I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Netflix (Los Gatos, CA) in Mar 2012
Interview
I should have read interviews here before I agreed to an in-person interview. I saw a Craigslist ad and sent in a resume, not really expecting to hear back. A Netflix recruiter called; I called back and spoke for 15 minutes. A few days later, I spoke to a Netflix HR/recruiter. Then, I had a 45-minute phone interview with an engineer who mostly talked about my resume and experiences without any technical questions. He told me that he was going to recommend me for an in-person interview and, a few days later, an in-person interview was arranged. During this time, lots of companies were doing interviews, even in-person interviews, but very few offers were being made. Companies were in shopping mode, not hiring mode.
I looked on Glassdoor and was dismayed that this in-person interview was probably going to be a stressful waste of time. But I reviewed the 100+ slides on the Netflix site about culture (which was interesting) and the slides on the Netflix business case.
I met with 2 engineers first for 45 minutes or so and we discussed my resume. They showed me a screenshot and asked me to describe how I'd code it up and what issues to consider. They asked my to code up a contains() function in JavaScript on the whiteboard which determines if one element contains another element. Then, they left and another engineer interviewed me for 45 minutes. He asked me to add the contains() function to all elements in the system (e.g. HTMLElement.prototype). He also asked me to write the HTML and CSS for a layout with a header, a content pane, a navigation pane and a footer (memorize this solution! this question is asked at lots of companies). I met the HR person for 45-minutes where we discussed Netflix culture (kind of). I brought up various concepts from the culture slide deck (I thought it was interesting) but she parroted back the concepts; maybe it wasn't interesting to her. Finally, I talked to the director where he asked what ideas or thoughts about the Netflix site I had and then we had a super, in-depth discussion about A/B testing on those ideas and thoughts.
Most everybody was nice and, for sure, everybody was respectful. But I got clues that Netflix wasn't hiring much and that they could even wait up to a year for the perfect candidate, possibly interviewing dozens of candidates. The HR person also made a big fuss about how Netflix hires people who are an exact fit so they won't hire and you shouldn't accept unless everybody is 100% sure that the job was a perfect fit for you. I think that they knew that I was a no-hire before the end of the interview cycle but they did wait a day to let me know. That was a nice thing to do. I asked about reapplying but, frankly, don't think that I'll ever do that.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Netflix (Los Altos, CA) in Mar 2011
Interview
I applied online for a software engineering position at Netflix and received an invitation from a recruiter to interview for the position. After a brief phone screen, I was brought onsite to interview for about 4 hours with 5 people. These interviews were very technical and somewhat intense, but fair. They're very upfront about the high-performance culture and expectations at Netflix (see the deck on their website for more details), which I appreciated.
Following the first onsite interview, I was asked to come in again for another half day of interviews. These interviews were less technical and more about (1) the culture and organization of the work environment that I was coming from, and (2) whether or not I was a cultural fit for the company. I'd advise anyone who aspires to work at Netflix to think carefully about how you will answer these types of questions.
I'd thought that both days of onsite interviews went well, and so I was surprised a couple of days later to hear that they'd decided to pass on making me an offer. I was disappointed, as I'd have liked to have worked there at the time. However, with everything that's happened with their handling of price increases and licensing issues over this past year, not getting the job turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
I did feel that the recruiting process was very fast-paced and organized, more so than some other companies with whom I'd interviewed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Of everyone on your team at your current employer, who would you keep and who would you fire and why?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Netflix (Los Gatos, CA) in Sep 2011
Interview
Applied on the website. A recruiter called. First telephonic with the hiring manager. Simple linked list/tree coding question with screen shared. Another telephonic interview where the Architect dug deep. Asked concepts on Java, Multithreading, Design Patterns etc. If you do your homework, they should be ok to crack.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Asked me to explain the project on my resume and what my role was and details things within that.