Get a Job at Netflix: Interview Process and Top Questions

Learn how to prepare for Netflix interviews with this in-depth guide.

Do you want to work at Netflix, one of the world's most prominent entertainment and media companies?

Unsurprisingly, the Netflix interview process is challenging, as it fights 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 summarize the Netflix interview process and the top questions you should expect to answer.

Netflix Interview Process

The Netflix interview process typically takes 3–6 weeks and involves:

• A call with a recruiter,
• A technical screen,
• An extensive final round.

Netflix views itself as a high-performing sports team and sets a high bar for its interviews. It often refers to its employees as a "dream team."

Netflix is an engineering-focused company, meaning most roles and interview loops focus on your technical knowledge or ability to integrate with engineering teams. Culture fit is also a high priority at Netflix.

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

You can also interview with several Netflix teams simultaneously, potentially improving your chances of receiving a job offer. 

Recruiter phone screen

The first step of the process is a simple recruiter call, which is relatively quick, usually around 30 minutes. Before the call, your recruiter will send you Netflix's core values. Netflix places enormous emphasis on its core values.

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

• Why do you want to work at Netflix?
• Tell me about yourself.
• What's an obstacle you’ve overcome?

Technical screen

Next, there’s a technical phone screen, which lasts 45–60 minutes and varies greatly between teams, depending on the tooling you’ll use.

A manager or an engineer conducts the technical phone screens at Netflix.

Sometimes, you may choose between a live technical screening and a take-home assessment. It doesn’t matter which one you choose; choose the format you’re most confident in.

For example, if you get nervous during live coding exercises, perhaps the take-home assignment is best.

In the engineering tech screen, expect medium-difficulty data structure and algorithm questions, mixed with real-world problem-solving. 

For data roles at Netflix, prepare to answer SQL, probability, and experimentation questions. At this stage, you might get asked about times you’ve discovered and presented data.

For other roles, like product or business, expect technical questions and 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?

Final round

The final round at Netflix can be conducted virtually or in person, depending on your location and the role you’re interviewing for. Netflix breaks its final round into 2 main parts:

Part 1

The first part of the final round typically consists of 5–6 interviews with various team members and leaders. Netflix's teams conduct interviews differently, but there’s usually a mix of technical, practical, and problem-solving questions.

• Engineering roles are asked to solve various design and coding problems related to the real-world challenges that Netflix faces.
• Data and ML roles get questions on experimentation, A/B testing, and machine learning.
• Product and business roles get product design, product strategy, and metrics questions.

Most roles end the first part of the final round with an interview with the hiring manager, who will assess you on technical, behavioral, past experience, and real-world, role-specific questions.

Part 2

The second part of the final round is much shorter. You’ll meet with 3 Netflix team members—often a member of HR, a hiring manager, and another engineering or product leader.

These 3 interviews are generally less technical. These interviews concentrate on culture fit with behavioral interview questions, touching on Netflix’s core values and topics, like communication, collaboration, inclusion, and leadership.

Hiring Decision

After completing all final round interviews, your role in the Netflix Interview process is done. Expect to wait 1-2 weeks for Netflix to respond 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.

Top Netflix Interview Questions

These are examples of real interview questions asked at Netflix as reported by candidates.

Behavioral

• Why do you want to work at Netflix?
• What do coworkers say about you? Share some positive and negative feedback you've received.
• 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?

Coding

• Given stock prices for the next n days, how can you maximize your profit by buying or selling one share per day?
• Valid parentheses
• Rotating the box
• Arrays
• Decision trees
• Sorting algorithms

System design

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

Data

• 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 2 tables and extract some data.
• Describe a time you answered a business question with multiple datasets.

Machine learning

• 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

Behavioral

Like Amazon, Netflix places enormous emphasis on its core values in the behavioral and interview rounds. Your recruiter will send you the values before the interview.

Throughout your journey, you'll be tested on how well you fit into the Netflix culture. Prepare anecdotes from your past experiences that highlight the working principles of “dream team,” “people over process,” “uncomfortably exciting,” and “great and always better.” 

