Demystifying Interviewing for Backend Engineers @ Netflix, Again!

Earlier this year, I published a Netflix tech blog post on Demystifying Interviewing for Backend Engineers at Netflix.? As it tends to happen, a few things have changed since that time, and this is an updated version of that post.??

One major change is related to Engineering levels.? Netflix Engineering has traditionally had a single job for individual contributors - Senior Software Engineer.? In 2022, Netflix has made a pivot to a more traditional approach and introduced levels for all of our Engineering individual contributor roles, as follows:

• L3: Software Engineer through our New Grad Program.
• L4: Software Engineer II
• L5: Senior Software Engineer
• L6: Staff Software Engineer
• L7: Principal Software Engineer

Another big change is the number of layoffs we’ve been seeing in the tech sector recently.? We are very sensitive to the fact that there are many more engineers in the job market today and we would like to help!? Please continue reading to learn more about how we interview for backend engineers at Netflix today.

Interviewing Challenges

Have you ever experienced one of the following scenarios while looking for your next role?

• You study and practice coding interview problems for hours/days/weeks/months, only to be asked to merge two sorted lists.?
• You apply for multiple roles at the same company and proceed through the interview process with each hiring team separately, despite the fact that there is tremendous overlap in the roles.
• You go through the interview process, do really well, get really excited about the company and the people you meet, and in the end, you are “matched” to a role that does not excite you, working with a manager and team you have not even met during the interview process.

Interviewing can be a daunting endeavor and how companies, and teams, approach the process varies greatly. We hope that by demystifying the process, you will feel more informed and confident about your interview experience.

Backend Engineering Interview Loop

When you apply for a backend engineering role at Netflix, or if one of our recruiters or hiring managers find your LinkedIn profile interesting, a recruiter or hiring manager reviews your technical background and experience to see if your experience is aligned with our requirements. If so, we invite you to begin the interview process.?

Most backend engineering teams follow a process very similar to what is shown below. While this is a relatively stream-lined process, it is not as efficient if a candidate is interested in or qualified for multiple roles within the organization.? Note: not every team uses all of these assessment steps, e.g., some teams do not do a Manager Screen and for some roles, e.g., L4 engineers, we do not do a second round interview.??

Following is a brief description of each of these stages.

Recruiter Phone Screen: A member of our talent team contacts you to explain the process and to assess high-level qualifications . The recruiter also reviews the relevant open roles to see if you have a strong affinity for one or another. If your interests and experience align well with one or more of the roles, they schedule a phone screen with one of the hiring managers.?

Manager Phone Screen: The purpose of this discussion is to get a sense for your technical background, your approach to problem solving, and how you work. It’s also a great opportunity for you to learn more about the available roles, the technical challenges the teams are facing and what it’s like to work on a backend engineering team at Netflix.? Note: some teams do not perform a manager phone screen and go directly to the technical screen.

Technical Screen: The final screen before on-site interviews is used to assess your technical skills and match for the team. For many roles, you will be given a choice between a 2-4 hour take-home coding exercise or a one hour discussion with one of the engineers from the team. The problems you are asked to solve are related to the actual work of the team, not LeetCode, FizzBuzz, how many golf balls fit in a school bus or anything like that!? We’re not trying to trick you - we are hoping to give you an opportunity to show off your coding skills and inspire you by working on actual problems our teams have solved.

Round 1 Interviews: If you are invited “on-site” (a majority of our interviews are still being conducted virtually), the first round interview is with four or five people for 45 minutes each. The interview panel consists of two or three engineers, a hiring manager and a recruiter. The engineers assess your technical skills by asking you to solve various design and coding problems. These questions reflect actual challenges that our teams face.

Round 2 Interviews: You meet with two or three additional people, for 45 minutes each. The interview panel comprises an engineering director, a partner engineer or manager, and another engineering leader. The focus of this round is to assess how well you partner with other teams and your non-technical skills.? Note: only L5+ candidates go through a second round.

Decision & Offer: After round 2 (or round 1 for L4 and lower), we review the feedback and decide whether or not we will be offering you a role. If so, you will work with the recruiter to review your compensation expectations, answer any questions that remain for you, and discuss a start date with your new team.?

