NBCUniversal · Primly Community

NBCUniversal software engineer interview process, full loop: what it actually looked like in 2026

returner_ren · 6 replies

went through the full NBCUniversal SWE interview loop earlier this year for a role on their streaming platform team (peacock-adjacent, NYC/hybrid). sharing this because i couldn't find much that was recent when i was prepping.

here's the sequence:

recruiter screen (30 min) -- pretty standard. they asked about my background, why i was interested in media/streaming tech, and what i knew about peacock's scale. nothing tricky, just get your story straight.

technical phone screen (45 min) -- one coding problem on coderpad. medium-ish difficulty, graph traversal. they care that you talk through your thinking, not just arrive at the answer. i messed up my first approach and they were fine with me backing up and restarting.

take-home (optional, ~3 hours) -- for my specific track they offered a take-home instead of a second phone coding round. it was a small REST API design task, nothing exotic. they said 3 hours but mine took closer to 2.

virtual onsite (4 rounds, one day) -- this is where most of the time went. one system design, two more coding rounds, and a behavioral round. the coding ranged from medium to one harder problem around string processing. behavioral was relaxed, more of a conversation than a gauntlet.

total timeline: recruiter screen to offer was 5.5 weeks. they moved pretty deliberately, not fast. i had two gaps where i heard nothing for like 9 days and had to ping.

a few things i noticed: the interviewers genuinely seemed to enjoy working there. not the usual corporate-polished vibe. one of them mentioned their on-call load was lower than his previous role at a pure tech company, which honestly sold me a bit.

leveling felt transparent. they told me upfront which level they were interviewing for and what that band looks like in terms of scope. refreshing compared to the companies that keep it vague until offer.

if you have questions about specific rounds, ask below. happy to dig into detail.

6 replies

jp_newgrad

this is super helpful, thank you. did they do any leet-hard level problems or was everything in the medium range? i always freeze up on the hards and want to know how much to panic.

returner_ren

nothing i'd call a hard. one coding problem was on the harder end of medium -- dynamic programming, but with enough hints baked into how they framed it that it wasn't brutal. mediums with good communication will get you through.

mobile_mara

5.5 weeks is about what i've heard. did they ghost you at any point or was the recruiter actually reachable?

market_realist

appreciated the detail on take-home being optional. i really don't want to do another 6-hour take-home just to get ghosted at debrief. good to know there are paths that don't require that.

bootcamp_bri

what team was this for exactly? i see a few different SWE postings on their site and it's hard to tell what the process looks like per team.

returner_ren

it was on the streaming infrastructure side, not the corporate IT side. i think processes vary by team -- their news division apparently runs a slightly different onsite format. worth asking the recruiter early on.