Summary: Netflix seems to be an awesome place to work. Everyone I talked to seemed like a top performer and also appeared to make every effort to keep their culture in line with what they have published publicly. I am one of those individuals who calls BS when I read culture decks because, in my experience, once a company grows beyond a certain point, every team defines its own culture. However, Netflix seemed like an exception, and I wish every company could embrace or at least imbibe what they have culturally.

Even though I don't anticipate an offer, my recommendation is to focus more on questions that you generally expect from HR and managers. Those are the tough ones, and as engineers, I think many of us do poorly in this area. These are things that we should definitely know but are hard to express. For example, questions like: Why Netflix? What do you want from your ideal job? What is the best environment for you to be successful? I am sure you know the answers in your head, but make an effort to verbalize them. They are trying to judge if you will fit with the unique culture that they have worked so hard to develop and preserve, and while your technical ability is important, it's still not as important (or at least not as weighted) as their culture.

• A call with a recruiter to align my interests with the position.
• A call with a director to, I guess, vet the basic culture fit.
• A call with a manager, again for both basic culture fit and technical assessment.
• A technical phone screen.

Onsite:

• Recruiter: Culture fit and ensuring I understood how they differ from most companies.
• Dev Manager: Explained the team's responsibilities in more detail, described expectations for the role, outlined challenges, and shared the team's roadmap. Overall, he did everything in his power to provide as much information as possible to help me make the right decision if they extended an offer.
• Sr. Engineer: Described one of the challenging problems I had solved and discussed the design decisions I made. He was a pretty awesome and smart guy, and the discussion was very stimulating; for a second, I forgot I was interviewing. He asked a coding question that is something many of us use in real life, not one of those trick questions.
• Dev Manager/Engineer from a sister team: Another awesome guy. Asked a system design question. Again, we had a discussion you would expect when designing a solution with teammates. He brought up some good points, and I adjusted my design accordingly. The biggest mistake I made was mathematical (confused GB with MB, I recall), but he didn't really point it out and let me focus on the crux of the problem.

At this point, I was given a lunch break. I was told at the beginning that I would have three more rounds depending on how the first four went. I'm not sure what it means if you get to the next round; it could mean there wasn't enough evidence to reject you, or it could mean there is enough evidence to keep going, but we can all just guess. Anyhow, if you don't go beyond this point, please understand that you have been rejected. I was given the opportunity to move forward.

• Director: This was the second hardest interview for me. She talked about projects where I had slipped delivery dates and what I had done to rectify those situations. I think I failed to verbalize things correctly, but overall, she tried to extract as much information as she could to understand my personality and working style.
• Sr. Director: Discussed a challenging design problem and how Netflix is a pretty awesome place to work. Also inquired about my reasons for leaving and how Netflix would be different or not for those reasons. Again, I believe this was a culture fit assessment.
• VP: This was my worst interview of the day. Maybe because I was tired, maybe because the VP somehow felt intimidating; I'm not sure. He asked me to tell him what feedback my colleagues might give about me. It was more of a wake-up call for me, as I really didn't have much to say in this regard until, of course, the interview was over. He also discussed one of the projects on my resume and how I would have changed things.

Overall, I was very happy with the interview process. I hate interviews where you don't end up learning anything, and unless you get an offer, it feels like a wasted day. This was different. Given my poor responses in the final three rounds, I don't anticipate an offer, but I hope others learn from my mistakes. The key is to think hard about those culture questions that you probably think you know the answers to but don't know how to communicate to others. Good luck.

What feedback would your peers give you if you asked them for some criticism?

How do you handle brilliant jerks?