team-dependent.

As a result, some interview processes at the company may differ slightly from others, depending on the position you’re interviewing for.

Netflix rarely hires new grads.

Unfortunately, Netflix rarely hires fresh graduates or interns for its open positions.

Usually, hiring managers at the company prefer candidates with at least 3 or more years of previous experience.

This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get a job at Netflix as a new grad, but don’t be surprised if they pass over your application until you've got more seniority.

The culture fit is make or break.

The culture-fit is the most significant factor for Netflix hiring. Spend as much time as you can studying the company's core values.

Then, inject your stories with examples of these principles.

Netflix favors self-directed candidates.

The leadership style for many managers at Netflix is pretty hands-off.

Hiring managers want to be certain that their candidates can act in an autonomous, self-directed fashion.

This, of course, relates to culture fit at the company, but you’ll need to ensure that you show your capacity for taking initiative, making self-directed decisions, and thriving on a significant amount of personal autonomy.

Netflix's "Keeper Test."

Netflix's "Dream Team" core value includes the "Keeper Test." This asks managers if they would try to get an employee to stay if the employee decided to leave.

If the manager wouldn't fight to keep the employee, they fail the "Keeper Test."

Hiring managers consider this test when deciding whether to offer a job to a candidate.

Get an Employee Referral

As we mentioned, Netflix is one of the largest tech companies on the planet. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that it’s a challenging to be invited to take part in the company’s interview process, let alone receiving a job offer.

An excellent way to get noticed is to get a referral from an employee.

You can learn how to do just that in this guide here.

Hire a Netflix Interview Coach

One of the most effective ways to ensure you put your best foot forward is with the help of an Exponent interview coach.

Interview coaches can do several things for you. They’ll:

• Help improve your resume,
• Personalize the coaching sessions according to your professional goals & needs,
• Conduct mock interviews & provide constructive feedback on your performance,
• Teach you how to negotiate job offers and salaries,

Acing your Netflix Interview can be tough, especially in this economic climate. However, with an interview coach in your corner, you’ll give yourself the best chance and the best resources of doing just that.

More Interview Prep Resources

Here at Exponent, we have dozens of different interview resources to help you breeze through your Netflix interviews:

👨‍🎓 Take one of our comprehensive interview courses

💬 Get prepared with example interview questions

📖 Read through one of our interview guides

👯‍♂️ Practice your behavioral and interviewing skills with our interview practice tool.