Netflix · Primly Community

Did the full Netflix loop in March, here's what actually happened

corp_refugee · 4 replies

went through the full thing in march for a senior SWE role on the content delivery side. six rounds total: recruiter call, eng manager, system design, coding (two questions, 45 min), and then two behavioral rounds that were honestly the hardest part.

the behavioral rounds were nothing like standard STAR stuff. one interviewer opened with 'tell me about a time you thought you were right and you were wrong.' not just the situation, they wanted the actual wrong belief you held and how long you held it. you can't bullshit that one.

the other one went deep on 'disagree and commit.' had to give two examples, one where I stayed in the disagreement longer than I should have and one where I committed too fast. they pressed on the second one hard. felt like a therapy session.

coding was medium-hard leetcode. system design was a video streaming / CDN scenario, which, given what they do, shouldn't surprise anyone. lots of back and forth on trade-offs at scale.

timeline: recruiter screen to offer was 3.5 weeks. everything virtual. recruiter was actually pretty good at communicating, sent an update mid-loop without me asking.

one real thing: the comp conversation happens late and the bands are genuinely wide. be prepared to anchor. they lowballed my first verbal. pushed back, they moved. fairly normal process but don't leave comp on the table.

4 replies

ml_mike

the 'disagree and commit' question comes up in literally every Netflix loop I've heard about. I wonder if it's in their official interview guide or just because the culture doc is so explicit about it. either way, prep two stories for it, different domains if possible.

corp_refugee

it's definitely deliberate. the recruiter prepped me to expect culture fit questions but didn't give specifics, so I wasn't ready for how deep they went. the Primly questions for netflix actually had a version of this, which helped.

staff_steph

the 'what were you wrong about' question is a good one honestly. it's very hard to fake. most people give a safe answer that sounds like a humble-brag (I worked too hard, I was too detail-oriented). they can smell that.

tired_recruiter

confirming the comp anchoring thing from the other side. netflix has wide bands and the first verbal is not usually the ceiling. especially for senior+ levels. if you have competing offers, say so early, not at the deadline.