Enter Centralized Hiring

Some Netflix backend engineering teams, seeking stunning colleagues with similar backgrounds and talents, are joining forces and adopting a centralized hiring model. Centralized hiring is an approach of making multiple hiring decisions through one unified hiring process across multiple teams with shared needs in skill, function and experience level.?

The interview approach does not vary much from what is shown above, with one big exception: there are several potential “pivot points” where you and / or Netflix may decide to focus on a particular role based on your experience and preference. At each stage of the process, we consider your preference and skills and may focus your remaining interviews with a specific team if we both consider it a strong match. It’s important to note that, even though your experience may not be an exact match for one team, you might be more closely aligned with another team. In that case, we would pivot you to another team rather than disqualify you from the process.? And, you do not need to repeat the earlier interview stages - no starting over!

Interview Tips

Interviewing can be intimidating and stressful! Being prepared can help you minimize stress and anxiety. Following are a few quick tips to help you prepare:

• Review your profile and make connections between your experience and the job description.?
• Think about your past work experiences and prepare some examples of when you achieved something amazing, or had some tough challenges.
• We recommend against interview coding practice puzzle-type exercises, as we don’t ask those types of questions. If you want to practice, focus on medium-difficulty real-world problems you might encounter in a software engineering role.
• Be sure to have questions prepared to ask the interviewers. This is a conversation, not an inquisition!?

We are here to accommodate any accessibility needs you may have, to ensure that you’re set up for success during your interview. Let us know if you need any assistive technology or other accommodations ahead of time, and we’ll be sure to work with you to get it set up.?

We want to see you at your best - we are not trying to trick you or trip you up! Try to relax, remember to breathe, and be honest and curious. Remember, this is not just about whether Netflix thinks you are a fit for the role, it’s about you deciding that Netflix and the role are right for you!

Yes, We Are Hiring!

Several of our backend engineering teams are searching for our next stunning colleagues. If any of the roles below are of interest to you, and seem like a good match for your experience and career goals, we’d like to hear from you! Simply click on the job description link and submit your application through our jobs site.?

Software Engineer (L4/L5) - Product Engineering

Product Engineering builds many of the backend systems that power the Netflix experience.? We are looking for engineers to work on many of our core backend systems that directly impact our API platform, messaging, personalization, sign-up, partnership, payments, and billing systems.? As an engineer in this function, you are passionate about scalable and highly available complex distributed systems and have a deep understanding of how they operate and fail. You will be expected to work cross-functionally and drive large projects throughout their lifecycle from identifying the problem to launching in production.?

Distributed Systems Engineer (L5) - Content Engineering?

The team provides opinionated asset management and help in enforcing asset standards across these areas - Asset Taxonomies (Definition and validation rules of an asset), Asset Service (Creation, updating, discovery and security of assets), Asset Workflows (Manage workflows around an asset), Asset Annotations (Spatial or temporal annotations on assets).

Distributed Systems Engineer (L4/L5) - Platform Networking Engineering?

Platform Networking’s purpose is to deliver a scalable, reliable, secure, agile and efficient Network-as-a-Service to effectively plan, visualize/monitor, allocate, control, scale Netflix services to provide innovative experiences for our members and content creators around the world. We are building the Next Generation Network Architecture to drive to a fully IPv6 compliant environment and moving towards a set of abstractions to make software development simpler via Network-as-a-service and Service Mesh.?

Distributed Systems Engineer (L4/L5) - Data Platform?

The data infrastructure teams at Netflix enable us to leverage data to bring joy to our members in many different ways. We provide centralized data platforms and tools for various business functions at Netflix, so they can utilize our data to make critical data-driven decisions. We are looking for distributed systems engineers to help evolve and innovate our infrastructure as we work towards our ambitious goal of 500 million members worldwide.

Conclusion

Netflix has a Freedom & Responsibility culture in which every Netflix employee has the freedom to do their best work and the responsibility to achieve excellence. We value strong judgment, communication, impact, curiosity, innovation, courage, passion, integrity, selflessness, inclusion, and diversity. For more information on the culture, see https://jobs.netflix.com/culture.

Karen Casella is the Director of Engineering for Product Edge Systems for Netflix streaming and gaming products. Connect with Karen on LinkedIn.??