Also tie past work into the following values: 

• Selflessness,
• Judgement,
• Candor,
• Creativity,
• Courage, 
• Inclusion,
• Curiosity, 
• Resilience. 

Coding

Netflix wants engineers who can write clean and efficient code and are strongly interested in building reliable systems. The company aims to diversify its team, not just replicate it, to explore a broader range of solutions and avoid the trap of focusing too narrowly on specific goals.

You’ll typically get a technical take-home assessment that involves a practical assignment, simulating a real-world coding environment. This task is designed to be a realistic predictor of job performance, and you’re expected to spend 2–4 hours on it.

Expect to be assessed on coding knowledge in larger engineering scenarios during the final round, rather than fundamental data structure and algorithm coding questions, because system design is so integral to Netflix that aspects of it are often incorporated into the coding round.

System Design

System design is a core component of technical interviews. Expect to encounter questions focused on large-scale systems, and designing for scalability, reliability, and high availability, while maintaining security. The emphasis on real-world applications means questions will likely be related to Netflix’s current products or services, so get to know Netflix’s products and their architectural principles and technologies to prepare.

You’ll probably get asked to explain how you’ve thought about building large-scale systems in your previous work. Your interviewer will be listening for indications that you’ll be able to think critically about Netflix, so knowing Netflix’s current systems and potential improvements is helpful, too.

Study Netflix’s tech stack, open-source initiatives, and service ecosystem inter-dependencies. The tools and technologies you'll discuss depend on the team, so prepare in a way that's customized to them. 

Data

Data interviews at Netflix assess your analytics, product thinking, business impact, and communication. Expect to meet with various team members, leaders, and cross-collaborators, including data scientists, data engineers, product managers, engineers, and the hiring manager. 

You’ll likely present and analyze a case study as part of your final round, so study Netflix’s products and be ready for real-world questions.  

Study SQL, probability, A/B testing, statistics, experimentation, and machine learning questions. Prepare stories about your past experiences and impact at past companies.

Netflix Interview Tips

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.

The culture fit is make or break.

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 from past roles with examples of these principles, highlighting how you exemplify and care about the same values.

Be aware of 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 doesn't fight to keep the employee, they fail the "Keeper Test." Hiring managers consider this test when determining whether to offer a job to a candidate.

Get an Employee Referral.

Netflix is one of the largest tech companies on the planet. An excellent way to get noticed is to get a referral from an existing Netflix employee.

FAQs

What should I expect during the recruiter phone screen at Netflix?

The first step in the Netflix interview process is to make a phone call to the recruiter. During this 30-minute call, expect to discuss your resume and the role you're applying for. The recruiter will also introduce you to Netflix's core values. 

Typical questions you might face include, "Why Netflix?" and "Tell me about yourself." 

How hard are Netflix technical interviews?

Netflix technical interviews are notoriously challenging, but not impossible. Netflix focuses on practical system design and engineering problems, so it practices medium-difficulty problems. These real-world problems might appear in a typical workday on the Netflix team you’re interviewing for.

Review Netflix's engineering blog to understand its tech stack. Prepare to discuss your past projects and how they relate to real-world scenarios. Remember, each team focuses on different aspects, so tailor your prep to the specific role and team. 

Does Netflix hire new grads?

Yes! Netflix hires new graduates in many technical and business function roles. Interviews for new grad roles differ—expect a take-home assignment followed by two rounds of interviewing. Netflix also offers internship programs for current students. 

Visit Netflix’s New Grads page and internships page to learn more and view currently open offerings.

Does Netflix offer fully remote roles?

Yes, Netflix hires fully remote employees, but only for certain positions. Many Netflix roles are based at an office location with a hybrid working schedule. Go to Netflix’s Locations page to learn more.

More Interview Prep Resources

Exponent has extensive resources to prepare you to feel your best when it comes time for your interview at Netflix:

💬 Brush up on interview questions asked at Netflix

📖 Read through these role-specific Netflix interview guides