just finished a disney new grad swe loop and wanted to write something up because i was searching for this exact thing for weeks and found almost nothing.
i applied through their early career portal in january, heard back in about 3 weeks, and the full process took about 8 weeks total. here's what the actual interview looked like.
stages: application + resume screen online assessment (2 coding problems, 75 minutes, hackerrank style) recruiter phone screen (30 min, behavioral + background) virtual onsite: 3 rounds
online assessment: both problems were leetcode-style mediums. one was array manipulation, one was graph traversal. i used neetcode to prep and that was honestly the right call. you don't need to grind 200 problems, you need to really understand maybe 40-50 patterns.
recruiter screen: they asked why disney, what projects i was most proud of, and confirmed my graduation date and authorization to work. pretty low stakes.
onsite round 1 - coding: similar to OA difficulty. one medium problem, they let me talk through my approach before diving in. they seemed to care a lot about communication, not just getting the right answer.
onsite round 2 - behavioral: standard STAR questions. hardest one was 'tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly to complete a project.' for new grads they're lenient about using class projects, internships, or even significant personal projects.
onsite round 3 - hiring manager: talked about what disney products i use and care about, where i see myself in 3-5 years, and what kind of team environment i work best in. felt like a vibe check more than anything.
didn't get an offer on my first Disney attempt (they said 'strong candidate but going with someone with more experience'). second application 6 months later with a side project added to my resume, got it. if you're a new grad targeting disney: do a project that's relevant to streaming, media, or entertainment tech. it gets noticed.
note: new grad comp my offer was $140k base in LA, $40k RSU over 4 years. benefits were solid.